When I get to the door of the Lab, the buzzer to call the technician was broken with a note that say "call this number for assistance." I thought to myself, what about those people that don't have cell phones to make this call? Well, anyway I did and after I made the call a tech came down and got me. At first, I was the only schmuck standing at the door waiting to sleep in some strange room, and I felt some comfort that I was the only person there and didn't have to hang out with other sleep study patients. But... just as I stood waiting for Ms. Tech to come down, it seems as though the building was being rushed by a bunch of grumpy older men missing the buffet line at Sizzler. So, there I stand in my pj's amongst my "new sleep study peers." Yikes... what have I got myself into??? The sleep study is on the 2nd floor and rather than taking the steps (like I prefer) I was then herded into the smallest elevator I have seen in some time - destined for the unknown. I was unsure if I would be bunking with my new friends and seconding guessing the bean burrito I had for lunch.
Fortunately, these guys had been there before, so check in for them was very rapid, as I sat in the lobby area waiting for my turn. My turn to check in, and was asked to step forward for a photo, why I don't know but at least I wasn't finger printed.
After that, I was escorted into the sleep suite and with great anticipation I schlepped behind Ms. Tech to my room. To my surprise, the two grumpy weren't in there wearing their white tank tops sitting in bunk beds or a community of cots.
Instead, I had a very nice room...here is the picture:
Phew, so far, so good...I can hang here for a night. The room was like a hotel suite - really nice private bath, TV and cable - I thought for a minute I was on vacation. Ms. Tech told me she had to run off and deal with another patient and that I had about 45 minutes to hang and relax. I turned on the tube and played with the "sleep by number" bed and checked out the room. The main living had video cameras but the bathroom was "camera free." When my turn came up, I was called to get plugged in. I guess this was the part I was really wondering about - Ms. Tech hands me a couple of long wires and instructed me to snake them through my pj's down to my feet and then sit down. About 30 minutes later I look like this:
This picture is actually of me first thing in the morning. Once I was rigged like this, I was shuttled back to my space and told that this is where it started. I asked if I could read or watch tv and they said no, because they study was beginning now. Door shut, lights off, I laid in bed with all these wires hanging out. Fortunately for me, I took some Unisome just before arriving and that helped me get to sleep. Through out the night, Ms. Tech would come in and "re-wire" me after my thrashing about pulled certain connections off. All in all it was really easy to do, I was actually able to get about 5 hours sleep. I asked in the morning if I had stopped breathing and she said a couple of time. Results won't be available for probably another week.
More to come.
Cheers,
Brent
