Just a one-time bump to update those of you who were kind enough to participate in this forum the first time around. (If you’re just interested in the results and not the details of my experience, skip to the last four paragraphs. If you aren’t interested in any of it, why are you here? 
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I went in for my sleep study last Tuesday, the 15th. The two gentlemen working and caring for the three of us who were in the study that night were very nice and spent a lot of time explaining things and answering questions.
They took each of us individually and sat down with us to explain how the study would work, what they were looking for, how they would be monitoring us, etc. Then they had me try on a few CPAP masks to see what seemed most comfortable to me. They explained that if there was sufficient evidence of apnea during the first few hours of the study, they would actually put the mask on me during the night to see how I handled that. After trying on three different types, I ended settling on one that looked almost identical to this one.
They let me hang out for a bit (I made a phone call and checked my email), and when I finally told them I was getting sleepy, the next step was getting me fully wired up. I had something like 20-25 electrodes hooked up to various parts of my body (one on each leg, one near each shoulder, and several on my head and the back of my neck). They also attached one strap each around my chest and stomach to measure breathing movements, and a nasal strap to measure oxygen flow. I was then helped into bed, and the technician conducted a series of tests, having me move and breath in various ways to make sure the monitoring equipment was functioning properly. After that, they turned out the lights, and off I went to sleep.
Well, sort of. I can’t claim I had an easy time falling asleep even though I was quite tired. The equipment took me a little while to get used to, and I don’t know how long it took me to finally doze off, but apparently, I did. I next woke up at about 1am when one of the technicians came in the room. He confirmed that I did have apnea, and he went ahead and attached the mask I’d pre-selected so that they could try running the CPAP on me. Even though I’d had a dry run earlier in the evening, I found trying to sleep with it far more difficult, and it took me some time to drift back off.
My next awakening came of my own accord. I sat up to look at the time, and one of the technicians came in to check on me. He helped detached me so that I could use the restroom, and when I got back, he told me that even with the CPAP, I was still breathing from the mouth a bit, so they attached a humidifier. I think I fell back asleep soon thereafter.
I think I woke up briefly two or three times after that because I could sense when adjustments were being made to the CPAP pressures. I woke up for good at 5:30am. The technician said that they had one more set of measurements they wanted to run on me. (It was explained earlier that they rank airflow pressures from the CPAP on a scale from basically 4 through 12, with 12 being the highest pressure. They had been steadily increasing the pressure I’d been receiving throughout the night to help stop the apnea episodes.) He said that they’d gotten me up to 12-inhaling/6-exhaling (imitating a BiPAP) but wanted to test me at 12/12. But I was awake at that point and not too confident I’d have any luck getting back to sleep, so they unhooked me, had me fill out a short survey, and sent me on my way.
My follow-up appointment with the sleep specialist was just this past Wednesday. He confirmed that I had apnea and said that I was a moderate to severe case. His explanation was that there are two measurements for apnea: the number of apneac episodes per hour, and the level of oxygen flow. He said that they found I had very little obstruction as my blood-oxygen levels never dipped below 90%. However, he said that 30 apnea episodes or more per hour constitutes severe apnea, and I was averaging about 33-34.
At this point, they are supposed to be sending me a CPAP kit sometime in the next week, and I’ll be sleeping with that for six weeks before I return for a follow-up appointment. My understanding is that if the mask is helping me at that point, they’ll give me an actual prescription. I’m told that I did struggle a bit with the constant pressure of a CPAP, so they’re going to try the BiPAP on me and see how that goes. I’m told that could be a fun fight with the insurance company since BiPAPs are quite a bit more expensive, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
There’s a part of me that feels like the four or so hours I had the mask on actually made a difference in the quality of sleep I got, even though it was oft-interrupted. I’m really kind of excited to get to try to spend a night with the mask in my own home, in my own bed, without the many wires on me. I’m very hopeful that I’ll be re-learning what it’s like to have a good night’s sleep.
I regret not having asked the sleep specialist a few more questions, though. In particular, I’m curious to know what actually causes my apnea if, as he said, the obstruction is very minor, why do I have a “severe” number of episodes? Does this mean my brain is failing to trigger my breathing, rather than a physical obstruction? Ah well…I’ll follow up on all of that soon.