Sleep Study

So. The Sleep Study!

I get really sleepy in the afternoons. I think lots of people do. But I asked my doctor about it and she recommended I meet with the sleep doctor, and he met with me and recommended a sleep study. So I did one! And yes, before this, we did all kinds of blood work and tests, and no, I don't have low iron, or a thyroid problem, or a blood sugar problem. In fact, my sleep doctor, when he met with me after all those tests, said, "wow! You're perfect!" So hey, can't argue with a doctor! I am perfect. And apparently I am a medical mystery, since I don't appear to have sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or restless leg syndrome. So a sleep study was recommended.

Here's what happened.

At 7pm Wednesday night I checked in at the sleep clinic. I was already wearing pajamas, and had brought lots to entertain me, and one of my own pillows.

Arriving for the study with my pillow and my backpack full of entertainment

The technician, Brandy, took me to my room, which felt like a hospital or hotel room. It had its own bathroom attached, a TV, etc.

My view from, where else, the bed

She started hooking me up to all this equipment!  I got 2 electrode things on my legs (one on each), and one on each clavicle. She put three 'belts' around my torso; two monitored my movement (I think) and one was like a control box for all this other stuff. Three things strapped to my chest/waist while I slept. Then she did my head stuff. First she measured my head in all these different ways and marked my face and skull with a red grease pencil. I'm not sure how many electrodes she put in my hair, probably around 6. These were kind of glued in with this weird gel glue stuff. She put one my forehead, one by each eye, one on each side of my jaw, one behind each ear, and one under my chin. Then I got in bed and relaxed and read my book for a couple hours. Around 10pm she came back in and put a monitoring thing on my finger, and a tube in my nostrils (like an oxygen tube) that measures my breathe out. Then she told me to 'get comfortable' and she turned off the light.

In my room they have video and sound on me all the time. So they can hear and see anything I'm doing. They also have a speaker so they can talk to me from the control room.

Before going to bed for the night. No nostril tube or finger monitor on yet.

She came on the speaker and had me do a bunch of things to calibrate the equipment. I had to 'lie still with eyes open'; close my eyes; look up and down 3 times; look left and right 3 times; blink 5 times; grind my teeth; make a snoring noise; flex and wiggle my feet; hold my breath for 10 seconds; hold my breath while flexing my stomach in and out...and I think that was it.

Then they told me to try to go to sleep.  I had no trouble falling asleep. I never do. I slept pretty well, really, but the box on my chest sometimes disturbed me. The thing that hurt the most was the electrodes behind my ears, and the wires going along my legs. I sleep on my side and after lying on those things, my legs and ears started to hurt and I would have to switch sides. But overall I slept pretty well. I woke up around 4:30 and decided I had to use the bathroom, which means I have to ask Brandy to come unhook me a bit. So I just said out loud, "Brandy, I need to use the bathroom" and she came on the speaker and said, "I'll be right in!" and she came in and unhooked me, and I used the bathroom, then she came back in, hooked me back up, and I went back to sleep. I wasn't sure I would be able to go back to sleep, 4:30 is almost when I wake up on a normal weekday, but I did, and then I didn't wake up until 7! What a treat!

They know instantly when you're awake, so when I woke up at 7, they came on the speaker and said, "Laura, let's calibrate again." So I had to do all those same exercises again. Then a new technician, Sam, came in to unhook me. She took off my nostril tube and finger monitor, and all my belts and the leg monitors, but everything else stayed on. She also brought me breakfast!

Some of the stuff attached to my head

For breakfast I had decided to treat myself to Lucky Charms, because hey, how often do I eat Lucky Charms!? Never. I ate my breakfast and read my book, and at 8:30 or so, Sam came back in and told me it was time for my first nap.

Yum, sugar for breakfast!!

So they hooked me up again, blocked the window with this huge foam pad, and then calibrated again, although I didn't have to do the chest or leg things this time.

I took a nap. You probably think, wow, I couldn't just fall asleep on command, especially that soon after waking up. But I was there because I'm too sleepy. I'm pretty good at falling asleep. When my nap was over, Sam came in to wake me up. She asked me, "do you think you slept?" and I said yes, and "do you remember dreaming?" and I said, not really, but I remember dreaming.

Got to choose my lunch and snacks.

Then I had an hour and a half until my next nap, so I did some embroidery, played some games on my phone, read my book, and wow, time flies.

I did five naps throughout the day, each about an hour and a half after the previous one ended. This might sound like an awesome day, just lying around and taking naps, and it was fine, but it did start to get a little tedious. And all I could see out my window, when it wasn't blocked by the foam pad, was a gray day and the parking lot.

I know I slept for 3 of the 5 naps, and the other 2 I might have. It seems weird not to know if I slept or not, but I know wasn't just lying there with my eyes open thinking, 'when is this over??' I had my eyes closed and was thinking about other things, so I might have slept, or dozed, or I might have just been in dozy imagination land. But judging by the times Sam came in to wake me up, I suspect I slept each time. She always asked if I thought I had slept and if I remembered dreaming.

On one of the breaks I strolled down to the lounge. This was the only other place to go than my room, and it wasn't really much of an improvement. Bigger window onto the parking lot. Different chair. And many, many snacks. The snacks were cool. They also brought me lunch between two of the naps, a sandwich, banana, chips, cookie. Pretty standard.

The lounge

My last nap ended at about 5pm. Sam took all the monitors off me. The ones in my hair was weird, she gathered up the wires in like a ponytail and tugged straight up, and they just slid right off. Then I could go home! There was a shower in my room if I wanted to use it, but I live super close to the clinic so I just pulled my hood up over my weird hair and drove home.

This was like, 18 hours in. I was feeling pretty gross.

My hair had all this gunky gel glue in it, and lots of gauze. It was sticking up in all directions. My face had red grease pencil marks on it. My body just felt gross from lying in bed ALL DAY and not showering all day. I took a shower right when I got home, and then I took a walk, even though it was cold and gray and rainy out, because I just desperately needed some fresh air and exercise.

So my doctor will look at my test results and let me know what he thinks in the next week or so. I'm not really expecting that he'll be able to say, "oh, look! You have this thing, and here's how you cure it!" but maybe he'll have some insight into what I can do differently to be less sleepy in the afternoons. 

Minnesota State Fair 2016

I loved the Minnesota State Fair last year. This year, I loved it even more! Mostly because it was so pleasantly cool and overcast the day we went. It was just the perfect weather. And we saw the coolest stuff.

Michaela and I drove down early from St. Cloud and started the morning with a bucket of cookies.

Breakfast of champions!

Next we went to the Eco Experience. It was so neat, we probably stayed in there for over an hour. We looked at all the displays about different aspects of Minnesota and the environment.  Recycling, water quality, wood burning stoves, biking, beans and agriculture, weather and climate change, wind and solar energy, and more. It was great. I took a survey about my feelings about the wood burning stoves exhibit (I was shocked what a difference a good stoves make, but no, it won't impact my lifestyle or habits at all in the next year), and I won a small canvas tote bag. Perfect timing, because next we went to the fine arts pavilion, where I won a ribbon for being a fine arts detective. I put the ribbon in my small bag. 

They had so many more props, I could have taken a dozen pictures at this bike in the Eco Experience. It's okay, I didn't.

The fine arts pavilion was great, it was an art museum full of great paintings and sculptures. Michaela and I completed the scavenger hunt (thus, the ribbons), and also voted for our favorite piece.

Paul Bunyan made out of recycled shirts and jeans was cool...but a bit creepy, still.

Next stop was corn on the cob.

Then to the International Bazaar, to watch a Filipino-American dance troupe. Some of the kids did the tininkling!

Ben and Ellory met up with us and we wandered in the crafts pavilion, and then decided to check out the 4H pavilion. Ellory and I were amazed! It was amazing! All these kids' work- from photography, to wood working, to posters on infectious disease, and much, much more. There was going to be a live competition a little later on with teams of kids presenting their Rube Goldberg machines that had to crush a can and toss it in a recycling bin. Unfortunately, Michaela and I had to go before the demonstrations, but it was still neat to see the kids prepping their machines. We caught the parade going past, which was more amazingness! Stilts! Fire trucks! Marching bands!

You can't do the fair without taking a picture in a thing...what are these things even called!?

Michaela and I hit the road around 2. My fitbit was really happy with my step count for the day. The weather couldn't have been better. The cookies were delicious. Another successful year at the Great Minnesota Get Together!

Epic Road Trip Part 2: The Final Stretch!

Aug 26, 27, & 28

Leaving Mackinac Island signaled the real end of the road trip. We drove through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and ended our long day of driving in Green Bay, WI. We stayed at a motel, and left early the next day for another day of driving. We pulled into St. Cloud in the afternoon and checked in to our motel.

No visit to Wisconsin is complete without some cheese curds!

We had a few last days of fun in Minnesota together. We went to breakfast at my friend Belinda's house, we took a walk in Quarry Park, which was beautiful but had lots of mosquitoes. Lots. We went to Craft's Direct, where my dad got inspiration for dozens of crafts projects.  We visited my school and the chapel on the hill in Cold Spring.

Mom and Dad exploring Quarry Park

I love this park!

On Monday the 29th, mom and dad had to fly back to Denver. We took the morning to visit IKEA and Mall of America, which are both right by the airport. Mall of America was pretty cool, actually. We visited the Lego store, Crayola store, and American Girl store specifically. We sat on the top floor and looked at the amusement park. Then I took them to the airport and drove back to St. Cloud.

IKEA kitchen, anyone?

Dad contemplating the nearly endless wall of Legos.

Life-size lego commandos jumping from a lego helicopter suspended inside the Mall of America

Reminds me of the Mr. Rogers video about the visit to the crayon factory.

What an excellent road trip! Everything turned out to be so wonderful and fun, and even the car problems and the bus problems and the plane problems weren't so bad when compared to beaches, ocean, old towns, new baby, family, friends, great food, waterfalls, pageant, tides, lighthouses, horse & carriages, canoeing, walking, biking, boating, tours, pizza, sunsets, car games, and not being at work! And in between road trip part 1 and part 2, I got to spend several weeks relaxing in Denver and had a birthday and saw more friends and more family.  This has to have been one of the best summers!

Epic Road Trip Part 2: Mackinac Island!

Aug 23-26

In the hotel in Ohio, mom began asking what route we were taking to get to St. Cloud. She strongly voiced the opinion of not wanting to drive through Chicago. I couldn't put her off any longer, so I sprung the surprise: We were going to Mackinac Island, a cute and touristy island between the UP and lower peninsula of Michigan. She and Phoebe had told me stories of going there when they were girls, and I had been wanting to surprise mom with a trip there for a long time, but it is really expensive and kind of hard to get to when you're trying to surprise someone from Colorado. But it all worked this time!

On the morning of the 23rd, we drove to Toledo, Ohio and had lunch with dad's cousins and some of their kids and spouses. It was good fun, hanging out with some Ohio Eleys for a couple hours.

Lots of Eleys!

Then we drove north until we got to Mackinaw City at 6pm. We caught the almost-last ferry across to Mackinac Island.

If you catch the 6pm ferry on a Tuesday night, you can probably find a seat

The thing about Mackinac Island that makes people want to visit is that no cars are allowed on the island. A fort was built here in the early 1800's, up on the hill, and the town grew along the shore below it. Today, all those things are still there, and there are bikes and horse & carriages, but no cars. So there is a lot of charm, and good fudge shops, and historic sites, and lots of hiking trails in the center of the island, and cute shops, beautiful Victorian houses, etc. There is also the Grand Hotel, a super-fancy gigantic hotel with beautiful gardens.

What a charming walk to the hotel!

When we arrived on the night of 23rd, a porter biked our luggage to our less-fancy but still really cool hotel, the Harbour View Inn. (You can tell it's fancy by how they spell Harbour).  We got a sweet room that had two queen beds in the main area, and then a little alcove area with another queen bed, and two full bathrooms, which means I got a few nights of good sleep!

No cars here!

We walked back to the main street and got some dinner, explored the shopping area for a bit, and went to bed.

Flags over the lake at dusk

 

Never fear, I found the public library!

 The 24th, our only full day on the island, it rained all day!! This was a bummer, but mom was still in really good spirits and really enjoying the trip, so we still had fun.

 
We decided to start the day with a horse-and-carriage tour of the island, because the carriages had roofs and side flaps that would keep us from getting drenched. Most of the rest of the tourists on the island also had that idea. The tour was pretty good, the guide was fun and gave us lots of information about the history of the island. We got off at the top of the fort, then walked down from there to the main street and got lunch. The rain let up for a bit, so dad went back to the hotel, and mom and I walked along the shopping street. Then it started to rain again, so we went back to the hotel and took naps, which is something we all love to do. In the late afternoon, we walked over to the art museum and spent some time there. It was a very nice museum, I quite liked it.

The view of the fort from a window at the art museum

Can you believe I didn't use a time machine to take this picture!?

We bought salads and crackers and fruit at the grocery store, and ate dinner in the parlor of our hotel and did crossword puzzles and chatted with other hotel guests. It was a nice day!

On the morning of the 25th, dad and I got up early, which is something we like to do, had breakfast, then rented some cruiser bikes from the hotel and took off along the coast. We biked about 10 minutes out along the shore, to a point called Arch Rock. This was a spot the guide had pointed out yesterday, but nobody wanted to get out in the pouring rain to see it up close. There were also lots of historical photos at the art museum of people posing on Arch Rock, so dad wanted to see it. When we got to the stair case at the bottom of Arch Rock, we parked our bikes and walked 207 steps up to it. It is an arch made out of rock. Through the arch you can see Lake Huron. We looked at it, dad took some pictures, and we walked back down. We went a bit farther on along the shore, then headed back to the hotel.

A state highway that isn't meant for cars!

Early morning on Mackinac island

There it is. Arch Rock.

Looking at Lake Huron from step 167.

We got packed up, left our luggage at the desk, and did some more adventures! Fortunately, the day was lovely and sunny and cool. We walked up stairs behind our hotel and along a street of gorgeous old Victorian 'cottages', to the backside of the fort again.

Just our summer cottage, no big deal

Then we walked in along some of the trails and explored a little park.  We walked back down past the Grand Hotel, but they charge you $10 a person just to walk on the path in front of the hotel, or go inside to look around, and we decided to forgo that expense, so we just stood at the closest-in public point and looked at it. I really would like to see inside it and sit on the giant porch, though. Next time!

So beautiful!

$10 to walk past this point. Whatever, I didn't want to sit on the world's largest porch and look out at the lake anyway!

We got lunch at a pizza place, caught the 2pm ferry, drove over the bridge to the UP and kept going to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where we spent the night.

At our hotel, Harbour View Inn

Epic Road Trip Part 2: Seneca Falls, NY

August 22

Time for some Women's Rights history! I never knew much about Seneca Falls, New York, until I started reading this series of historical mysteries that take place there. I highly recommend them if you can find them, they are the Glynis Tryon mysteries by Miriam Grace Monfredo. I'm a big fan. I also got into the suffrage movement history when teaching a girls' camp a few summers in a row. So, since we were going to be driving right past Seneca Falls, I decided we must stop.

We started out at the Women's Rights National Park. It was nicely done, we watched video, checked out the exhibits, and took a guided tour.

Me with the suffragettes!

This is the 19th amendment ratification victory flag, and an example of great flag design!

Then we checked out the Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry, which had a lot of the history of the canal being built. We ate lunch on main street, then dad and I took a walk along the canal.

Lovely walk

The city has turned a long stretch of old canal towpath into an art walk along the canal, with sculptures along the path. It was very lovely, and a great day to be out walking. Our one complaint was that most of the sculptures had no descriptive plaques with them like who the artist was, when it was made, or any other information. We like to know those things.

After our walk we found mom relaxing in the sunshine by the canal, and we said goodbye to Seneca Falls and drove to Ohio, where we stayed the night in a hotel in Ashtabula.

Epic Road Trip Part 2: Barville Pond

Aug 20 & 21

We drove down to Sarah's family's cabin in New Hampshire this morning. Their cabin is on Barville Pond, and we all had a great time. It was very quiet and peaceful.  We spent time sitting outside just chatting; Paul took mom and dad for a canoe ride; we had a campfire; we relaxed, did crossword puzzles, took naps, read books, had lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next day together. Dad preferred sitting by a campfire with a baby on his lap to mowing Paul and Sarah's enormous lawn.

Gearing up for the canoe trip!

Paul, Mom, and Dad canoeing around Barville Pond

Finally got to use my tent! Inside another tent!

Three generations of Eley boys! This year's Christmas card.