Random Assortments Post

Lots of little unrelated things to discuss in this post today so don't expect any form of coherency. When something bigger or more interesting happens in my life you can expect a post on that. But until then, this kind of a post will have to make due.

First off, congrats to Obama winning the elections last night. I don't usually like to discuss politics on my blog but this is kind of a significant event so it deserves some form of mention. Also hard to not notice it seeing as all my friends on Facebook kind of exploded.

Is this a good or bad thing? Hard to say. Though I guess it's true that once you go black, you can't go back.

Now if Canada could only get rid of Stephen Harper... I hate the man for trying to censor the Internet up here.

Should this man really represent us?

Next thing is snow. It literally went from just leaves on the ground to up to 25cm of snow overnight. There have been over 200 collisions, buses take forever to get anywhere, parts of highways have been closed off, and the last I heard, the light rail transit was shut down too.

Getting to classes tomorrow is going to be so much fun.

I should be used to it I guess. Though my friends from the province of BC are just laughing. I hate them so much right now.

Last thing, I'm booking an appointment with my doctor. My lungs will not leave me alone and they're starting to hurt sporadically. It's not longer just random breathlessness or discomfort, it's pain not unlike when my lung was healing from surgery. I'm not sure what's happening, but the fact that this has been occurring on and off for over 2 weeks now is getting me worried.

Plus I promised Theresa I'd get it checked out if it continued. Also can't let her know because she's busy again with exams and I can't afford to be stressing her out with my health problems.

Also she won't have time to read my blog so no worries about her finding out from this.

And if she does see this post, this otter will distract her.

Alright, back to work. See you guys on Saturday.

Me Not Healthy: Always Tired (Part 5)

Does anyone still remember this ongoing arc of mine? I've lost and gained a lot of followers since the last post so for those of you who are just joining here's a link to Part 1 for my story on dealing with sleep apnea.

And for those who just need a refresher, I've finally been able to see that doctor, months after the appointment was booked.

Damn those long wait times.

The guy was apparently really high in demand. I'm not sure if there was a scheduling issue or if the last patient was taking too long but I sat there for about an hour until he finally showed up.

But no matter, I still got to see the guy and he takes a look around. He suggests that maybe I get the special mouth guard that the other specialist mentioned. A lot of people do not have the correct jaw structure for it but I was one of the few lucky candidate so yay for me?

Awesome.

And then I see what the mouth guard will look like. And, it's kind of bizarre. I can't remember the exact name so use your imagination here. Basically, it's two mouthpieces (one for the top and bottom) and on the top there's like a hook that fits into a slot in the bottom mouthpiece.

The purpose of this is to keep my jaw from falling onto my windpipe (and thus causing me to choke, gasp for air, briefly wake-up, ruin my sleep, etc. etc.) and also prevents me from grinding my teeth together because well, now they can't even touch.

And if your imagination (or my description) sucks, here's a picture.

So we'll see how this goes. I'm going for the fitting in a few weeks so expect hopefully a conclusion to my sleeping problems.

Link to Part 6 here.

Me Not Healthy: Always Tired (Part 4)

This is a continuation of my quest to figure out why I've been constantly tired for the last few years. If you're new and not sure what's going on, here's part 1, part 2 and part 3.

This must be a pain to read from the beginning.

So I finally get to see this specialist. I fill out a few forms and as the guy is looking through the papers he stops and goes, "That's interesting, you grind your teeth at night? That might explain a few things".

Remember how I mentioned how one of the potential causes for my sleep apnea could be my jaw causing my throat to close up? Turns out, grinding your teeth at night is sometimes your body's way of forcing your jaw off so you can breathe again.

I get to chose between breathing or maintaining my awesome smile.

I've had the teeth grinding problem for (surprise surprise) years as well. I got a mouth guard to wear at night so I don't destroy my teeth in my sleep. So the next step is to go get a specially made mouth guard that not only prevents the teeth grinding BUT also stops my jaw from crushing things.

Oh! And you know what else the specialist told me? "You might have a special case for sleep apnea. We only see this kind of thing in tall and thin Asian males".

TALL, THIN, ASIAN MALES.

I WONDER WHAT OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS THESE GUYS GET.

I also wonder what other surprises my genes have in store for me.

Unfortunately, I guess the earliest I can see the orthodontics guy is in February. Which means there won't be an update to this until then.

In the meantime, I'll be using my Abnormal Psychology's professor's audio lectures to help me fall asleep.

If his voice can make me sleep in class, it can make me fall asleep anywhere.

Link here to Part 5.

Me Not Healthy: Always Tired (Part 3)

It's been a while but I've finally been able to go see my doctor and discuss a few things with him. Anyone who isn't sure what I'm talking about can catch up by reading Part 2 and/or Part 1.

First things first, we go over the data that was given with the new CPAP mask. The good news was that I had a significant reduction in apneas. I was waking up maybe like, 3 times a night or something at the very best which is a huge improvement over 15 times at worst.

The bad news was that even with the apnea reductions I was still waking up tired.

Sometimes even too tired to finish a blog post.

So my doctor recommends that I stop using it. I'm not seeing any visible improvements, I haven't got used to the thing even after a month of trying it, it's just not working out. I mean, the most sleep I ever get with the thing is maybe 5 hours? And it's usually because I wake up and tear it off my face so I can sleep more comfortably.

The CPAP was helping to reduce apneas but wasn't addressing the actual cause of them. The next logical thing was to check the most likely offenders; my thyroid, my tonsils, or my jaw. If my thyroid was enlarged it could be pressing down on my windpipe, causing me to choke and wake up in my sleep. Same thing applies to my tonsils except if they could be closing off my throat. Lastly, my jaw could be falling back and crushing something.

It's like my own body wants to kill me.

So, Doctor touches the side of my neck. Nope. No enlarged thyroids.

Doctor looks down my throat with a light. Nope. No enlarged tonsils.

And then he tells me that I'd need to see my dentist to verify if there are any jaw problems.

So, we still don't know what's wrong with me.

Back where we started...

It's not all bad though. He booked an appointment for me to go see a sleep specialist in a few weeks and we got more x-rays because I think there might be something wrong with my lungs again. But we'll see, I don't think I'll be falling over dead any time soon.

Unless it turns out I have gastrointestinal problems too...

Link to Part 4.