Photo time!

Grandma bought Nick two new pairs of shoes last week. We spent a little time running and jumping around in her back yard testing one of them out to make sure that they could run fast enough and jump high enough. They passed.

The shoes.

The speed!

The altitude!

The style.


After making sure that the new shoes were up to snuff, it was time for a little game of catch with Grandma.

Then some soccer...He thought it was pretty funny when he nailed Grandma with the ball!

Grandma went in the house to make some dinner so it was time for a little exploring and relaxing.
Building a rock house.

Relaxing in the evening sun.

agony

I'm sitting here at my parents' house patiently (yeah, right!) waiting for UPS to arrive. I'm stting at the counter/bar in sight of the window, reading through the "Our Collective Wisdom" articles on the cpaptalk.com website.

The agony is this: I checked the UPS website this morning and it informed me that my package is "Out for Delivery." Next door to my parents' house a lady runs an afternoon program for developmentally disabled kids. Each day school busses come and drop kids off in the early afternoon and a few come back by later to pick them up and take them home. The agony is caused by the fact that those busses sound similar enough to a UPS truck that I find myself glancing out the window every few minutes. It's like I'm watching a very slow tennis game, and frankly, my neck is getting tired.

Another bus just.... no... it's a big brown van.

Now I have to contain myself and not rush the driver...

Ding Dong!

It's mine! My precious.....

UPS failed me... :(

According to the website that I ordered my CPAP machine from, ground would take 4 days for shipping. The fourth day was Saturday. UPS didn't show on Saturday. It was like a postponement of Christmas. No UPS meant no machine until Monday.

Checking on the UPS tracking page, my shipment is still "On Time" and is expected to be delivered on Monday the 15th.

I'm revoking the UPS guy's near-Santa status. I'm eating the cookies myself.

tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll love ya....

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.

I remember watching the news track Santa as he flew across the country, coming ever closer. Now there's a website that you can track him on and see his exact location plotted using the wonderful technology afforded us by the GPS system.

Every chance I get I've been checking the progress of my package as it travels across the country in the back of a big brown truck. Unfortunately, UPS isn't as exacting as the people who planted the GPS tracking system on Santa's sleigh. The last entry was three days ago when it left Texas. Oh, they assure me that it's "In Transit" and "On Time."

Honestly though, I was hoping for "Delivered Surprisingly Early."

Oh well. I guess this gives me time to get cookies and milk ready for the UPS delivery person. I just hope they don't try to land the truck on the roof.

Obstructed Sleep Apnea

About three years ago, I was diagnosed with Obstructed Sleep Apnea (OSA). Basically what happens is that when I fall asleep, my airway closes and I suffocate until I wake up enough that may airway open back up. This happens over and over again all night.

A year ago, I went in for a sleep study where they measured everything from how much I snored, how many apnea episodes I had and how often and the oxygen saturation of my blood, among a ton of other things. I was surprised to find that it only took 15 seconds after I initially fell asleep until I stopped breathing for the first time. I then averaged about one episode per minute.

The test was done in two parts. The first part measured how I did naturally. If it were possible to fail a breathing test, I got pretty close. I averaged about 55 apneas per hour. During the first three hours of the test, I was able to get only 15 minutes of solid sleep.

For the second half, the lab technician came in and hooked me up to a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine and mask. The machine and mask work together to pressurize your airway, preventing it from closing. The second half of the test was the remaining four hours of the study. In that time, I slept about three solid hours.

The rest of that day was amazing! I stayed awake on the train, not only on my way to work, but on the way home at the end of the day (9pm) as well. Usually by 2 in the afternoon, I'm falling asleep. I couldn't believe that I didn't need coffee to stay awake in the afternoon. I never felt like I needed a nap. I wasn't tired.

Unfortunately, shortly after my test, I lost my job (and therefore health insurance) and my chance to get my CPAP machine.

This week, after again loosing my job and my insurance, my mom informed me that she and my dad had been talking about it and had decided that they would purchase the machine, mask and everything for me.

Aside from being married to Beth and having Nick, this has got to be the biggest blessing that I've ever received. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We should be able to place the order on Monday. I'll try to keep up on my status here and bring you along on my journey to the land of wakefulness. In the mean time, I'm going to go take a nap.