I'm not sure what to write, so I'll just start writing and see what comes out. Let's start with Pennsic...
I got to Pennsic on Saturday and my tent was already pitched, I had sent it along with friends who had gone earlier. So all I had to do was move my stuff into it and get my space set up which didn't take too long. After that I spent the rest of the evening (until almost sunrise) hanging out with my brother and a couple other friends. It was a good night.
Sunday afternoon was the wedding. I have been to weddings in the past. I have even been in the wedding party once or twice. But this was the first wedding I have performed. First time I have seen or filled out a wedding licence as well.
Have I mentioned that I don't like public speaking? No. Well, I don't.
I got several compliments on my speaking voice and my projection. One person was at the entrance to the space, about 30-35 meters from where I was standing, who said he could hear every word quiet clearly. A couple of other people said "I told you said you weren't any good at public speaking." To which I had to reply, "No, I said I didn't like public speaking, there is a difference."
Anyway, the wedding went well and my friends are now married. {I'd say it went off without a hitch, but then I'd have to get my coat.} The rest of the week was spent relaxing, hanging out with friends, and going to the occasional party. All in all, a good time.
And as it turns out I spent three weekends in a row driving for around ten hours. Driving to Pennsic one weekend, driving back the next, and then round trip to see my girlfriend the next. The third weekend being the best of the three.
Not everything went well the weekend I spent with my girlfriend. Don't get me wrong, everything went well with us, but I got an emergency call from my brother and had to leave for a while to help him out.
...
I just looked at the clock and saw how late it's getting. I'm going to leave it here for tonight and go get some sleep. I'll pick it back up later.
I still don't get to see and hold my girlfriend often enough, but we are still talking every night. I am going to be spending this weekend with her, and with her daughter for part of Saturday, and I am very much looking forward to all of it.
Walk in Beauty.
Peace.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Friday, August 12, 2005
Posting when I should be Packing
I can't take long to do this because I should be packing, but I thought I'd make a quick post while printing out driving directions.
I had a great time on Wednesday with my girlfriend and her daughter, we all seemed to get along great and I ended up spending every night with them this week. Until tonight.
All three of us wanted for me to go over and see them again tonight but I have to pack for my trip. I'm leaving in the morning, and will be gone until next weekend. I am heading to Pennsic for a vacation and for a good friend's wedding. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.
I will be missing my girlfriend terribly while I am away so it's a good thing I will have my cell phone with me. I expect to call her most nights while there.
If anyone else is headed that way {With 10 to 15 thousand people going you never know...} Feel free to ask around for Bjarni Bjornson. You best bet to find me would be around Casa Bardicci or Camp Rubber Duckie. Most of the people who know me are in those camps. But please, no stalkers. I've had two and that is more than enough. {If you ask nicely, maybe I'll tell you about them sometime.}
Anyway, my directions finished printing and I must go.
Be back in a week...
I had a great time on Wednesday with my girlfriend and her daughter, we all seemed to get along great and I ended up spending every night with them this week. Until tonight.
All three of us wanted for me to go over and see them again tonight but I have to pack for my trip. I'm leaving in the morning, and will be gone until next weekend. I am heading to Pennsic for a vacation and for a good friend's wedding. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.
I will be missing my girlfriend terribly while I am away so it's a good thing I will have my cell phone with me. I expect to call her most nights while there.
If anyone else is headed that way {With 10 to 15 thousand people going you never know...} Feel free to ask around for Bjarni Bjornson. You best bet to find me would be around Casa Bardicci or Camp Rubber Duckie. Most of the people who know me are in those camps. But please, no stalkers. I've had two and that is more than enough. {If you ask nicely, maybe I'll tell you about them sometime.}
Anyway, my directions finished printing and I must go.
Be back in a week...
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
A Big Step
A while back I started getting seeing someone, and we have been dating for a while now. It is a long distance relationship, for now, but that is not a bad thing. It has ensured that we spend time talking, which we have been doing a lot.
When our schedules allow, I make the 5-6 hour drive out to New York state and we spend as much time as we can together, although this is usually just the weekend. We do have been doing this once or twice a month since May. When we can't be together we talk. Either on the phone or through instant messenger.
We have talked every day since May. Sometimes for 15 minutes, more often for anywhere from one and a quarter to three hours, but it has been every night.
Yes, it is serious. And last night we took a big step in our relationship.
I met her daughter.
Because her daughter is 9 we were being careful and my girlfriend didn't want to bring me into her daughter's life too early in the relationship. A reasonable way to handle things and one which I understood and agreed with. And then yesterday they came to Boston for their vacation, a trip which had been in planning before we started dated, and I met them for dinner after I got off work.
We had a good dinner with good desserts. {What else would you expect from "The Cheesecake Factory"?} And we had a good time hanging out and walking around a bit after dinner. Later on, when it was time for the daughter to go to bed, we went back to their hotel, the daughter went to bed and my girlfriend and I sat up and talked for a while longer.
It was a very good night.
And tomorrow I am taking the day off work to spend it with the two of them.
It may be time for me to come up with an alias to use for my girlfriend when I refer to her on here.
When our schedules allow, I make the 5-6 hour drive out to New York state and we spend as much time as we can together, although this is usually just the weekend. We do have been doing this once or twice a month since May. When we can't be together we talk. Either on the phone or through instant messenger.
We have talked every day since May. Sometimes for 15 minutes, more often for anywhere from one and a quarter to three hours, but it has been every night.
Yes, it is serious. And last night we took a big step in our relationship.
I met her daughter.
Because her daughter is 9 we were being careful and my girlfriend didn't want to bring me into her daughter's life too early in the relationship. A reasonable way to handle things and one which I understood and agreed with. And then yesterday they came to Boston for their vacation, a trip which had been in planning before we started dated, and I met them for dinner after I got off work.
We had a good dinner with good desserts. {What else would you expect from "The Cheesecake Factory"?} And we had a good time hanging out and walking around a bit after dinner. Later on, when it was time for the daughter to go to bed, we went back to their hotel, the daughter went to bed and my girlfriend and I sat up and talked for a while longer.
It was a very good night.
And tomorrow I am taking the day off work to spend it with the two of them.
It may be time for me to come up with an alias to use for my girlfriend when I refer to her on here.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Pain is Temporary... and Repeating
[Editor: This was written on Wednesday and apparently not posted, so I am posting it again tonight.]
I was planning on writing about some of the good stuff in this entry, but then some more "stuff" happened. So I am going to talk about that stuff, and my tooth, again.
You'd think that a temporary crown would stay on for the three or four weeks until the permanent is ready, not just fall off after four days while eating dinner. And then come off again four or five days later while eating lunch. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.
So this week, while eating lunch, the crown came off again. I had just taken a bite of a piece of boneless chicken breast and found myself biting into what seemed to be a piece of chicken bone. I proceeded to spit the pieces into a napkin and took a drink of ice water to clear my mouth. that's when the pain really started.
I mentioned last time that the uncovered tooth is extremely sensitive right? Well, it still is.
As soon as I could I called the dentist. I was in pain and already pissed off, a great combination... Their response was "We can get you in tomorrow afternoon." This didn't help me calm down.
After much talking, and surprisingly little swearing, I got them to fit me in that day, about 2 hours after the crown had come off. This time they said they used a stronger cement and that it should stay on now. I didn't go off about how it should have stayed on in the first place.
What I did ask was if I should make an appointment for next week already. Even though they chuckled I don't think they thought it was funny.
[Follow up: As of tonight (Sunday) it is still attached and holding.]
I was planning on writing about some of the good stuff in this entry, but then some more "stuff" happened. So I am going to talk about that stuff, and my tooth, again.
You'd think that a temporary crown would stay on for the three or four weeks until the permanent is ready, not just fall off after four days while eating dinner. And then come off again four or five days later while eating lunch. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.
So this week, while eating lunch, the crown came off again. I had just taken a bite of a piece of boneless chicken breast and found myself biting into what seemed to be a piece of chicken bone. I proceeded to spit the pieces into a napkin and took a drink of ice water to clear my mouth. that's when the pain really started.
I mentioned last time that the uncovered tooth is extremely sensitive right? Well, it still is.
As soon as I could I called the dentist. I was in pain and already pissed off, a great combination... Their response was "We can get you in tomorrow afternoon." This didn't help me calm down.
After much talking, and surprisingly little swearing, I got them to fit me in that day, about 2 hours after the crown had come off. This time they said they used a stronger cement and that it should stay on now. I didn't go off about how it should have stayed on in the first place.
What I did ask was if I should make an appointment for next week already. Even though they chuckled I don't think they thought it was funny.
[Follow up: As of tonight (Sunday) it is still attached and holding.]
Friday, July 22, 2005
Pain is Temporary
In my last post I said "the vast majority" of the goings-on over the past couple of weeks have been good. But that still leaves a few things that weren't so good. And if you keep reading you are going to hear about one of them...
Last Friday night I broke a tooth, one of my molars to be precise, and while it wasn't very painful most of the time if I was careful, it was a bad break and had to be dealt with. They managed to get me into the dentists chair early Monday morning and they started work on it. Because of how bad a break it was (about 1/4 of the exposed tooth was gone) there wasn't much they could do except start work on putting a crown on it.
Lots of impressions, and much drilling and grinding later they had finished all the prep work and put a temporary crown on the tooth while we wait for the permanent crown to be ready. And we all know how pleasant it is to be a dentist's chair and have them drilling and grinding away on your teeth.
We also know what the word temporary means.
In this case temporary didn't even live up to the few weeks it was supposed to stay on. It came off last night while I was eating dinner, exposing the raw tooth and the "dental tubules" which act as open pathways to the nerve. Needless to say, IT HURT! And I had to deal with it being like that all night.
To the dentist's credit, when I called them this morning they got me right in and got the temporary crown reattached. Good thing they got me in that quick, too. Until the crown was back in place I couldn't eat or drink anything because it was too sensitive. I couldn't brush my teeth either because I couldn't even have water in my mouth without intense pain.
Hopefully this time the temporary will last until they put the permanent crown in place.
...
I'll try to talk about something pleasant next time.
Last Friday night I broke a tooth, one of my molars to be precise, and while it wasn't very painful most of the time if I was careful, it was a bad break and had to be dealt with. They managed to get me into the dentists chair early Monday morning and they started work on it. Because of how bad a break it was (about 1/4 of the exposed tooth was gone) there wasn't much they could do except start work on putting a crown on it.
Lots of impressions, and much drilling and grinding later they had finished all the prep work and put a temporary crown on the tooth while we wait for the permanent crown to be ready. And we all know how pleasant it is to be a dentist's chair and have them drilling and grinding away on your teeth.
We also know what the word temporary means.
In this case temporary didn't even live up to the few weeks it was supposed to stay on. It came off last night while I was eating dinner, exposing the raw tooth and the "dental tubules" which act as open pathways to the nerve. Needless to say, IT HURT! And I had to deal with it being like that all night.
To the dentist's credit, when I called them this morning they got me right in and got the temporary crown reattached. Good thing they got me in that quick, too. Until the crown was back in place I couldn't eat or drink anything because it was too sensitive. I couldn't brush my teeth either because I couldn't even have water in my mouth without intense pain.
Hopefully this time the temporary will last until they put the permanent crown in place.
...
I'll try to talk about something pleasant next time.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
I'm still here
So much for my plan to make sure I posted at least once a week, preferably more. I have had a lot going on since my last post, and the vast majority of it has been good. I'll fill in you in soon. For now I mainly want to like people know I was still around and I'm sorry I have been lax in posting.
Hopefully you will understand why once I get going again. In the meantime I will try, as I said above, to make sure I post at least once a week, preferably more often. I guess it would depend on whether you get lots of short posts or fewer posts, but each of which will have much more to say.
How about it, which would you prefer? I promise to read* all comments and suggestions.
* and quite possibly ignore
Hopefully you will understand why once I get going again. In the meantime I will try, as I said above, to make sure I post at least once a week, preferably more often. I guess it would depend on whether you get lots of short posts or fewer posts, but each of which will have much more to say.
How about it, which would you prefer? I promise to read* all comments and suggestions.
* and quite possibly ignore
Friday, July 01, 2005
My "Happy Canada Day" post which doesn't actually mention Canada
Well, it is official, I have a bit of sleep apnea. It isn't too bad, but I still need to sit and talk with my doctor about what we can do about it. I'll let you know how that goes. I just hope that they don't want me to go through another night wired up. I'm pretty sure that someone other than me would end the night in a lot of discomfort.
If the techs put all the short cables on so there barely reach around me, let alone to the control box, I might end up punching someone in the chest.
But on to better things... I have been travelling a lot lately.
On June 11th I went to the southern edge of the state for a Powwow. (Not really that far, but I am only starting.)
The following weekend (June 18th) I went up to Maine for my friend Laurie's birthday party. I'll leave it up to her if she wants to say anything about it (or which birthday it was) in the comments. I will say that it was a very good time and it was good to see people I don't get to see often enough. It was especially good to see Laurie having a good time.
A lot of the evening and into the night was taken up with people just sitting around talking and having a good time hanging out. Although we did take a break from talking to watch the fire spinner playing with her poi. It certainly didn't hurt that she is a very cute girl.
Last weekend (June 25th) I went to New York (state, not city, Binghamton to be specific) and had a wonderful time. When talk of the trip first started (back at Rites of Spring, see earlier posts here and here) it was brought up as a chance to see Sol Dog but it soon became much more than that. And by the time the trip actually happened I was going to see someone specific and the two of us were going to go see the band together.
The only thing which could have made the weekend better is if my brother, Smulch, could have made it to the show as well. (He doesn't have a website or I'd link it.) Unfortunately thing seemed to conspire to keep that from happening.
And now this weekend I am travelling again, back to New York. If I can get in touch with Smulch in time I will be heading to see him on Saturday and then to Binghamton for the rest of the weekend. If I can't reach Smulch in time I will just head right to Binghamton.
I know I will see Smulch in August, but it would be nice to see him sooner if things work out.
I do miss you, brother.
...
A couple more quick things before I close this post out:
At least one of my readers should get a kick out of this... Somehow I am currently the number one result for "Ricardipus" on Google Check it yourself.
I found this out through StatCounter, which you may have noticed in my sidebar. It isn't a bad utility, but if anyone can suggest others I'd like to hear about them. I know I'd like to have the stats, but I have not settled on a particular service yet.
Last and almost certainly least, once I have the time I will be playing around with the site design through CSS. I almost have the template finished so that the layout will be completely controlled through CSS. It won't be the CSS Zen Garden but then again, what is really? So expect the look of the site to change drastically sometime in the foreseeable future.
Peace.
Your weary, but happy, traveller.
P.S. Is it any wonder my truck is in the shop? It least the rental is covered by my extended warranty along with (most of) the parts and labour.
If the techs put all the short cables on so there barely reach around me, let alone to the control box, I might end up punching someone in the chest.
But on to better things... I have been travelling a lot lately.
On June 11th I went to the southern edge of the state for a Powwow. (Not really that far, but I am only starting.)
The following weekend (June 18th) I went up to Maine for my friend Laurie's birthday party. I'll leave it up to her if she wants to say anything about it (or which birthday it was) in the comments. I will say that it was a very good time and it was good to see people I don't get to see often enough. It was especially good to see Laurie having a good time.
A lot of the evening and into the night was taken up with people just sitting around talking and having a good time hanging out. Although we did take a break from talking to watch the fire spinner playing with her poi. It certainly didn't hurt that she is a very cute girl.
Last weekend (June 25th) I went to New York (state, not city, Binghamton to be specific) and had a wonderful time. When talk of the trip first started (back at Rites of Spring, see earlier posts here and here) it was brought up as a chance to see Sol Dog but it soon became much more than that. And by the time the trip actually happened I was going to see someone specific and the two of us were going to go see the band together.
The only thing which could have made the weekend better is if my brother, Smulch, could have made it to the show as well. (He doesn't have a website or I'd link it.) Unfortunately thing seemed to conspire to keep that from happening.
And now this weekend I am travelling again, back to New York. If I can get in touch with Smulch in time I will be heading to see him on Saturday and then to Binghamton for the rest of the weekend. If I can't reach Smulch in time I will just head right to Binghamton.
I know I will see Smulch in August, but it would be nice to see him sooner if things work out.
I do miss you, brother.
...
A couple more quick things before I close this post out:
At least one of my readers should get a kick out of this... Somehow I am currently the number one result for "Ricardipus" on Google Check it yourself.
I found this out through StatCounter, which you may have noticed in my sidebar. It isn't a bad utility, but if anyone can suggest others I'd like to hear about them. I know I'd like to have the stats, but I have not settled on a particular service yet.
Last and almost certainly least, once I have the time I will be playing around with the site design through CSS. I almost have the template finished so that the layout will be completely controlled through CSS. It won't be the CSS Zen Garden but then again, what is really? So expect the look of the site to change drastically sometime in the foreseeable future.
Peace.
Your weary, but happy, traveller.
P.S. Is it any wonder my truck is in the shop? It least the rental is covered by my extended warranty along with (most of) the parts and labour.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
It's been a long week
... and it is not getting shorter yet.
I have been spending time with a good friend of mine as she and her family try to get everything taken care of for the viewing and service tonight.
Her mother died Monday night.
And there was the additional stress of trying to get the Army to grant her son leave so he could come home from Iraq for his grandmother's service and funeral.
So the service is tonight, but the funeral itself is not until next weekend because they wanted to make sure there was time for him to get back. They didn't want him to miss everything. If everything went as planned he should be on a transport now to arrive back in the states at some point tomorrow. It would be nice if he could be back for tonight, but it doesn't look good.
So I have a service to go to tonight.
Once I am back from the service, depending on the time, I will go back to getting ready for my trip this weekend. If it is too late, and I am not going to leave the service early, I will be spending tomorrow night getting ready to leave early Saturday morning.
I am looking forward to the trip, but first I need to make sure of how people are doing tonight.
Oh, and this is after not sleeping soundly the last couple of nights. I was doing good until then.
And No, I have not received the results of the sleep study yet. I guess I should go and call my doctor again while I am thinking of it.
Peace.
And a piece of advice: Let people know you care about them. You never know when they could be gone.
It's not always easy. I should know, I'm still working on it myself.
I have been spending time with a good friend of mine as she and her family try to get everything taken care of for the viewing and service tonight.
Her mother died Monday night.
And there was the additional stress of trying to get the Army to grant her son leave so he could come home from Iraq for his grandmother's service and funeral.
So the service is tonight, but the funeral itself is not until next weekend because they wanted to make sure there was time for him to get back. They didn't want him to miss everything. If everything went as planned he should be on a transport now to arrive back in the states at some point tomorrow. It would be nice if he could be back for tonight, but it doesn't look good.
So I have a service to go to tonight.
Once I am back from the service, depending on the time, I will go back to getting ready for my trip this weekend. If it is too late, and I am not going to leave the service early, I will be spending tomorrow night getting ready to leave early Saturday morning.
I am looking forward to the trip, but first I need to make sure of how people are doing tonight.
Oh, and this is after not sleeping soundly the last couple of nights. I was doing good until then.
And No, I have not received the results of the sleep study yet. I guess I should go and call my doctor again while I am thinking of it.
Peace.
And a piece of advice: Let people know you care about them. You never know when they could be gone.
It's not always easy. I should know, I'm still working on it myself.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Quote of the Day(?)
The temperature finally broke after 11 days of 30+C in a row. Since I don't have anything else which I feel like typing up right now I am going to mention something that I should have mentioned a while back.
A few years ago I started a quotation mailing list for myself and a couple of friends. It started out with 3 members, which is about what I expected. (It now has 51 members.) It slowly grew, and the service I was using got bought after a couple of years so I moved it to Yahoo Groups, where it has been since June 25, 2001.
The group is called "WyldWoods' Quote of the Day(?)". The question mark is there because I don't always get a quote sent every day, but I was sending about 25-28 a month. Then it lapsed for a while and over the last few months I was averaging about 10-15 a month.
I have now picked it back up and am running with it again. So far this month I have only missed one day. And since it is running again, I figured I would mention it here, let all of you know, and see if any of you want to join.
It is a low traffic group, only moderators can post, and there are only two of us. Myself and my brother who has covered for me when I am going to be away without computer access. There is at most one quote per day, and the occasional admin post, maybe 4 per year.
You can find it on Yahoo Groups at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WyldWoods-QotD/
And you can signup there and have the emails sent to any address associated with your Yahoo ID, which does not have to be a Yahoo Mail address.
Or if you prefer you can subscribe, or unsubscribe by email using the following addresses: ("encoded" to prevent spam harvesting)
Subscribe: WyldWoods-QotD-subscribe(at)yahoogroups(dot)com
Unsubscribe: WyldWoods-QotD-unsubscribe(at)yahoogroups(dot)com
List owner: WyldWoods-QotD-owner(at)yahoogroups(dot)com
We now return you to your irregularly scheduled blog.
A few years ago I started a quotation mailing list for myself and a couple of friends. It started out with 3 members, which is about what I expected. (It now has 51 members.) It slowly grew, and the service I was using got bought after a couple of years so I moved it to Yahoo Groups, where it has been since June 25, 2001.
The group is called "WyldWoods' Quote of the Day(?)". The question mark is there because I don't always get a quote sent every day, but I was sending about 25-28 a month. Then it lapsed for a while and over the last few months I was averaging about 10-15 a month.
I have now picked it back up and am running with it again. So far this month I have only missed one day. And since it is running again, I figured I would mention it here, let all of you know, and see if any of you want to join.
It is a low traffic group, only moderators can post, and there are only two of us. Myself and my brother who has covered for me when I am going to be away without computer access. There is at most one quote per day, and the occasional admin post, maybe 4 per year.
You can find it on Yahoo Groups at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WyldWoods-QotD/
And you can signup there and have the emails sent to any address associated with your Yahoo ID, which does not have to be a Yahoo Mail address.
Or if you prefer you can subscribe, or unsubscribe by email using the following addresses: ("encoded" to prevent spam harvesting)
Subscribe: WyldWoods-QotD-subscribe(at)yahoogroups(dot)com
Unsubscribe: WyldWoods-QotD-unsubscribe(at)yahoogroups(dot)com
List owner: WyldWoods-QotD-owner(at)yahoogroups(dot)com
We now return you to your irregularly scheduled blog.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
The Sleep Study
Some of you are probably wondering how the sleep study went. Others are probably wondering what it was. The majority are probably thinking "Who cares?" Well, too bad. I'm going to tell you about it anyway.
I got to the hospital about 8:00 Thursday night for my appointment and ended up sitting in the waiting room for twenty minutes or so before the technicians came out to get me. And then I ended up sitting in the clinic for about an hour while they got everything ready and dealt with the other two people there for studies. Good thing I brought a book.
After the others were done it was my turn to get changed and get wired up for bed. This meant putting on the shorts I brought to sleep in and then sitting and listening to the tech tell me about the study and about what causes sleep apnea. Then they started attaching the electrodes.
However, before the could attach the electrodes they had to clean the areas.
I tried not to be offended at the implication.
They had this scrub they used to clean the areas. I guess it is specially formulated to breakdown and remove all the oils, etc. from the skin. The real problem I had with it was that it was abrasive. VERY abrasive. The spots on my scalp that they scrubbed are still a little tender today.
After scrubbing the spots and making them tender it was time to glue on the electrodes, two on my legs, five on my scalp and in my hair, one on my forehead, each cheek, behind each ear, beside each eye, and one of each side of my chest. I think that covers all of them. Oh, and there were two belts wrapped around my torso.
Each of these had a long wire coming from it and attached to a control box hanging beside the bed. Plus there was another control box attached to one of the belts which was connected to the first box via a cable. A short cable. (This will come into play in a moment.)
Once all the wires were attached they asked if I wanted to go to sleep then or if I wanted to read some more. Since I couldn't put my glasses back on with a couple of the electrodes in the way, I decided to try to sleep. It was about 11:00 or 11:30 by this time
The hospital bed was smaller than a twin and it was uncomfortable. I am used to a queen sized bed that is (in my opinion) quite comfortable. This wasn't looking good.
So I lay there for half an hour or so before managing to fall asleep. And then I woke up quite suddenly during the night. I guess that will happen when you go to roll over and something stops you unexpectedly.
Remember that cable I said was short? When I rolled over in my sleep I found out just how short it was. Not quite long enough for me to roll onto my side. So when I tried during the night I had this cable holding me back and the sudden shock of the pulling woke me up.
Once I realized what had happened I hit the call button and asked the technician what time it was and if i could get up then. He said it was 3:30, and no. I had to be monitored for a minimum of 6 hours.
After trying to get comfortable again, and failing miserably, I managed to get back to sleep about half an hour or an hour later.
And then at 5:30 they woke me up said that we had to get out because another clinic used the space during the day and would be showing up by 6:30.
It seemed to take hours for them to get all the wires off so I could move around (and head for the toilet) but they probably had it done in about 15 minutes.
After that I did what I had to do. I washed up. I got dressed. And I left. And I still had left over paste in my hair from the electrodes on my scalp.
So I headed home for a hot shower, and it was only hot so that it would get rid of the last of the paste and glue that all the electrodes were attached with. Leaving only the tenderness and sore spots behind.
They told me that my doctor and I would have the results in a week or so. i am just hoping that all the issues caused by the small, uncomfortable bed, and having all the attached wires which kept me from moving, and woke me up, don't skew the results and make them think there are problems that aren't there.
I mean I felt so miserable when I left. Lack of sleep. Being rudely awoken twice. I was exhausted and felt like I hadn't slept at all.
However, the next night I slept in my own bed, and slept better than I had in months. I slept for about 10 hours and woke up refreshed and ready to go.
And I had a good day.
I got to the hospital about 8:00 Thursday night for my appointment and ended up sitting in the waiting room for twenty minutes or so before the technicians came out to get me. And then I ended up sitting in the clinic for about an hour while they got everything ready and dealt with the other two people there for studies. Good thing I brought a book.
After the others were done it was my turn to get changed and get wired up for bed. This meant putting on the shorts I brought to sleep in and then sitting and listening to the tech tell me about the study and about what causes sleep apnea. Then they started attaching the electrodes.
However, before the could attach the electrodes they had to clean the areas.
I tried not to be offended at the implication.
They had this scrub they used to clean the areas. I guess it is specially formulated to breakdown and remove all the oils, etc. from the skin. The real problem I had with it was that it was abrasive. VERY abrasive. The spots on my scalp that they scrubbed are still a little tender today.
After scrubbing the spots and making them tender it was time to glue on the electrodes, two on my legs, five on my scalp and in my hair, one on my forehead, each cheek, behind each ear, beside each eye, and one of each side of my chest. I think that covers all of them. Oh, and there were two belts wrapped around my torso.
Each of these had a long wire coming from it and attached to a control box hanging beside the bed. Plus there was another control box attached to one of the belts which was connected to the first box via a cable. A short cable. (This will come into play in a moment.)
Once all the wires were attached they asked if I wanted to go to sleep then or if I wanted to read some more. Since I couldn't put my glasses back on with a couple of the electrodes in the way, I decided to try to sleep. It was about 11:00 or 11:30 by this time
The hospital bed was smaller than a twin and it was uncomfortable. I am used to a queen sized bed that is (in my opinion) quite comfortable. This wasn't looking good.
So I lay there for half an hour or so before managing to fall asleep. And then I woke up quite suddenly during the night. I guess that will happen when you go to roll over and something stops you unexpectedly.
Remember that cable I said was short? When I rolled over in my sleep I found out just how short it was. Not quite long enough for me to roll onto my side. So when I tried during the night I had this cable holding me back and the sudden shock of the pulling woke me up.
Once I realized what had happened I hit the call button and asked the technician what time it was and if i could get up then. He said it was 3:30, and no. I had to be monitored for a minimum of 6 hours.
After trying to get comfortable again, and failing miserably, I managed to get back to sleep about half an hour or an hour later.
And then at 5:30 they woke me up said that we had to get out because another clinic used the space during the day and would be showing up by 6:30.
It seemed to take hours for them to get all the wires off so I could move around (and head for the toilet) but they probably had it done in about 15 minutes.
After that I did what I had to do. I washed up. I got dressed. And I left. And I still had left over paste in my hair from the electrodes on my scalp.
So I headed home for a hot shower, and it was only hot so that it would get rid of the last of the paste and glue that all the electrodes were attached with. Leaving only the tenderness and sore spots behind.
They told me that my doctor and I would have the results in a week or so. i am just hoping that all the issues caused by the small, uncomfortable bed, and having all the attached wires which kept me from moving, and woke me up, don't skew the results and make them think there are problems that aren't there.
I mean I felt so miserable when I left. Lack of sleep. Being rudely awoken twice. I was exhausted and felt like I hadn't slept at all.
However, the next night I slept in my own bed, and slept better than I had in months. I slept for about 10 hours and woke up refreshed and ready to go.
And I had a good day.
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