Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Post Tax Day

So today ended up being worse than yesterday work-wise.  Issues, interruptions, problems, etc pushed me passed my lunch hour and into insanity.  Craziness.

Bob called today and added to my craziness.  He had received a call from a doctor.  This is a doctor he hasn’t met or heard from yet but apparently this doctor is the one interpreting his sleep study results.  The doctor said he is very concerned/worried and usually doesn’t call patients himself but in Bob’s case he wanted to talk to him personally.  Turns out that Bob doesn’t have sleep apnea.  Sleep apnea is characterized by short bursts of non-breathing.  What Bob has is called recessed breathing episodes.  He will stop breathing during sleep for long periods of time.  Then he will wake up and begin breathing again.  The doctor said he had so many episodes during the night that it made him fearful for Bob.  The doctor said that near as he can figure, his muscular dystrophy is affecting Bob’s pulmonary muscles.  During the day Bob can and is conscious of his breathing and can regulate it through concentrating on his breathing. However, at night, he can’t regulate it on his own and his muscles are not working involuntarily.  The doctor said he wants to schedule another sleep study right away and this time use a Bi-pap machine to regulate Bob’s breathing.  He said this would also explain the low blood gases and fluid retention that has plagued Bob for some time.  He said that the Bi-pap should help.  We sure hope so.

I still have my cold.  Today it turned from sniffles, itchy nose to full blown stuffy head/ears, cough, and runny nose.  Blah.  I am supposed to attend a class at the community center called “Introduction to Voice Over Work”.  I called to see if I could get a refund or attend the next class.  The gal I spoke with said they could not refund me because their policy is 5 working days notice for cancellation.  I told her I didn’t have the cold 5 working days ago and didn’t want to go and get everyone sick.  She said it was either that or I miss class and eat the $60. Plus, she said that most people have been exposed to colds already and it’s not that big of a deal.  Great.  Does she want to go and explain to the class why I’m there coughing, hacking, and sneezing?  I hope they have individual microphone covers otherwise I’m in big trouble.

1 comment:

black and white and read all over said...

Natalie was on bi-pap for a while. It basically is like a non-invasive ventilator. I can completely understand how it would help his breathing, saturation and other pulmonary issues. Its kind of noisy, you might neeed to get earplugs. You are both in my prayers.