CPAP

Had my appointment with the lung specialist today.  Turns out that I stop breathing at least 5 times and hour and at most 33 times an hour while sleeping.  They consider it mild to moderate sleep apnea. 

So as of about 10am I am the proud renter of this:  S9 CPAP Machine.  Apparently you rent the machine for 10 months of paying 20% of the rental and your insurance paying the remainder.  After 10 months if you still need it, it's yours.  Which is all good, but I about had a heart attack when I started looking up actual costs of them and bemoaning my decision to choose the high deductible health care plan at work.  It appears as though I'll be "renting" this thing on my own and hitting my deductible pretty soon in the year.

Before I went in I told Pete that if they said I needed a machine I'd try it out a few nights, but didn't know if I'd continue it.  Only when I met with him and found out how many times I stop breathing I was shocked.  I also found out that there is a memory card in the machine that tracks how often I use it and for how long.  I have to go in to see the doctor 30 and 60 days out to make sure that the settings are right.  I'm hoping that within 6 months I will have lost more weight and my use of the machine can go down.  But I'm also willing to use the machine nightly if that is what it takes to get good sleep.

After I left the appointment I called the bariatric surgery center to make an appointment with the doctor there.  I want to sit down again and see if the surgery is still an option for me.  I think I need to not be in limbo about this anymore.  I need to either have a yes or a no so that I can psychologically move on from it and figure out a new plan.  Limbo sucks and I don't want to do it any longer.