I can read books again!

 It’s a Monday, but I’m grinning from ear to ear. Why? Because I read a book this weekend – from cover to cover. And that’s a big deal, because it’s the first time in five years that I’ve been able to do that! [be warned, what follows is a sappy, self-indulgent PSA] And why has it been so long since I’ve read a book, you ask? It’s not that I don’t love to read. Heck, there’s over 2,000 books in my house! It’s because for a long while I lost the ability to do so. These past couple of years I’ve been wrestling with substantial memory loss, extreme difficulty in concentrating and feeling like I’m in a constant fog. During that time, I knew I had a snoring problem, but I didn’t realize it was anything more than making some embarrassing noises while I slept. I did not realize it was connected to my cognitive decline. It turns out I have a severe case of sleep apnea. And my ignorance about sleep apnea was compounded by my tendency to not ever want to go to the doctor. Waiting years to do anything about this ended up leading to brain damage – because every night my brain was getting starved of oxygen (plus I was waking up a 100 times an hour, which causes its own set of problems). Thanks to the marvels of modern medicine, and the amazing folks at the local Sleep Lab, things are no longer as bad as they were. The C-Pap machine that I now wear every night keeps my brain oxygenated, and this has led to a lot of improvement. The doc says you generally see the improvement you’re going to see in the first year. I’m a year and a half in, and my recovery has definitely plateaued. And in some ways that really sucks. It feels like someone turned the nob down on my brain. But at least things are much better than they were. And hey, I can read a book again, and that is a big deal. So take those snoring problems seriously kids, breathe in as much sweet oxygen as you can, and never take for granted the exhilerating pleasure of reading a book! #sleepapneasucks #booksrule