Personal « My Substitute Reality

Wednesday April 25, 2007

Twice a minute

Filed under: Personal — don @ 12:48 pm

That’s how often the technician told me I was having an apnea during the first half of last night. In case you haven’t researched it that’s a LOT! They consider someone has a problem if they have more than 5 an hour. I have 5 in under 3 minutes. At least that explains why I’m tired in the morning.

At 1am I was fitted with a CPAP mask and then refitted every 10 minutes for the next hour and a half until we found one that sealed around my beard enough. Once I got used to the feel I fell asleep around 2:30 and was awakened at 5am. I haven’t had 2 1/2 hours of sleep that good in ages. Now I’ve just got to get one for here at home.

Comments (20)

Sunday April 8, 2007

8 weeks and 100 posts

Filed under: Life,Personal — don @ 8:31 am

It’s been 8 weeks since I quit smoking and this is the 100th post on my blog. I don’t think there is any significance but I thought you might be interested.

I’m pretty much off my Chantix although the Dr. said I should keep taking it. I keep forgetting in the morning and in the evening I’m afraid it’s going to make my OSA worse.

I haven’t been diagnosed with OSA yet but Betty and I are pretty sure I will be. Oh yeah, OSA stands for Obstructive Sleep Apnea if you didn’t know.

I’ve been really tired all day every day for the last year at least and it’s gotten worse since I quit smoking and gained more weight. When I told the Dr. he asked a couple of questions and the answers all point to sleep apnea. We are trying to find a sleep lab so I can stay the night and get diagnosed.

If they confirm it they will set me up with a CPAP machine and hopefully my daytime tiredness will be a thing of the past.

Comments (12)

Monday March 12, 2007

One month, technically.

Filed under: Personal — don @ 7:19 pm

My quit date was February 12th so technically I have been a non-smoker for a month. Yeah yeah, it was a short month but that’s my story and I’m stickin to it.

At $5 a pack I’ve saved about $140 so far. Of course I never paid $5 but see above.

Comments (5)

Wednesday March 7, 2007

Day – 3 weeks plus a few days

Filed under: Personal — don @ 6:49 pm

I haven’t written anything about not smoking lately. That’s because there’s nothing to say about it other than I’m still not smoking. I guess I could call myself an ex-smoker technically. I saw the Doctor on Monday and told him about the not sleeping. He didn’t want me to stop the Chantix because he was quite surprised that it was working so well. He actually thought I was going to tell him I couldn’t do it. At any rate he prescribed sleeping pills to help me get some rest. I will probably take my first one tonight and see if it helps for tomorrow. If I get good sleep tonight and am still sleepy tomorrow then I’m going to worry maybe it’s something besides the Chantix. I really hope my body doesn’t need to smoke to stay awake.(just kidding there folks)

Oh yeah, I guess this is 24 days and the cravings are lessening a lot.

Comments (10)

Monday February 26, 2007

Day 15 – Things could be better

Filed under: Personal — don @ 10:19 pm

The not smoking isn’t the problem. I think it might be the Chantix which is keeping me from sleeping which is getting me sick. Last Friday I woke up feeling kind of blah. When I heard there was a sig-alert in the Sepulveda pass I decided that was God telling me to stay home. I slept a lot that day and didn’t sleep well that night. I woke up Saturday with a really stiff neck and felt like I had been chopping wood the day before. Not really, but my body was just beat. Same thing happened Saturday and Sunday. Finally this morning the neck wasn’t as stiff but I still felt beat. I decided to give it one more day and go to the Doc tomorrow if I still feel bad. I’m feeling better this evening but at 9:30 I’m ready for bed.

I do see the Doctor on Monday the 5th so I can tell him then what I’ve been feeling.

Comments (6)

Thursday February 22, 2007

Eleven days

Filed under: Personal — don @ 7:48 pm

That will be the number of smoke free days about 10pm tonight. This has been much easier than I thought it would be. Today there was one short crave that lasted about 10 seconds. As I mentioned in a comment I’m even starting to forget my pills. Since I’m writing this around 7:30pm I think I better grab one and then finish this. You’ll want to know about the “vivid dream” I had last night.

In my dream there was a woman making donuts in a large glass fryer. The fryer looked like an aquarium filled with oil with the donuts at the bottom. So far nothing really out there right? Hang on. In the top of the “aquarium” fryer were kittens swimming around. The kittens were swimming kind of like fish and not going up for air. I asked the girl how they were able to breathe and she told me they all had a small plastic tube pumping air into their mouths. I looked closer and sure enough they did. I had her pour some buttermilk on the donuts and they all caught fire. I’m not sure how they were able to be on fire while submerged in a big tank of oil but dreams don’t always make sense. After they went out the kittens continued to swim around in the top of the tank.

Then thankfully I woke up. I know there was one more dream but I can’t remember what it was about.

Comments (8)

Sunday February 18, 2007

One week

Filed under: Personal — don @ 10:21 pm

In less than an hour it will be one week of not smoking. Today was probably the best day so far as cravings. I had very few and they weren’t very strong. I did go for a motorcycle ride this morning up Mulholland. This afternoon Betty and I went to see “A Night at the Museum”. It was pretty good. The best part was not wanting to get up in the middle to have a smoke.

After that we went to Mervyns to get me a few larger shirts. I don’t think I’ll be losing any weight for a while so I wanted some shirts that weren’t so tight. I know I’m getting up there in weight but I think it’s probably better to have a few extra pounds than the smoking.

So, one week wasn’t really too bad. A few rough spots but I never felt like I wasn’t going to make it. Let’s hope week 2 is even easier.

Comments (7)

Friday February 16, 2007

Day 5

Filed under: Personal — don @ 7:11 pm

This morning I had several strong cravings. Of course I didn’t buckle but these were as bad or worse than day 3’s. Then at lunchtime an interesting thing happened. One of the guys I do lunch with had a smoke before coming into the restaurant. When he walked in I actually smelled the smoke when he sat down. Maybe things are really changing.

I wish I could say that turned the day around but I’ve had a few more cravings. Here’s hoping this weekend is a little easier than today.