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The long & winding road....

Posted by Aussie Keith on June 09, 2001 at 02:57:08:

Yeah, it's been a while...

Recap - In Feb 2000 Aussie hooks up to the brick that whirrs in the night & experiences REM rebound that makes him behave like a Whirling Dervish, his mercurial zeal reducing employees to gibbering wrecks. Then reality bites... The rebound has obscured some Big Time Sleep Debt. And Aussie realises OSA has trashed the brain's sleep architecture, making a decent night's rest impossible. Highly fragmented sleep means that by midday each day he's worn out. Fatigued to the extent that there's cognitive and emotional impairment sufficient to make any activity more complex than leaning against a wall look like a PhD in astrophysics.

Aussie quits working full days - now using the afternoon to nap. This helps recover a few precious hours at night but afternoon's are lost. The specialist puts Aussie on anti-depressants and Aussie reckons this is madness & walks away from his specialist and gets himself not one but two professors. Now he feels he's getting somewhere. These guys don't pretend to have answers. They're looking to eliminate possibilities.

Meanwhile, Aussie's night time sleep improves. Not consistently as in a steady climb up a peak but foothill trekking - up hills & down ravines. The trend, however, is up. Freshness is felt for longer periods in the morning. It returns, sometimes, in the early evenings. It never lasts but it offers hope.

The profs are still thinking. Aussie's still trying. The situation's still improving. We're not there - but we're getting there.

The original specialist had said, on seeing the first sleep lab results: "I'd be able to fix you with a hair drier".

If only he'd said: "Aussie - This could be a very long journey."

I'll stay in touch

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