difficult child 2 goes for sleep study tonight!

gcvmom

Here we go again!
And I get to sleep on an air mattress on the floor next to him...

I am really hoping they tell me he has apnea like his dad -- mainly so that there is an explanation for his need to sleep so much (15 hours on the weekends if we let him) and his fatigue every day. :bloodshot:

He does snore, and sometimes quite loudly. Last night he crashed on the couch at about 8:00pm and was snoring within about 10 minutes of laying down. I tried rousing him to see if he could finish his homework, but it was no good. Finally at 9pm I got him up and led him to his room. He seemed more rested today, but was still tired when he got up.

I did cut back on his evening dose of Seroquel XR and told the psychiatrist (went from 700mg to 600mg). It seemed to help a tiny bit. Which makes me think it's not just the medication affecting him.

So anyway, we check in tonight at 8pm and it will take about 45 minutes or so for the staff to get him hooked up to all the monitors. Then it's lights out until morning (unless they see severe apnea, at which point they'll wake him up to put a CPAP mask on him about half-way through the night, which is what they had to do with husband).

I'll let you all know how it goes! We'll find out the complete results next week.
 
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nvts

Active Member
Good luck with the whole thing! I was told I need to do one of those sleep studies, but with my insomnia, I'd never fall asleep (lol!).

Let us know how the sleep over goes!

Beth
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
Oh good luck. Do you think you will sleep?
Will you get earplugs? I would bring an i-pod or a book on tape. His snoring right next to me would shatter my nerves all night. Plus in a different place.
You are a good Mom!
I hope it is something simple. He needs to be able to sleep less, this is just too much.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
We have checked in and are waiting for the tech to come hook him up to the monitors. He's driving me nuts playing with the adjustable bed... he's watching a Pokemon movie on Cartoon Network... he's been very active tonight. Turns out I get my own room down the hall, so I'll actually get some sleep tonight!

Ok the tech just came in so I've gotta go for now. :)
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I hope it went well! I'm glad you were able to get a separate room. I was lucky and was able to get one when difficult child had his. I hope the sleep study sheds some light.
 

Janna

New Member
You get your own room! GOOD!

Rest up, and good luck. Do let us know how it goes. I hope you get an answer - the unknowing is so stressful.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
I think difficult child 2 slept better than I did! Although I set the alarm on my phone, I woke up about every two hours, and my heartburn was acting up despite elevating my head and taking my usual medications :(

difficult child 2 did fine. He looked funny with all the wires... He said he slept better than usual -- and that's my secret fear: that he had a "normal" night and they won't find any problems! And then I'm the hypochondriac mom... :p I go back next Wednesday to meet with the doctor and learn the results.
 

klmno

Active Member
I hope you get some answers from it. difficult child was supposed to get a sleep study done but then we had our latest "crisis" so now I don't know if it will ever happen. Does your difficult child have periods of being awake for very long stretches in between his sleeping too much- or does he want to sleep too long every night?
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
The only time he's awake at night is when he is hypomanic. He typically just wants to sleep too much. I thought at first it was just the Seroquel, but husband and I think there's more to it.
 
M

ML

Guest
I'm glad he came through the night. I hope they do find answers! I'm sorry you didn't sleep better and hope you are able to make it up this weekend. :) ML
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
How ironic that he slept better than you did.

I hope something shows up on the test results.

Get some sleep tonight! (Maybe take some heartburn medications.)
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
The doctor called back just now to say that difficult child 2 woke up 15+ times during the study on Friday night. Which isn't as severe as husband, but it's still enough to interfere with sleep. And the fact that he told me he was more rested that night than he usually is at home tells me that on a "normal" night, he probably wakes up more often than that.

So they want to have him come back tonight to sleep with the mask on to see how he does. What was really bizarre is the doctor stated he probably wouldn't need to take the Seroquel or Allegra that he takes anymore! First of all, Allegra is an antihistamine, so how the heck would THAT be eliminated by a better night's rest?! I am instantly suspicious of someone who starts talking outside their area of expertise as if they know it all, especially when they say things that are just ludicrous like what he said. He said the attention and focus would probably improve a lot (agreed) and then suggested the mood disorder diagnosis was incorrect and that's when I stopped him in his tracks and told him he did NOT know difficult child 2's history, let alone how he responded to all the variety of medications he's tried over the years, and furthermore, he's been under the care of a psychiatrist AND it runs in the family. He got backed down and sounded surprised for some reason.

While we will probably go tonight for the second round of testing, I don't think I'll be taking difficult child 2 to the follow-up appointment on Wednesday. No need for him to hear me arguing with this doctor! :slap:
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Well, if he didn't know difficult child was under the care of a psychiatrist, that info would surely change his point of view.
15X is significant. This was a study well done! And using the mask should be interesting.
Good luck!
And thank you for letting us know.
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
So... if husband is Darth Vader with his mask on does that mean difficult child 2 is Luke?

May the force be with you on Wednesday!!!
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Yup, TM, difficult child 2 is Luke, and I'm Queen Amidala (which is sooo funny because that's often how people pronounced my maiden name).... easy child is Leia.... difficult child 1 says he's Obi-wan...

husband is now telling me I need to go for the study because I snore (loudly, I'm told). I'm sure if I dropped 50 pounds that would improve.

I can just picture the three of us with our nightly snorkel gear. It will make for a challenging camping trip this summer! Ha!

So we're leaving in about an hour to go for round two of his testing. Hopefully I'll sleep better this time!
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Wow-that's a quick response. I'm glad you got the sleep dr. to back down. The sleep clinic dr. didn't for my difficult child didn't suggest anything like that. We're still waiting for the c-pap machine for our difficult child. Our insurance denied it, now we're waiting for approval (hopefully) from medicaid.

I hope you sleep well tonight!
 

recovering doormat

Lapsed CDer
My 16 yr old son went for a sleep study one year ago, after suffering for years from fatigue in the morning no matter how much sleep he had. Even when he went off Seroquel and Risperadal, he still was hard to rouse in the morning.

turns out he did not have apnea, which we suspected, but his enlarged tonsils and adenoids caused him to rebreathe his CO2, which accounted for the drowsiness the next day.

He had the tonsils and adenoids removed one year ago, and his sleep improved immediately. He's doing great a year later. If he hadn't had the sleep study done, we never would have known!

His dad snored so badly when we were married that I forced him to go for a sleep study, and his apnea was so bad he stopped breathing over 300 times during the 8 hour study. It was a miracle he hadn't had a heart attack or fallen asleep behind the wheel. He's been using a CPAP machine for the past 13 years.
 
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