Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Breathe (08/19/10)
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TITLE: The Nocturnal Square Dance | Previous Challenge Entry
By cheryl schoenberger
08/25/10 -
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“Honey, please breathe. You stopped breathing again,” I said shaking his right shoulder.
“Huh, what? I’m snoring again?” Tom asked still half asleep.
“Yes, you’re snoring in between not breathing,” I retorted sarcastically.
“You musta heard Merlin snore. I don’t snore,” he replied rolling on his side as he began snoring again.
“Right, it’s Merlin,” I said glancing down at our Gordon Setter sleeping silently at the foot of the bed.
I squinted at the faint green light from the alarm clock illuminating the digits; it was 2:45am.
“Another sleepless night in Covington,” I pondered gazing in the direction of my snoring husband.
It had been over two months since Tom had left town to attend a ministry conference, and I had acquired three blissful nights of eight hours of sleep. By the third day, my dark circles were finally beginning to fade and my eyes showed signs of life again. Lo and behold just as my fatigue had packed up and left the building, Tom and his snoring returned home.
So here I sit on snore patrol with my two down pillows propped up watching my husband sleep. Every once in awhile the snoring ceases and my Tom stops breathing; not a good thing mind you. Silence is not golden under these conditions. Tonight, his longest pause in between his snoring episodes lasted twenty-seven seconds. Even if I dozed off, my body is programmed to arouse like clockwork in the event our bedroom becomes uncommonly silent.
Why do I do this night after night you ask? Mainly out of love for my husband, and the hope that one day my prayers for an intervention would occur. Unlike most men, Tom unfortunately tends to be a tad on the stubborn side. He refuses to have a sleep study as ordered by his physician, since the treatment would require that he wear a mask to sleep. As a result of this decision, Tom and I remain totally fatigued during the day due to lack of quality sleep.
Six months later……………………………………………………….
Have you ever noticed that God sometimes answers your prayers, but it’s not exactly what you had in mind? Well that happened to us one night in the wee hours of the morning. Tom and I were doing the nocturnal square dance: snore, apnea, shoulder shake, and breathe Tom breathe, when it happened.
“Glenda, my chest hurts,” Tom said with a panicked look on his face.
“Where does it hurt?” I asked.
“On my left side and down my left arm,” he frantically pointed sweating profusely.
“Come on, Tom! We need to go to the ER right now! You may be having a heart attack!”
In the ER they quickly started an IV, did an EKG, and rushed him into the cath lab within thirty minutes of his arrival time. The cardiac surgeon on-call discovered that two of his coronary arteries were blocked and required stents. Within two hours, Tom was stabilized and on the cardiac wing being monitored. The nurses came in several times during the night when the monitor identified heart irregularities. I attempted to doze on a wannabe chair next to his bed with one eye open continuing my watch.
“How are you this morning?” Dr. Driscall inquired flipping through his chart.
“I’m better Doc, can I go home?”
“Well I am reviewing the heart monitor tracings from last night and it appears that every time you had pauses in your breathing, it stressed out your heart. You see right here these arrhythmias,” he said pointing to the tracing.
“What does that mean Doc?”
“Did you ever schedule that sleep study I ordered?”
“Well actually I’ve been too busy,” he sheepishly replied.
“Tom, it’s critical that you comply. The pauses in breathing that you are having is lowering your oxygen level and raising your blood pressure. The combination is stressing out your heart,” Dr. Driscall explained.
“Ok, I’ll schedule it, Doc, I promise.”
So Tom finally complied and had a sleep study. Afterward he was issued a machine, and I was miraculously able to retrain my body to sleep all night. Peace was once again restored in the home front- well almost restored. As it turned out Tom was right about one thing; Merlin does snore.
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