Vancouver Sleep Center

So I finally had an appointment down at the Vancouver Sleep Center in Burnaby. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had trouble sleeping through the night. It’s been going on for so long that I can’t even remember if there was a time when I used to sleep soundly or not. I often wake up every hour or so and feel rather anxious, and most nights it takes me at least an hour to nod off. It could be the traffic or some sound that wakes me, but I’ve never really been sure.

I had a consultation with Dr. Dong and he went over my history. Then he informed me that he wanted to take a look inside of me and see what it looks like when I breathe. To do that, he used a fiber optic camera. Unfortunately, since they route it up your nose and down your throat, it’s not that pleasant of an experience. They sprayed lidocaine into my nose and made me inhale, and also shot a bunch into my throat and made me swallow it. It’s really bitter and gross tasting, but thankfully it makes everything really numb.

The good news is that I didn’t really feel any pain during the procedure. It was definitely uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt. The bad news is that now I have a pretty bad headache, and a bit of pain now that the lidocaine has worn off.

They’ve given me a little personal sleep device here that will monitor my heart rate and oxygen level during the night for a few days to see what it looks like. I have an appointment on Monday to go back in and look over all the data. So we’ll see what the final verdict is then.