top o' the mornin'® 5/8/2014

[earendel]

I mentioned in a prior TOTM that I wasn't quite feeling up to par. Well early Wednesday things came to a head. I woke up around 2AM with chest pains, a racing heart and shortness of breath. elwing took me to the emergency room and they did all the usual tests. I did not have a heart attack and no coronary blockages. Apparently I had some sort of panic attack based on an interruption in my breathing due to allergies causing sinus tissue swelling. They gave me a prescription for a decongestant and/or antihistamine and things are back to normal.

On a related note my doctor thinks I might be prone to sleep apnea, based on measurements of my neck girth and other factors. I scheduled an appointment with a sleep clinic, but they called me to say my insurance company wouldn't cover an overnight stay at the clinic (hospital affiliated) because I wasn't considered a candidate (despite my doctor's recommendation). So in two weeks I'll be going in and getting instructions and equipment for doing a "home study".

[ne1410s]

A friend had a sleepover apnea test. The bill was $5700.

[MarleysGh0st]

Yikes!

That was taking hay fever way too far, ear!

[SpacemanSpiff]

As someone who's slept with a CPAP for nearly two decades, I can remember the initial "home study." It doens't sound like much, but it basically was a small portable box (think tricorder, but a bit bigger) that printed out a tape with respiration, pulse, and 02 count. But it's enough to give them something to go on, and may just be a step to getting the overnight study justified, which is what they did for me.

I know they said that my 02 levels, had I been a smoker, probably would have dropped to a near-fatal range.