Our Journey: Sleep Study Test

It was that time of year again....time for the annual sleep study test. Since this was going to be Maggie's 4th test, I figured it would be pretty easy. Ha! Um, that would be a big negatory folks.

Maggie was diagnosed with sleep apnea before she came into our care but the former foster parents chose to ignore the symptoms. As soon as she came home to us, we started working right away on getting her set up for more studies, etc. The first sleep study wasn't too bad because it was without the mask. They had to determine what her "normal" levels were and that would determine course of action. This is when they determined that removing her tonsils and adenoids would be most advantageous and hopefully that would "cure it". We had the surgery done and it was amazing to see the difference almost immediately. She wasn't snoring like a freight train and she could finally learn to breathe through her nose (versus just mouth breathing). She always sounded a bit like Darth Vader!

Our 2nd study was a basic test again, just to see if the surgery had fixed everything. Alas, it did not. Boo. We really thought that her apnea was gone, since her breathing/snoring issues had improved. She still thrashed around all night but then again, she is just a little on the active side :) so we didn't think much about it.

Third test was ordered with the full CPAP mask. This determined that she did have severe sleep apnea and would need to be on the CPAP machine, indefinitely -- and most likely for life. The doctors did not feel that she would outgrow this (although it does happen).

The CPAP machine was ordered and eventually she grew accustomed to it. Whew - that was a hard adjustment. I wouldn't want that thing on me either. However, she sleeps through the night without hardly moving a muscle. And on those occasions that she chooses to not wear the mask (meaning when I just don't feel like fighting with her over it), we can see a big difference in how she sleeps and how she is the next day. This is when I tell myself that it's worth the fight the night before, so that I don't have to deal with the devil child the next day :)

So, when it was time for the annual sleep test, I figured it would be really easy. She's been wearing the mask for over a year now, without any problems. She helps to put it on and is the only one who can start and stop it!

Alas, my dream of an easy night passed pretty quickly. First of all, there was a little one in the room next door and it was her first time being tested. Enough said there. Poor thing. She SCREAMED for HOURS...NO exaggeration there folks. I felt so bad for her and for her momma.

Maggie was fine when the technician started putting the wires on her. We had a great tech ~ she interacted very playfully with Maggie and she seemed to really like her. The main issue is that it takes FOREVER to get everything set up and like I've said just a few times before, Maggie is pretty active and doesn't really do well with just sitting still and not touching anything. Moving on.

2 1/2 hours later, everything is set. Wires/electrodes are tested and we're given 5 minutes for lights out. First of all, you're in a completely different environment. It's not your room or your bed. Your routine is completely ruined. (Maggie doesn't handle change in routine well). She's also not allowed to eat or drink anything due to aspiration issues, although my child has managed to learn how to do both at home without any issues. But due to liability issues, they wouldn't allow it in the room. This caused another breakdown on my sweet baby since she couldn't drink anything and she always goes to bed with something to drink. (Something we are still working on but haven't felt the need to destroy that need of Maggie's quite yet). Between the foreign room, wires and machines everywhere, no drink and screaming baby next door, it took just a little while for Maggie to fall asleep. I guess 2 hours would be just a little while, right?!

Oh yeah, this was a really sweet moment in the midst of chaos. Maggie was almost asleep but she could still hear the little girl screaming in the other room. She looked up at me sleepily and said, "Momma, I'm gonna pray for that baby to stop screaming and go nigh-night." I said ok and she immediately prayed "Dear Jesus. Help that baby stop screaming and go nigh-night. Thank you Jesus. Amen." Oh my sweet girl.

Oh and the doctors ordered a half & half study. This meant that they would do without the mask for the first few hours and then "just come in" and put the mask on her in the middle of the night. Oh. Great. Yeah. That's not going to work. And I was right. Maggie finally fell asleep around 10pm. Tech comes in at 1:45 to put on mask. Wakes her up. She is NOT happy. Does NOT want it on and proceeds to cry and scream for 2 hours. She FINALLY fell back to sleep at 3:30. I was about ready to walk about but I just kept telling myself that she'll fall asleep in just a minute....

6:30am ~ we're woken up, everything is removed and we're out the door in about 30 minutes. Funny how it takes 2 1/2 hours to set up and less than a half hour to get it all off.

We won't have the results for another month (the soonest appointment I could get) but I doubt that anything has changed. Thankfully we don't have to do another test for another year.