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Thu, 25 Dec 2008 @ 17:31 || XMAS || Home

The kids did pretty well for xmas. Mostly video games and gift certs. They are getting older and harder to shop for. I got Shane a craftsman mechanic tool set, and a bunch of car related things. I gave Mindy a slew of Manga books and a robot chicken.

For Sukki I got two holiday metal tin cans, I filled one with $100 in scratch tickets and the other with 100 $1 dollar bills. I also got her gift certs to a couple stores.

The kids got me one of the gifts from my wish list, the security cams. Been playing with them today. They operate on the 2.4 GHz frequency, which is the same as wireless routers. Both my router and the wireless cameras have settings to change them from 2.45 to 2.47, which doesn't really seem a big enough difference. When the cameras are on the wireless computers drop their connections, and the video receiver has choppy video. However even with the wireless router off, the video receiver still gets interception. I have more troubleshooting to do.

My mother painted me a picture of the flatirons. It looks just like the view from the Boulder lookout.

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Thu, 18 Dec 2008 @ 21:56 || winter || Home

I figured since I took some time to do minor maintenance on the snow blower that I wouldn't have to use it this year. Last week I had Shane clear the side walks with it. My neighbors must have been surprised, one of the first time I bothered having the entire sidewalk cleared.

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Mon, 15 Dec 2008 @ 22:07 || Damn cold || Home

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Sun, 07 Dec 2008 @ 12:10 || Xmas list || Home

Kinetic Clock	This would look cool in my office and confuse my employees.
BBQ tool set Bottle opener	These are just cool, might be a repeat from last year...
Security Cameras	So I can check the front yard/door from the couch. Spend $10 more and I can yell at people too!
Wall mount bracket and arm for a laptop	So I can mount a laptop next to my recliner, bed or bathtub. (better get me 3)

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Sat, 29 Nov 2008 @ 08:49 || Snow || Home

My mother came to visit for Thanksgiving. She's been here since Tuesday. We spent part of yesterday at the National Archives looking up Revolutionary War records.

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Wed, 26 Nov 2008 @ 10:07 || Shane's English Project || Home

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Fri, 21 Nov 2008 @ 11:17 || Problem with Beavers || Home

"It has gotten steadily worse each year," Dahl said. "We really needed to have a management plan so we can effectively deal with them." Full Story

I wonder if I can start a trapping business?

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Thu, 20 Nov 2008 @ 07:44 || Happy Birthday || Home

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Sat, 15 Nov 2008 @ 09:27 || Errands || Home

While we wait for my laptop, I have Shane looking at a troublesome Windows 2003 Server that we were fighting with yesterday. It might have a bad motherboard. Good way for him to learn.

After I finish up here, it's off to the bookstore, then to Home Depot. Hoping to finish that plumbing project in my basement I kinda started a few months back.

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Fri, 14 Nov 2008 @ 07:35 || snow || Home

Should be a fun drive up to Boulder today.

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Thu, 13 Nov 2008 @ 22:07 || Wind || Home

Looks like the high country got clobbered with snow today, but it's was in the 60s down in the foothills.

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Sat, 01 Nov 2008 @ 11:34 || Movies || Home

We currently have standard movies for the following holidays. These are movies I watch religiously each year, ones where Sukki rolls her eyes and says "Not again".

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Halloween
• A Christmas Story: Xmas
• Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail: New Years

There are a lot of Thanksgiving day movies, but none really qualify as a standard. Planes, Trains and Automobiles may be the best one, but I'd like to do a little better.

Not sure what a good Easter Movie would be. Maybe, Monty Python's Life of Brian. We already have a Monty Python, so would like find something else here as well.

Apocalypse Now might due for the 4th of July.

Memorial Day is probably going to be National Lampoon's Vacation.

Labor day is another tough one..

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Tue, 28 Oct 2008 @ 21:06 || 2.49 || Home

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Wed, 22 Oct 2008 @ 08:49 || Apnea || Home

The term apnea describes a complete stop or pause in breathing, while hypopnea describes a slowdown in breathing. Apnea can be further defined as central or peripheral.

In central apnea, the nervous system fails to adequately control breathing, thus leading to irregular sleep patterns and decreased oxygen levels.

In contrast, peripheral apnea is due to the tissues (tongue, tonsils, and palate) blocking the airway leading to decreased oxygen levels. This blockage, or obstruction, is the cause of obstructive sleep apnea.

The character and severity of your obstructive sleep apnea can be determined via a sleep study. The sleep study yields information regarding sleep cycles, oxygen levels, and the number and length of the apneic and hypopneic episodes. This information is used to determine the Respiratory Distress Index, or RDI, and the degree of oxygen desaturation.

* The Respiratory Distress Index is defined as the number of breathing pauses (apneas) and the number of breathing slowdowns (hypopneas) per hour. Normal RDI is less than 10 events per hour. An RDI of 16 or greater is considered diagnostic for OSA.

* The oxygen desaturation is the degree in which blood oxygen levels drop due to decreased breathing. Maximal oxygen saturation is 100%, with normal patients maintaining saturations greater than 90% while asleep. In contrast, patients with OSA experience significant oxygen desaturations, with levels falling well below 90%.

Obstructive sleep apnea is thus defined as peripheral obstruction leading to decreased oxygen levels, and is defined by abnormalities in the RDI and percentage of oxygen saturation.

So I guess high numbers == bad.
The central apnea concerns me more than the obstructive, The UPPP operation targets the obstructive, but I'm not sure I've been told what they do to resolve the central..
The high RDI numbers are also bad,

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Mon, 20 Oct 2008 @ 19:05 || Sleep Study Results || Home

Without the CPAP mask
Time asleep 2hrs 2mins
14.5 minutes of N2 sleep
no REM sleep
Sleep efficiency 63%
9 central apneas
22 obstructive apneas
1 mixed apnea
53 hypopneas
16 RERAs
AHI 40/hour
RDI 47.5/hour
RDI supine 138.9/hour
RDI left side 40/hour
RDI right side 64.2/hour
SpO2 low 75% avg 89.9%

With CPAP mask
Time asleep 2hrs 16mins
6 minutes of N2 sleep
5.5 minutes REM sleep
Sleep efficiency 54.7%
AHI 16.8/hour
RDI 28.1/hour
SpO2 low 86% avg 91.1%

So.. if I'm reading this right, wearing the CPAP mask at night I increase my Sp02 avg by 1.1%, not sure if thats worth the cost or the annoyance. The REM sleep is concerning, but not sure if this test is conclusive that I don't get REM sleep w/o a mask. I need to look up the apneas, I still don't understand them.

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Sat, 18 Oct 2008 @ 09:47 || Just what the Doctor ordered? Or worse Anniversary ever? || Home

I'm not a big fan of the casinos, but Sukki can't get enough of them. I try to limit how often she goes and how much money she takes, but it's a lost cause, she finds ways of getting money then dashes off to give it to the casinos.

While we were at our 3rd casino. I was walking around looking for Sukki, we rarely play next to each other, when I got a call from her, "Come get me, I'm in the security office". Great.. so I go ask where the security office is, and I get this 20 questions routine, I interrupted, told them "you got my wife, and I suppose I need to retrieve her." She told me she'd escort me right there.

Once in the security office, I found Sukki was sitting in the corner next to a table, they had photocopied and super enlarged her drivers license to the size of a full sheet of paper and had multiple copies of it on the table she was sitting at, kinda surreal. They were 3 casino security guys and one local plain clothes cop standing around in the office. This fat security guy, the only one sitting down, explained to me what had happened, apparently Sukki had sat down at a machine that already had $15 bucks in it. She put $20 in and played till it was out. Just as she was leaving some woman got all upset claiming she had $20 in that machine and called security.

They checked the computer logs and cameras and saw that it was a honest mistake, that the machine did have $15 in credits, not $20, and had been vacant for up to 10 minutes before Sukki sat down. Sukki should have noticed there was already money in it, but she didn't. The cameras showed the other woman was no where near that machine when Sukki sat down or the 20 minutes that she was playing it.

Other than the cop yelling at Sukki, not because she played the credits, but because he was doing the "She doesn't speak English so I must yell" routine. It went down pretty well, I paid the casino the $15 bucks and we were allowed to leave. I stayed behind after Sukki left to give the cop a piece of my mind as I hate it when people raise their voices to Sukki because she's Korean. She hesitates to speak and they assume she doesn't know English and that means we must yell, because we all know that helps. He apologized and they all started blurting out excuses, on how they didn't know if she knew English as she was too quiet.

I had to run to catch up to Sukki. She was almost out of the casino by the time I caught up to her. They had been a little meaner than I think they needed to, she felt they had been very rude when they pulled her from the floor and she was mad and embarrassed. She declared we are never going back to that casino. I pointed out that all the casinos talk to each other, cause I like to be helpful... She was quiet till we were almost home. Then she said she needs to find another hobby. We haven't spoken since, but maybe her slot machine addiction is cured?

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Wed, 01 Oct 2008 @ 22:41 || Sleep Study, epilogue || Home

It was awkward, but not so bad. I arrived just about 8. It was near the Boulder Hospital, an area of town I've never been in, kinda run down in my opinion. The sleep study was in an older office building. Made me feel like I was going to sleep over at my office.

I was met by a younger nurse, who showed me to a room and asked me to get ready as I would at home. The room was much nicer than most hotel rooms I stay at. When I was ready she came in and hooked me up to about three dozen wires. I had 6 or so glued on my scalp, around my eyes, nose and mouth, a number on my chest and back, and some on my legs. Then I had a tube taped under my nose, which was the most uncomfortable, it was attached to a plastic strip that probed into both my upper lip and the bottom of my nose.

While she was turning me into a cyborg, she was very chatty, I told her the story of what led me to the study. She surprised me by not recommending the UPPP surgery, which she pronounced as "You Triple Pee", which of course got me laughing. She told me pretty much what I have been reading online, that less than 40% are successful, and a lot of them still need to wear a mask at night. Which I didn't know was an option. I was getting seen to improve my breathing during activities, not when I'm sleeping, which was why I've been so annoyed at doing the sleep study. She highly recommended I get another opinion from a non ENT doctor. So I'll be looking to see what type of doctor I really should be listening to.

Once all the wires were in I couldn't move much without one wire or another pulling on something. I got into bed, and she hooked the wires up to what looked like a heath kit. Then I watched TV till I started drifting off. The room was wired, both for sound and video, so all I needed to do was say "I'm falling asleep" and she could turn the TV and lights off from her station.

I slept fairly well for about an hour, when she woke me up via the speaker system to try sleeping on my back. I never sleep on my back, so it was tough, it took me about an hour to drift off. Around 2:30am I woke up. Since I had wires around my eyes, and she had inferred lights in the room, she could tell I had woken up and she came in and put a CPAP mask on me. Which, while not uncomfortable, was alien to me. She again told me to sleep on my back, and left me to go back to sleep.

It didn't take me long to get used to the mask, I started to like it. I don't think I slept too long in it. I was still on my back and must have woken up a few times. At one point the mask started making farting noises. The seal had broken near the side of my nose. The noise woke me up. I toyed with the thing to make it quiet, but couldn't figure out the straps in the dark and didn't dare move around too much due to all the wires on me. She had shown me how to remove it if it bothered me so I did. She must have been watching, as she told me over the speakers she'd be in, in a sec to close out my study as they had enough info recorded.

When I took off the mask, I wanted to put it right back on.It was so much easier breathing with it on. Even though I didn't get more than 4-5 hours sleep, I felt more awake than I have in years.

While checking out, she explained to me that she was adjusting the air pressure to the mask as I was sleeping, and she had just increased it the finial time when I started to fidget with it. I told her about the noise that woke me up, and she thought it was the increased pressure that broke the seal. She said she thought my ideal pressure was a few settings lower, but they test the entire range.

They had a shower, so I got ready for work and was at my clients site at 5:30. Made for a quick day, I got home around 1:00 as another unrelated heath issue, that I need to call my doctor for in the morning, made work almost unbearable.

I get the sleep study report in about 2 weeks, or at least my ENT doctor does. I'll find out what the report says then.

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Tue, 30 Sep 2008 @ 10:30 || Sleep Study || Home

Last winter I was sent to a ENT (Ears, Nose and Throat) doctor, as I complained about shortness of breath when trying to add exercise into my weight loss routine. The doctor looked at me for no more than a few minutes and told me I needed UPPP and septoplasty surgery, to fix a double deviated septum and blockage to my airway. He also insisted I take a sleep study.

I wasn't so thrilled about the sleep study. I figured what's the point. The doctor argued that he wanted to know if I had sleep apnea. I countered, if I have it, then what? He said he'd do the two operations. I asked what if I don't have it? He thought for a moment and said we'll still need to do the operations.

So, I don't get the point of the stupid sleep study. But I caved in after seeing a second doctor, who looked at me a lot closer and came to the same conclusion, I need the two operations and I need to do a sleep study first..

Tonight at 8pm I check into the Boulder Hospital and some interns get to watch me scratch my ass in my sleep.

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Fri, 19 Sep 2008 @ 17:38 || Drivers License || Home

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Mon, 01 Sep 2008 @ 10:54 || Mini Road Trip || Home

It seems the entirety of the Rocky Mountains are for sale. I was surprised at the number of for sale signs. If I didn't have 2 kids starting college soon, I'd rethink buying some mountain property.

We eventually found ourselves at the Royal Gorge Bridge, about 11:30. Spent a few hours here, had lunch. It was fun and educational, yet a little touristy. I'll upload pictures later. Sukki was nervous on walking across the bridge and very nervous when we got into the Inclined Railway. We all had a good time.

We continued traveling around 4:00pm winding our way further south to Bishop's Castle. We got there just about 5:00pm and it had started raining 20 minutes before we got there. We parked right in front and walked over a temporary bridge and found Jim Bishop working underneath with a bobcat front end loader, he was fitting rocks into the wall of what eventually would be a moat around the entire property. He was explaining his plans for the moat and watchtowers, and the bridge that would eventually replace the temporary one he was working on. He had a blue tarp spread out over the moat which kinda kept some of the rain off him.

We explored the castle, which is very impressive. I was a little concerned on some of the higher walk ways, they are very well done, but pretty much anything gives a little under my weight, so when I'm a hundred feet up and the iron floor gives a little, I chickened out and climbed down. Shane and Mindy climbed up to the top of the lower of the two towers, and Shane was walking around on top. I had to yell at him to get down when I discovered there were no railings or walls.

Just when we were about to leave, some kid started yelling about 911 and how it was an "inside job", we had just watched a documentary about that, while it had some interesting historical points, we concluded it was a little far fetched. However, I didn't really want to be preached at (or yelled at) by some teenager, we were ready to leave anyway, so we packed it up.

I had maps (crappy ones) and I had googled where I wanted to go for this trip, but I didn't bother to map the way back. I figured, it couldn't be that difficult to head east and find I25. I was right, but the naysayers in the truck complained a bit. I found I-25, we drove thru Colorado City, about 30 minutes south of Pueblo. We got into Colorado Springs around 7:30 and stopped at a Korean Store we used to go to when we lived there in 1997. Had dinner in the springs and headed home. Had a heartwarming moment at a gas station on Academy that I'll write up later when I have time. Got home around 10:00.

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