Finally got a chance to write, and I have a lot to update on as well.

So we met with the pulmonologist on the 25th. He explained that there are varying degrees of sleep apnea, which makes sense just like there are varying degrees of hypothyroidism. He confirmed that having a TSH of about 8 wouldn’t affect my energy levels to such a degree. He looked into my throat and said it was very “crowded.” This was what my old dentist was asking me about. I guess because I have such a narrow throat there isn’t as much space between the top of my tongue and my throat. Packing on the middle-aged weight is probably what brought on the sleep apnea. I did start getting pretty heavy around the time I started having issues with fatigue but I wrote it off to a combination of perimenopause/menopause and being woken up so damn often like I was at the old place.

Then things got interesting when he tried to tell me I had delayed sleep phase and that sighted people couldn’t have N24. Well, not only did the sleep specialist I saw in Cali say that wasn’t true and that I do have N24, but plenty of research online will tell you that, as well. With delayed sleep phase, which is another type of circadian rhythm disorder and what Andy may have, you have trouble falling asleep, but you’re still getting up around the same time. This is caused more by external factors, whereas N24 is internal factors.

Ugh, here goes the fucking motorcycle. It used to be mostly weekends, but now it’s every single fucking day.

Took a break to eat breakfast and do some other things and in a little while I will be going out to get my hair cut. I booked an appointment with Liz online. I want to take it back to the shoulders. It’s been 14 months since it was cut. Maybe now that I’m not using the cheap box dye, it will grow out healthier. Even though it’s not overly long, it’s very hard to manage. Thick curly hair tends to be harder to manage anyway. So it will not only be easier to manage with it shorter, but it will be easier to dye too.

Continuing on with the pulmonologist…at home, we looked up the difference between N24 and delayed sleep phase and I swear I could have written the article on N24 on Sleep Foundation! It described exactly what I have. Exactly. Delayed sleep is mostly for people who have gotten their circadian rhythms thrown off from things like working certain shifts or traveling through different time zones or things like that. What I have is more built-in and less treatable.

We like to read up on N24 periodically to see if anything new comes about, and a couple of things did. A while back, I was telling Tom that I swore my schedule jumped faster when I was on days. I asked him if he noticed that as well and he said he didn’t. Yet sure enough, the article talks about the jump in schedule speeding up when on days. It does seem to jump closer to two hours when I’m on days and one hour when I’m on nights.

The other thing is that there’s a new melatonin receptor that was recently approved by the FDA we didn’t know about. This might be worth asking my doctors about once it’s confirmed whether or not I have sleep apnea. Personally, I think it’s too good to be true and nothing’s ever gonna get me on a schedule. I would love nothing more, even if there would be a few negatives to it, like never having any alone time or breaks from having to listen to planes and helicopters every few minutes. Ah, but it would make scheduling appointments so much easier and then I wouldn’t have to worry about being woken up by noise as much!

The receptor has side effects, of course, but nothing too scary that I could see. If I could stand the side effects, I wonder if the drug would keep on working indefinitely or lose its effect after a while as my body got used to it.

So the pulmonologist gave me this thing to sleep with, saying that it needed to record at least 4 hours of sleep. There was a strap that had to go around my chest, a thing you stick on your finger, and a tube with two prongs you stick up your nose, similar to an oxygen tube. It was a little uncomfortable since I was unable to lie on my stomach, but I managed to sleep on and off from 9 to 3. At 3, I got up to pee and took the stuff off before getting back into bed for another hour or so of sleep. Then when they opened at 8:30, Tom dropped the thing off while I waited for the groceries. They told him they were able to download everything, so I’m confident that they got sufficient data to analyze. I just don’t expect to hear back about the results until next week.

With increasing evidence saying that blue light can cause insomnia, I’m going to make a point of limiting how much time I spend on my phone before bed. This is especially important on days/nights when I have fairly decent energy and am more likely to have insomnia.

I did get the results of my pap which I forgot about, and everything is normal. Tom said he heard they now suspect cervical cancer is linked to HPV.

The cheap gel inserts I have don’t help as much as the suppositories. Revaree is too expensive, though, so I may get something cheaper but with the same ingredients.

The pouncer painting brushes arrived yesterday, and the next time I do a Temu order, I’ll have more silk screen stencils.

We’ve now been in this house for exactly two years. Too small or not, no real beaches close by or not, everything seems to suggest that this is it for the rest of our lives. I don’t have the energy to move anymore, and I don’t want to settle. So unless we got rich or ever needed to go into assisted living, then yeah, this is it. Not perfect, but close to ideal.

Met with Helen yesterday, but there isn’t much to say about that. She thinks we can wrap it up in about 6 to 9 more sessions. All these sessions later, I’m still not sure whether or not she’s that helpful. I asked myself if I should have gotten a different therapist, or perhaps no therapist at all.