Sleep Apnoea.....13-MAR-2008 06:13
Anyone watch the item on sleep apnoea last night? If I remember correctly it was on Campbell Live. (Yes it was, I just checked.) But I was So Tired Last Night I didn't register much. I caught bits like always tired, always asleep, falling asleep at the wheel, losing weight...
I have never slept well, and there is a reason for my early childhood sleeplessness - fear.
My dear darling husband (he who has offered to speak to our english lass's hubby about his expectations after their baby is born,) actually dragged me off to a naturopath when our firstborn was three months old, because I was tired.
The first thing I knew about maybe having sleep apnoea was at the doctors early last year. I mentioned my re-curring nightmares, where a monster, demon, ogre, whatever, is pressing down on my chest. The more I struggle, the heavier the weight. I don't know which part of sleep it is in, but the more I try to struggle the worse it gets. I have to wake myself up, which is hard to do. I guess I have dreams within dreams (I have them at other times, too,) but it turns out that when I think I have woken up I am still asleep. It takes a lot of effort, and prayer, to wake up sometimes.
Sometimes it's two or three nights in a row. You can imagine how tired I am when I become too afraid to fall asleep, especially when it occurs more than once in the same night.
The first time I ever had that type of dream was when we had a new kitten - Fluffy the First. I was asleep and felt an animal crawling up my feet from the foot of the bed. I thought it was the kitten. But 'it' kept coming up, until it sat on my chest and pushed with all it's might. I couldn't breathe, I was fighting it in my sleep, praying too, but it didn't go. When I finally awoke, I remember praying 'I rebuke you in Jesus name, you foul thing', and I actually saw two small critters about the same size as cats but a bit like wallabies maybe, bound off the bed, and out through the (closed and curtained) window. So I thought it was just spiritual stuff... Like the local yowie, maybe?
Well, my good doctor said it was probably sleep apnoea and I perceived it this way in dreams because I was 'religious'. He referred me to Manukau Super Clinic.
Well, I had been there the previous december but it turns out they decided I was an illegal alien this time. (Suppose some people would think of an aussie like that...) So I had to prove otherwise. As I did not want to send my passport in I used their alternatives, including my rates notice for my residential address.
Not good enough apparently. So I was kicked off the request list, even though I actually physically brought my passport in as proof of residency. (Only to be told I had been given the wrong information and hadn't needed to...)
I asked my friend at the reception desk of my dr's to get the application resent. A month or so later, I was told there was an approximate waiting list of four months, taking me to October.
I am still waiting. And still getting those dreams. Like last night...
Reckon I have been kicked off the list again?
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