Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Oh for some sleep

Everything I read about dealing with CLL / SLL (lymphoma) suggests that keeping one's immune system operating at peak efficiency is critical. That is a bit difficult when one cannot sleep.

This whole process (discovering lymphoma) began with my going to a doctor to seek help in fixing a sleep problem and while the lymphoma is bad news and important, for sure, it has also been something of a diversion from addressing and solving the sleep problem.

I had gone to a sleep clinic back in November, I think it was, and it was a disaster. I thought I was going to die if I didn't rip off that air-pump mask they put on me. (So, yes, I did rip it off after about three hours.)

The gizmo was called a BIPAP machine and it is supposed to be a bit more sophisticated than a CPAP machine. CPAP just blows a steady stream of air down your throat to inflate your pipes and prevent snoring and sleep apnea. A BIPAP blows in at one pressure and lets up for exhaling . . . in theory. My major problem at the sleep clinic was that it kept shutting off my air supply half way through my inhaling. I didn't appreciate that and the attendent seemed unconcerned.

Having also arrived at the opinion that the doctor who sent me there was a quack, I decided to try to solve the problem without the BIPAP machine (and so discovered swollen lymph nodes.) And the rest, as they say, is history.

But after more and more sleepless nights, I gave in last week and decided to force myself to adapt to the BIPAP machine. I tried it out for the first time this past Sunday night. It didn't go well (same problem with it shutting me off as I tried to inhale, even after adjusting it) and in the morning I noticed I had a bit of a stomach ache. I figured it was something I had eaten Sunday.

Monday night and Tuesday morning, same deal.

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, same deal, but worse. But I learned something over night. Around 3:00 a.m. I began feeling a stomach ache again. I reached own and rubbed my stomach and discovered it had quite literally ballooned. That doggone machine was pumping air into my stomach! (And a lot of it was trying to get out the other end of me--nasty.)

So, once again I ripped off the mask.

It set me thinking. I have felt for a long time that acid reflux (acidic vapors rising up from my stomach and escaping into my windpipe) had caused my nighttime gagging and sleep apnea. After all, acid reflux happens when "the stopper" in one's esophagus doesn't close properly and lets the gases (sometimes fluids) back up the esophagus. Or a hole in it (a hiatal hernia) lets it leak through. Some heavy duty reading of on-line medical-journal articles today confirms that this, indeed, happens.

It struck me as logical that this same hole or poorly fitting "stopper" would allow the pumped air to go back the same way, through the defect, a kind of backwards confirmation, perhaps, of the underlying problem.

So, next week it's back to the ear, nose and throat specialist for a conversation about this. Maybe I'm crazy, but it all seems logical to me.

Is this what's going on? Is it fixable? (Supposed to be.)

Stay tuned.