If you have a favorite post or posts, could you comment and say which one(s)? I could make a list based on hits, but that doesn’t feel quite right.
It has been a hectic weekend, but I hope to have more to post about tomorrow.
Oh and: a few people have posted general comments about the Wilderness books in the comments recently. Which is fine; I like to hear from readers, in whatever format. Bruce (or maybe his wife; it was unclear) just posted that s/he was disconcerted by the lack of a clear antagonist in Fire Along the Sky. It’s an interesting observation, and makes me wonder if other people had this same feeling.
You've stumbled across my official website and landed on the front page of my weblog.
I am always fascinated by the posts which give a little more info/clear up what I’m assuming happened in the books. -Learning rabies took Dolly’s life and things like that.
I enjoy family stories, as your husband sounds similar to mine and stories about the Girlchild prepare me for the future since my kids are younger. I also like hearing your observations on life and the way you see it. I am not always into book reviews, but that is solely because my stack of TBR books is large and I keep getting more behind!
Keep up the great work, I’ll still be checking in.
I enjoy hearing about your work, your struggles with keeping on task, your research methods. I enjoy the movie and book reviews. Thus far from reading and watching things you suggest I have learned that our tastes are simular (Grey’s Anatomy fanatic!). Just like Soup I love learning little tidbits such as the details behind Dolly’s death. I can’t give you a specific blog but I will look them over in the morning. Grey’s is about to come on!
I like your craft posts. The series on sex was great.
1. The trials and tribulations that you go through writing.
2. The book reviews, most especially the long list of authors that you published about a year ago.
3. The BAT story.
My all-time favorite post is the one you wrote about your dad and the magazine subscriptions. Hilarious. And vivid.
I’m also always interested to see what books you like. You got me started reading “Niccolo Rising,” and I’m now on a mission to buy all of Dorothy Dunnett’s out-of-print books. (I, however, liked the Lymond Chronicles maybe a little bit more than Niccolo. But only a little. Both series are super fabulous.)
I guess chatty things you post are more interesting to me than author-ish things you post. I’m not a writer, will never be a writer, and have no desire to be a writer. But I’ve admired your writing very much, and starting checking our your blog because I was interested in what the person who wrote the books might be like. And if you can momentaritly repress your nun-innoculated tendencies to be self-effacing, I have to tell you that you’re pretty cool.
It seems more and more people have sleep apnea. Or we’re just now finding out with new technology. Maybe I should see if I have that… I know exactly the feeling of waking up exhausted, no matter how long I sleep. Well, hopefully you’ll be able to have more restful nights and who cares what that mask looks like :)
Hey, my mom has sleep apnea – found out a couple of years ago and now has to sleep with the machine. I never saw the machine, but I got the impression it was just a little nosepiece. Yours looks hardcore.
Anyway, she said it’s really hard to get used to sleeping with it on, because it’s loud. So be warned. But please don’t let it stop you from forcing yourself to get used to it, because it sounds like it can really truly make a very good difference in your life.
I’ve had a CPAP for a couple of years now, and it really works. I’m now getting quality sleep (and dreaming again). While it can take some getting used to, and it’s awful when you have a head cold and can’t breathe through your nose, it’s worth the hassle of getting used to the headgear. An added benefit: my blood pressure which was elevated has now dropped into the normal range. The working theory is that each apnea episode jolts the stress hormones and raises blood pressure. I find the sound of the machine to be a kind of soothing white noise.
I too always have the feeling that it is better to be diagnosed and know what is wrong so that it can be treated than to not know.
I hope that you will be able to adjust to the machine. It sounds critical for your health. I wonder if your insomnia is linked to this? You didn’t say.
The scene from Wit uses a lot of scientific terminology – and to my surprise – they use it correctly, which is not always the case for movies and books. I’m surprised, in a way, that the writers chose to do that scene in that way, since they surely confused a large portion of their audience. Interesting.
I have every intention of getting used to the durn cpap, no matter what it takes. Because: I like to sleep. A good night’s sleep is worth a lot. So, I intend to prevail.
Apparently sleep apnea is quite common, but usually undiagnosed.
Also: one of the warning signs is rapid weight gain.
I see some possibility of bigger changes here.
My cousin has sleep apnea and uses the machine as well. He and his wife both had to get used to the sound, but now even she can’t sleep without the noise. He saw a big difference in his energy level after he started using it.
Geez Rosina, that doesn’t sound good – but at least there is a way to fix the problem!! I hope that it works out and you get back to having a good night’s sleep again.
Because I know little about this problem, but suspect family members may have it – how do you do the test to know for sure?
As someone who has food sensitivities (wheat and dairy) that caused some fairly major health problems, I can say that dealing with a chronic condition is a pain, but not dealing with it and suffering the consequences is a lot worse.
I have to be really picky about what I eat and where we go when we dine out, but the mental and physical health benefits have been worth it. You’ll probably find that things you’d never dreamed of were caused or affected by the sleep interruptions.
Good for you for tackling this. In the long run, you’ll be so glad you did!
Good news on a diagnosis Rosina – sleep is underrated, that’s for sure.
My mother-in-law and a co-worker both went through the tests and were diagnosed. They need to take their machines with them when they travel, but that’s been the biggest inconvenience they claim, aside from having to wear it in the first place, I suppose. They were both put on long wait lists to get tested. There weren’t a lot of places that did the testing here in the prairies in Canada. Best of luck, those who think it might be a test to get done.
Welcome to the Apnea club!!!,..
I was diagnosed a few months back & have a milder case – so instead of CPAP have been trialled with a jaw splint (thoroughly revolting -> so I think the CPAP is a far better treatment).
I haven’t yet had a satisfactory resolution of my symptoms, – but that is in part due to problems I’ve had with the mouth splint (basically clear acrylic moulded to the teeth that is supposed to hold the lower jaw forward – it not only does that but also holds my mouth wide open, hurts my teeth and jaw, & isn’t particularly hygenic so I get very OCD about oral hygiene when using it)
To Kathy, – I’m not sure whether they used the same testing method for Rosina, but when I was diagnosed, I was wired up to a portable datalogging machine, – with sensors that measured blood oxygen levels, snoring sounds on the throat, air movement from the nose, and a belt around the chest to measure the rising and falling of the chest. They wired me up in the Drs office & I went home wired up, the data logger was programmed to start measuring at a specific time & I was to sleep as normally as possible in my own bed. The equipment was then returned the next day.
I was somewhat surprised with my diagnosis, & my tiredness was previously attributed to Fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue. The original misdiagnosis was probably because my demographics fit the average chronic fatigue sufferer better than the average Apnea sufferer (as I am relatively young and female – & the average Sleep Apnea sufferer is male, middle aged & overweight)…… ok so i’m no supermodel… ;)
Wow. I didn’t realize it was that serious. I know sometimes I can’t sleep because DH stops breathing. It freaks me out!! And so I nudge him partially awake so he’ll breathe.
Then I can’t sleep, listening to him breathe and not breathe. Gosh, I sound crazy. I didn’t know there was treatment for it!
Seems like I hit a nerve, eh?
Yes, sleep apnea can be dangerous. It’s certainly disruptive. Yes, there is treatment. The diagnosis follows from being monitored for a night’s sleep — either with a portable unit, as Angela described, or at a sleep clinic. That’s what I did, I went to the clinic, they wired me up (and I mean, wired — it took forty minutes), and I was supposed to go to sleep (ha) so they could monitor heart, brain waves, breathing, muscle movements. I did eventually get to sleep, and the monitors did their work. And voila, a diagnosis.
I was fully expecting to go in there and have the doctor say: it’s all in your head. No sleep apnea. Get a grip. It’s good to have this sense that something can be done, that’s for sure.
Yes you did hit a nerve, all this time I’ve been told about the sounds I make when I’m sleeping. The accusations from the ex “I think you’re having dirty dreams with the sounds that come out of your mouth in the middle of the night” and we don’t even share the same room!!!
I have an appointment on the 18th to see the GP now I know what to ask him about! Thanks for the scoop!
Rosina,
my father in law use to snore loud enough to keep the whole house up at night and then he would fall asleep all day. A few years ago he was diagnosed with sleep apnea and got a cpap machine. What a huge difference its made. No doubt you will get use to it quickly.
A good night sleep is a wonderful thing.
I agree with Beth’s comment, CPAP does look hardcore especially with those full face masks. Not to mention they’re hard to get used to. Imagine trying to sleep with something huge clamped to your face, hissing, while you are trying to sleep. Good thing there’s an alternative to that, the CPAP nasal pillow. It still looks pretty weird because of the tubes that attaches it to the CPAP machine but at least not as hardcore as the mask. It’s just a little device that you stick to your nostrils to help keep your airway open and help you breathe.
I did actually get the nasal pillow, and I adjusted to it very quickly. I like it because I can wear my glasses and read with the cpap in place and running.