Parkinson’s : A Halloween Trip to the Sleep Study Clinic

Snarky Parky & me

A Journey Into Parkinson's with Nancy Mellon 

Coordinated by Corrine Bayraktaroglu

A Halloween Trip to the Sleep Study Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic has 5 Sleep Study Clinics. Four of them are in big hotels in the suburbs of Cleveland. We were going to the Marriott, 5^th floor,. On a glass door, it says:  The Cleveland Clinic Sleep Study Clinic. Ring the bell.

For 3 months, I worried about going to the Sleep Clinic. When I had squeezed the juice out of one worry, I would replace it with a new one. I went from worrying about not being able to make it to the bathroom, to worrying about being able to make it to the bathroom, but not having any handrails to hold on to when I got there. 

Awhile back, when I thought I was getting to the point where I 'might' need them, I asked, Steven if he could put up some handrails for me to use by our toilet. For the past couple of months, I had been using them. (I felt it was getting harder and harder to hoist myself up and out of chairs and off of my bed too.)

Then a little bit of serendipity happened. Two weeks before I went to the Sleep Clinic, David Zidd taught us in his Total Healthworks class, how to get up out of a chair. Here is the drill:

• move your bottom to the front of the chair. 

• Have a wide base- Make sure your feet are underneath your knees and far apart 

• Pretend to drop a dollar between your feet. 

• Bend down to pick it up

• Rise up.

I practiced it every day. By the time the sleep clinic happened I was a pro at getting up out of a chair.. 

When I had called and asked if they had any rooms with handrails. They didn't. But the lady who answered the phone assured me that the technician would be able to help me, if I needed to get up, (I have loads of reasons to get me up during the night. That was why I was at a sleep clinic!) She said, I would need to call out and my technician, would come in to unhook me from all the wires I would have on me. My kids thought there would not be wires anymore. “It will be wireless mom.” Guess what, there are wires-lots of wires.

The next worry in line was-Would it be a man, who would be asked to help me? 

I phoned again. “No, they would put on my chart that I preferred a woman.” 

I smiled, that one was easy.

Actually it all turned out to be easy. I had worried that Steven would be so tired the next morning that he wouldn't be able to safely drive us home. Why did I think he would be tired? We had gotten him a separate room at the Marriott, so he could sleep. I was pretty sure that I would be tired.

At 5: 30 am, Steven picked me back up. Ginger popped, peeled and scraped all the sensors and wires and belts off of me. I washed the sticky gunk out of my hair, (Gunk was the official word used by Ginger, my technician) we went downstairs to the restaurant to eat breakfast and then we both ended up taking a nap in Steven's room. 

I really didn't want to go to the sleep clinic. But the Sleep Dr. had insisted on my having this study done, before she would see me. The 2nd reason I said yes, was because of a whole page, of information about all the different tests that they did during the sleep study. I was impressed!

For one thing they have a camera and audio going in the bedroom. For the 6 hours of the sleep study, it is recording and listening to everything you do. Before she left the room, Ginger (my technician) pointed it out and warned us, she would be watching and listening and taking notes, all night. She smiled and said, apologetically, many people were bothered by the idea of a camera on them all night, but it was necessary. 

They monitor your brain wave activity, heartbeat, and breathing, They record eye movements and limb movements as well as muscle tension. There are sensors and wires and belts placed all over your body. I had to sit up with the wires and the box they were attached to, looped behind my head and pressed into one of the pillows.

And, yes, after about 1 hour, of reading, I slept for about 3 hours, and then took my medicine and slept for 2 more. Surprisingly, most people do sleep.

We don't know the results yet. I will find out when I have my appointment with the Sleep Dr. 

So why did I call this the Halloween Trip to the Sleep Clinic? On the long drive to the clinic and then back home, Autumn was peeping out between the green trees, in gorgeous glimpses of bright red and yellow leaves. And then there were the pictures we took of my monster, robotic, plugged in look!

Happy Autumn Everyone,

Nancy & the Snark