Cybernation avoided!

So, I got to the hospital, fully expecting to have all the electro-stickers done, and they handed me the little finger monitor. Yay, but ow! The finger monitor is so much easier to handle, having a finger clip and a little computer on a wrist strap, but it is equally as awkward as the larger machine to sleep with. I kept worrying that I might switch the machine off accidentally by leaning on it. Argh! By about 6am the nail on my little finger was hurting where the finger clip pressed against it. I should try to get an engineering degree and work on machines that make it more comfortable to do sleep studies with! Now I just have to wait for the results.

I would like to thank Joe at CPAP.co.uk for sending me an e-mail about other mask options if it does transpire that I have sleep apnoea.

Tonight, I will have a much more enjoyable experience (I hope!)as it is the rearranged day for my cinema trip with Laura to see 30 Days Of Night. I know it is a vampire film, and I know it is based on the graphic novels of the same title, but I don't know what to expect from it. I've not read the graphic novels, and I have not seen much about the film (I have purposefully not looked it up. I think I annoyed Laura when we went to see Eragon by tutting and shaking my head at the complete mess they made of that film), so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I will report back tomorrow.

Onto NaNo matters. My inner critic has reared its ugly head again. I am worried that everything I am writing is utter poop. I am still writing, but my head is telling me "What's the point? It's no good!" I am trying to stifle the little bugger, to put a pillow over its little critical face and smoother it, but it keeps popping up! I have invested in a course by Holly Lisle called How To Beat Writers Block to help me beat this little voice into submission. When I get a spare quiet hour I shall work through the course.

Day 19: 604 words.

Don't you just hate those moments...

When someone walks up to you and starts talking to you, but you don't remember whom that person is? That happened to me yesterday. I had been to ASDA with Grandand and Principessa, and just as we were leaving this woman walks up to me and asks me how I am. Argh, mind blank, cogs working, and I'm sure she could see the ticker-tape flicking in my eyes of non-recognition. It's bad enough that I didn't remember who she was, but I felt even more ignorant because I was having trouble speaking as I was choking on my cough! Why didn't Lemony Snickett forewarn me about these unfortunate events!

This morning wasn't much fun either. I don't know why I do it, but when I sleep I slide down the bed, and this makes it harder for me to sit up when I wake up. Well, I got stuck this morning to the point of tiredness and panic. This, in turn, woke Principessa up, and she got all upset.

"Where are you going, babe?" I asked her as she jumped up and started getting off the bed.

"To get Nanny to help you, Mummy."

"No! Don't wake Nanny up. It's very early in the morning and Nanny will get mad if we wake her up now."

"Don't worry Mummy, I'll help you."

Awww, she is so sweet. Principessa's offer of help buoyed me up, so I told her not to worry and to go back to sleep. I managed to get myself sitting up, finally, and Principessa got all upset again.

"What's wrong?"

"I need to get Nanny."

"Nanny is still asleep. It's okay now. I don't need help, I'm all sorted."

"Okay, I must go back to sleep now."

If only... She gave me a big cuddle to make sure I was okay, and then we talk about Petey the bear that had spent the night downstairs. Then more talk, a little bit of playing and a little bit of crying, before she went back to sleep - about an hour and a half later. I was glad of the extra sleep. By the time I woke again Principessa had snuggled right underneath the duvet, so if you didn't know she was there you wouldn't know she was there, and appeared to have gone into hibernation. Three years old and impossible to wake up!

Later on today I am off to the hospital to have sensor stickers placed on my face, neck, chest, legs and arms. They are being put there so I can do a sleep study tonight. Just before I go to bed, I attach wires to the stickers and jack myself into a little computer that tests my breathing, blood pressure and blood gases while I sleep. This is to make sure that I don't stop breathing while I am asleep. If I do stop breathing, it is to monitor the number of times I stop breathing per hour. If I stop fifteen times or more per hour, then I am considered to suffer with sleep apnoea. This means I have to use a CPAP machine. Not fun. I can't stand having things put over my face; it sends me into a panic. I don't know what I'd do of I had to use one of the elephant CPAP masks. I just hope the remnants of this cold don't push me over the fifteen times mark. Last year when this was done I had stopped breathing 13 times per hour.

On to the NaNo. I have finally started to introduce the main characters of the story. Phew! I thought I was never going to get there! Now for the main haul of the story. I am hoping it will go as smoothly as the last 5000 words have gone. (Yipes, if I was doing the full NaNo, to be on target I would have had to have written 30,000 words by now. I feel like such a slacker!)

Day 17: 414 words
Day 18: 0 words (Was so tired I just went to sleep last night. Will work hard today!)