Shelby Cass's Weblog

In case I haven’t mentioned it recently, I am indebted to Sandman who runs sleepnet.com and who has provided a forum for all the peeps like me who are sick and tired of being sick and tired…and who are doing something (usually drastic) about that.

So thank you thank you thank you.

Here’s what I posted on sleepnet tonight because it’s how I feel, and that is a pretty dang good feeling.

I was at work yesterday when I turned to my coworkers and said “I don’t know if you’ll understand this, but I wish everyone could feel the way I feel right now. Not in the still recovering from surgery sense, but in the oh my gosh I never knew life could be this good sense.” No one could have ever convinced me that life was going to feel so different after this surgery. It’s crazy.
I used to get every cold that walked by, and I would nurse it along for weeks…sometimes just until the next one came along and knocked me down. I always had bruises all over my body, and they took a long time to go away. Well, here’s something cool…what with sleeping FOR REAL now I have an operating immune system…AND since I am not sleep drunk all over the place, I have decreased the number of bruises on my legs from an average of 12 at a time to (lemmee look at my legs and do a bruise count) holy cow. ZERO. I knew Dr. Li was going to turn me into a superhero.

Super Shelby! Able to sleep through entire nights without gasping for air. I’m doing a little dance in my chair right now. YOu can’t see me, but I’m dancin’, Yeah baby!!!

Went to see the almighty Dr. Li this week. I sat in the chair at the center of the room and zoned until he popped the door open and boomed “Shelby Cass”. He has a loud voice…I can hear him through the walls. I sat up and said “Hi.” And he busted up laughing.

huh?
He kept laughing and said “You should be a celebrity.” I was still very confused because thus far I’d only said hello. Turns out he has a few patients who read my blog and who have told him I am funny. It took about 45 seconds for that information to come out. Dr. Li was just sitting on his stool snickering while I tried to pull the information out of him. For a while he was in on his own little inside joke, having a grand old time.

So, after he got his giggles out, we talked a little about how I am feeling (which is very well) and then he got kind of pensive and serious and said, “Let me ask you something.” And he asked if I noticed a difference between sleep with the CPAP and sleep post surgery without the CPAP. NIGHT and DAY I told him. He was not surprised. He said sleep has to be more than just breathing, and I agreed it has to have something to do with comfort. When I had the CPAP machine strapped to my face, I could breathe, but I was still having struggling dreams. I don’t struggle at night any more. Not at all. Court says I don’t snore and I don’t jerk around all night like I’m being electrified.

I explained to Dr Li, “You know how sometimes in your dreams you have to pee? And you run around through your dreams looking for a toilet and hopefully you wake up before you pee in your bed?” He nodded, then realised what he had acknolwedged and busted up laughing again. But he understood what I was saying. Your external surroundings completely affect your dreams, your state of mind. You could twist up in your sheets and wake up struggling to get free…well imagine having a mask strapped to your face and a strap holding your chin shut and the very audible sound of you breathing through a humidifier. Those dreams weren’t too pleasant. Luckily they never resulted in me wetting the bed.

Homework assignment: Pry my own jaws apart. Well, not so drastic…but use slight pressure and open my jaws wider than they do to stretch those tight little muscles that are making yawning ever so painful so that I yaaaaaawwwwwn and at the very end I always SQUEAK. It’s startling to Court who jumps every time I do it, so hopefully these exercises will help. Hurrah!

On the tooth front: a few teeth have reunited on the right, but not on the left yet. No molar contact. I still swallow things whole-ish and have taken to chomping on the inside of my lower lip (not on purpose, it just jumps in there sometimes). Lips still tingly but mostly just feel dry and not sensitive to wind anymore. Someday I’ll feel everything again. Won’t that be cool?