Chapter 8.
The next day back at work, Jennifer’s boss came by her desk a little after 8 and asked if she could meet with him after he finished up with his meetings at 2. At 2, Jennifer went down the hall and asked his secretary Maggie if Mr. Masters was done with his meetings. She replied with a smile that he was and he was expecting her. As Jennifer stepped into his office Mr. Masters, or Pete as he preferred to be called, welcomed her in and invited her to sit down. Pete told her the reason he asked to meet with her was simply to find out how her doctor’s appointment went. She said it went great, then briefly ran through it. He told her it was great that it had been so positive, and he was really glad she had everything checked out. She did mention she had a couple of additional appointments coming up, and Pete told her the company would do whatever it could to accommodate her.
The next week Jennifer had her appointment with the physical therapist. Over the previous week, she had made it a point to get up from her desk every hour or two and walk around a few minutes. In addition, she had watched some Youtube videos on back pain and stretching, and had been trying a few of the stretching exercises she had watched each morning. On the day of her physical therapy appointment, her back felt better than it had in months. In fact, she felt no pain. Nontheless, she went to the appointment and was shown a regiment of stretching and back strengthening exercises. Much of it was very similar to what she had already started doing. She didn’t think it would be a big deal, it was only a few minutes each morning. She vowed to herself she would be diligent and do them every morning. She left the appointment feeling better about the situation than she had in some time. She did have her sleep study scheduled for the following week, and she was a bit nervous about it. She had been doing a little research on sleep apnea, and after checking off several of the signs and symptoms as things she had been experiencing, she worried she might have sleep apnea. She knew that a cpap was the most common treatment for sleep apnea, and she really didn’t want to have to sleep with a mask every night. But it was so common, she didn’t think it could be that bad. If they recommended it, she had resigned herself to at least try it.
The following Wednesday after work she headed to the sleep clinic. She knew she would be early, but she didn’t want to have to drive home, then have to get right back in her car an hour later to backtrack 30 minutes to the clinic. She had a night gown she normally slept in, as well as an overnight toiletries bag, a change of clothes for the next day, and the book she had been reading. They had explained the procedure, what to expect and what to bring on the phone. Once she was there and checked in she met with her sleep tech Emily. She went over everything, took a few measurements of her face and had her try on a couple of cpap masks. She knew she most look ridiculous in them, but she tried to keep a smile on her face as they went through the process. Once finished she was escorted to her sleep study room. It was set up similar to a hotel room, with a bed, a TV, a corner chair and a bathroom. The tech told her it would be a few hours until they started, so she could relax and watch tv or read while she waited. She asked her to be ready for bed by 9 o’clock. Emily also told her there was an intercom beside the bed, and if she needed anything to just call her. She told her she didn’t have to mash any buttons or anything, she could just talk and they would hear her. For the next two hours she read, trying to take her mind off of things. She then got up, brushed her teeth, took her makeup off, cleaned her face, and slipped into her nightgown.
Promptly at nine the intercom beeped, and a scratchy voice asked her if she was ready to start. She replied “not really, but we might as well do this”. A few moments later the door opened and Emily pushed a cart with several machines on it through the door. If took about 30 minutes to hook up everything up to Jennifer as she sat on the edge of the bed. She had several different sensors placed on her head, a strap with some kind of box attached to her chest, and finally a little splint like thing went on her index finger. Jennifer thought she must look like a cyborg with all the wires running off of her. Emily pulled back the sheets and helped Jennifer into bed. She explained if might take a few extra minutes to fall asleep wearing everything, but most patients were able to nod off eventually. She explained they might be in during the middle of the night, and if she needed to get up to use the bathroom, use the intercom and they would come in and unhook everything. Jennifer told Emily she would do her best to hold it, she didn’t want to have to go through the process of becoming a Transformer again. At this Emily laughed, wished a good night, and turned off the light as she left the room.
It did take an extra half hour or so for Jennifer to fall asleep. It wasn’t that anything was uncomfortable, just different and she was very aware of it all. However, after laying in bed for about 30 minutes she did drift off to sleep. The next thing she was aware of was a voice coming out of the intercom. Once she came to, she responded. The intercom voice, who Jennifer now recognized as Emily’s voice, told her she was going to enter the room. Emily entered the room holding a cpap mask. She asked Jennifer to sit up and she quickly fitted the mask to Jennifer, hooked a hose to it, and made a few adjustments to some buttons on one of the boxes on the cart. Emily told Jennifer she wanted her to sleep the rest of the night with the cpap mask. She told her to expect to feel air on her face once she turned on the machine, and with that hit the button turning on the cpap machine. She told Jennifer to lay back and go back to sleep. The mask on her face felt very foreign to Jennifer, but as she was not really fully awake she was able to go back to sleep surprisingly quickly. Once again, at 6 am, Jennifer was woken by the intercom voice. It was Emily again, and she said she would be in shortly to unhook everything. As she undid her earlier handy work, she asked Jennifer how she felt and if she felt rested. Jennifer responded yes, she had actually slept pretty good despite being dressed up like an astronaut. She also said she felt well rested, which was not the case every morning when she woke up. Emily wrapped up and stowed everything on the cart and asked Jennifer to go ahead and get ready for the day and get all of her things packed up as it was time for check out. She told her there were towels, soap and shampoo in the bathroom, and once she was ready to give them a call on the intercom. Jennifer showered and got dressed for her work day. Once ready she called on the intercom. A foreign voice responded that someone would be there shortly to escort her out.
Shortly thereafter a knock came on the door and a male orderly entered. He offered to carry her backpack, and Jennifer followed him back into the office where the appointment started. Behind the desk was Emily, studying some charts and graphs on the table in front of her. She got up, thanked John for bringing Jennifer in, and asked Jennifer to sit. She wrapped up the appointment, explaining that one of the center’s sleep doctors would review her results, which usually took 3-5 days. She went ahead and scheduled a follow up appointment for the following Friday. As they finished up Jennifer couldn’t resist asking Emily what the study showed. Emily stated she was not a doctor, and that the doctor would go over the results with her when they met next week. Jennifer told Emily of her anxiety with doctor’s, and how the wait might kill her. Emily said she understood, and everything she was about to tell her was off the record. But based on her experience, she told Jennifer it was clear she had moderate sleep apnea. She went on that at the followup appointment, the doctor would review her results with her, and and almost certainly prescribe her a cpap machine. Emily noted that after she had put the cpap mask on her, her snoring had stopped. Snoring Jennifer thought? She hadn’t even realized she snored. Emily continued that she had already sized her face, and the following Friday she would almost certainly be leaving with a shiny new cpap mask and machine. She said that was one reason she had scheduled the follow up for Friday, so she could get used to it over the weekend. Emily told her not worry though, a cpap was not a big deal at all. In fact she herself had been wearing one to sleep for the last three years, and it had really improved her quality of sleep and she considered it life changing. She then repeated however that everything she just said was unofficial, and it would be up to the doctor to determine her treatment. With that she thanked Jennifer for her time and told her she would see her next Friday.