Yikes! Sounds horrid! Hope you’re getting some good rest right now.
Yep. I’d pretty much rather have an untreated sleep disturbance problem. The “cure” sounds so not worth it.
I have had two sleep studies, both of which sucked majorly. The first time the nurse couldn’t get the electrodes to stick to my head properly, so she kept coming in every little bit to re-stick them. And then they say I don’t sleep well? I have lots of leg twitches, but mostly because of my fibro and RA – I can’t sleep in one position long because of pain. I tried the CPAP route and gave up; I hated every moment of it.
What?
When you go in for this kind of study, they hook all kinds of electrical leads to you. Many of them have to go on your scalp. The adhesive they use to attach the leads would be what Mama Zappa is referring to as ‘snot’, would be my guess.
Yeah - it’s got the consistency of boogers, only more persistent. Can’t even fling it across the room to stick to someone’s back.
er, not that I ever tried that… :D.
One of the techs at my last one said that she had a patient who showered there (they have facilities, for people who need to clean up and get to work) and THOROUGHLY washed his hair… and couldn’t figure out why people were giving him odd looks.
He’d missed a glob of it behind one ear. ::::insert reference to There’s Something About Mary::::
Ah ok. I was picturing people who had been given some sort of medicine that made them all congested and then when they were sleeping, the snot ran out and got all over their hair.
So today I drove 1 1/2 hours back to the hospital to get the results … and the conversation went something like:
Doctor: Well you don’t seem to have epilepsy, nor other forms of seizures you just have crappy sleep and yucky sleep patterns, you wake up scared and you’re obviously in distress
Me: umm … yes … we basically knew it wasn’t epilepsy is there anything else from the results?
Doctor: You didn’t show the episodes of 10-15 minute duration that we wanted to see so we can’t tell you about those.
Me: umm … I don’t have episodes like that, I told you they are only a matter of seconds
Second Doctor: yes, she never said she had long episodes
Doctor: right, well, you’re just a bad sleeper
Me: can you tell me anything about where in the sleep cycle I’m getting disturbances and why?
Doctor: the medication you’re been on for the last 15 years is the best to treat this and it obviously works for you, you should stay on this. So, don’t stress, go off and live your life!
Me: umm … okay!
yup … 2 MINUTES!!! I left fuming!!
On the 1 1/2 hour drive back home I came up with what I SHOULD have said, so if I could go back … and have another chance at that conversation … it would go more like:
Me: what the fuck? You had me in there for 3 nights and 4 days and you come up with that I sleep badly?!?!
Me: I have “yucky” sleep? … did you get your medical degree from a cereal box?! I totally understand changing medical terms so that lay people can understand … but “yucky”!? seriously??? I’m not a two year old.
Me: So … in other words … you haven’t actually looked at the results in any depth and have no FUCKING idea what is going on with my head and why I hallucinate!! Nor do you care why I might do this. Please come closer so I can swipe that smarmy smile off your face!!
(yes, sleep deprivation makes me lose my temper … just wish it was at the time of the incident!)
I totally understand that my sleep disorder is nothing in comparision to what they see with neurological problems and epilepsy … but it took me a huge effort to stay in those conditions, it effects my life massively, the least they could do is evaluate the data and give me some form of useful information!!!
I’m booked to see another doctor vs just the hospital doctor (there is no one apparently in Austraila who specilises with the issue I have - obviously very rare) in June … maybe by then they might have looked at the results?!!
Or … maybe they’ll let me take some results home and I can at least look at the data!! I mean … there are known sleep cycles … what are mine doing? are mine replicating any other disorders? what is actually going wrong in my head that I see things? Is this associated with REM or is it more like a narcolepsy sleep cycle?
Oh, man! It sucks that you had to go through that, and sucks even worse that there is no viable positive outcome! I mean, at the very least, you could have kicked that doctor in the larynx, and at least have felt better about the whole thing!
Geez, at this rate, it’ll probably take you a full week to get back to your normal crappy sleep patterns!
Sorry there wasn’t any good to come of this. 
I had the occasion to see a “specialist” once. It was about a 5 minute visit, once he got around to entering the exam room. He took one look at me, asked 2 questions, and left. That was it. My dermatologist and I were both annoyed about it, and I’m pretty sure I’m the last patient he referred to that “specialist.”
I’m sorry you had to put up with that, Miss Gnomer. You went through quite a harrowing experience for a whole lot of nothing, that could have been worth it if some sort of solution had come of it. Maybe your next doctor will be able to shed some light, I really hope so.