Updates... YouTube, Highway 17 Music, & Apnea

Yesterday I had my first "featured" video on YouTube. A feature is when the YouTube staff chooses one of your videos to run on the front page of the site. With the thousands of videos posted every day, it's pretty much of an honor to be chosen, but it's hard to say what their criteria are.

I've done some videos there that I'm kind of proud of, and that I thought had a chance to be featured. No such luck.

The video of mine that they chose, in contrast, was a quickly thrown together joke. A Three Hour Tour - The Professor's Story is a Gilligan's Island parody in response to another 'Tuber's video. The last thing I would have expected them to feature.

And yet, it's not had over 112,000 views in the last 30 hours or so, and has increased my subscriber list from just over 240 to just under 300 (and still rising).

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Update two has to do with my Highway 17 Music site. About a month ago I redesigned it as a guitar oriented blog, with lessons, tips, and resources for aspiring guitarists. I'm including a lot of videos and articles from other sources (with permission) for the expertise.

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The results from my polysomnogram (overnight sleep study) are in...

The official diagnosis is that I have "severe obstructive sleep apnea." During my night hooked up to all the monitors I stopped breathing completely 228 times, and "nearly stopped" another 65 times, for 42.4 "disturbances" per hour, during which my blood oxygen levels fell as low as 74.5%.

Another problem is that even the sleep I did get, was not "the right kind." I spent 75.1% of my sleep in stages one and two (should be about 55%), 11.4% in stages three and four (should be about 25%), and only 13.5% in REM, or the deepest dream sleep (should be 20%).

I go in again next Monday for another overnight, this time to test the C-PAP - a machine and mask that essentially pumps air, forcing me to keep breathing. It turns out that the apnea may actually be contributing to some of my other complaints, such as reflux and tinnitus.

A visit to the sleep clinic...

This lovely picture is how I looked as I got ready to go to bed last night at the sleep disorders clinic for my polysomnogram (an overnight sleep study). There are 28 sensors attached to me, including two on each leg, one on my left index finger, several on my chest and back, and a whole bunch all over my head.

Among the measures they were checking were brain waves, breathing patterns, blood oxygen levels, and leg movement. The reason for the visit is many years of disruptive snoring, lack of "rested feeling" in the morning, and likely Sleep Apnea.

I arrived at the clinic at 8 PM and immediately changed into my sleep clothes. From about 8:30 - 9:30 the technician hooked me up. She was very good and professional, and it's not really as uncomfortable as it looks. A little stifling, but not at all painful. The little control box you see hanging around my neck gets hung by the bed post when I finally get into the bed.

It's a private room, with a TV, so once I was hooked up and plugged into the bed I watched Heroes and Studio 60 till lights out just after 11 PM. Falling asleep was a bit difficult, as that's when I had the only real discomfort with the sensors behind my ears pinching just a bit.

I did not sleep well. Even worse than normal. But, that's really not too surprising. It's also not really a problem, as they wouldn't really get the data they need if I had had a "good" night.

The technician woke me up at 6:30 and it took about 1/2 hour to get everything un-hooked before I could get showered and dressed.

I will go in on Thursday to discuss the detailed results and diagnosis with the Doctor, but the technician's "unofficial" observations were that I did stop breathing several times during the night (Apnea) which caused my blood oxygen to dip. There was also some leg movement that might indicate RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome).

I'll post again when the next course of action is determined. Most likely it will be another sleepover to test out using a C-PAP machine, which is basically a mask and pump that forces air into my lungs and forcing me to breath through the night.

(NOTE: I sometimes question posting these personal, medical issues on the blog. I do it because over time, these are the posts that end up being most popular. While the political stuff looses its relevance very quickly, people are always looking for information on health problems and looking for other people who've been through it. These posts aren't for everybody, but they are important.)