Sleep Study

Sleep Apnea Study

Way back in the summer when I met with my electrophysiologist he noted that we or he recommended I get tested for Sleep Apnea since I snore and perhaps that might be a cause of my AFib.
So I waited and got a call and an official letter saying I will be ready to have a sleepover at the Sleep Clinic on the 22nd of November at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus!
Imagine my delight! 😉

After several weeks it was time to get to the Civic for my sleepover and I had to be there at least 30 minutes before to be prepped!

So I decided to make myself tired I would go and do an OrangeTheory Workout to get myself fatigued enough.

A lot of Splats

Good workout and saw my Gym Mom Angie who does the usual 6:45p slot. We had a great workout;  I had a quick shower and headed out to the Civic.

I got to P4 where I was instructed to park and was ready to try and find this sleep Clinic.

The only map I had was what they sent me and they labelled it Level 1 which after figuring out where I was meant the 1st floor!

I proceeded to the check in and of course I had paperwork to do!

Yes fill out how I sleep!

Once I filled this out I went and waited to be called! Watching a very snowy television. Must be Over the Air service at the Civic 😲

There was at one point Five of us waiting. I was the 2nd to arrive, but also the last to get to my "room". Go figure.

Waiting Area

Anyhow I was told to get changed and get ready as they were going to start wiring me up.

So I got into my PJ's and got ready. Sadly I don't have any photos of the lovely electrodes in my head and back, but it was just gross.

My room for the night

Once I was wired up with wires on my head, back and legs as well as an oxygen nose piece it was going to be a long night.

No cellphones!

I brought an extra throw, but it was noisy and a fan was constantly blowing so it took me a good couple of hours to get to bed. Eventually I must have passed out until I had to go for my nightly walk. So I had to buzz to get someone to unhook me and then I could go. Once I was able to get back into bed I couldn't get to sleep so I finished watching Jason Bourne that I downloaded. Yep that was going to be a long night. I have no idea what time I eventually passed out, but 5:35a came fast and it was a rude awakening.

After getting up or an attempt to roll myself out of bed I sat in the chair and he took out all the electrodes. As he was removing them he said he noted my baseline had evidence of sleep apnea! Great! He left me some paperwork as I proceeded to change and then I bathed myself to get all the electrode goop out of my hair and he left me a towel and I was free to go once I was changed so the next sleep victim err patient could try and sleep.

So with this new news they want me to try the CPAP machine (continuous positive airway pressure); however, I'm going for my surgery on the 6th of December so I decided to wait. In addition I want to see the results so I'm not interested in anything until I know that this is of some benefit to me.

My next post may be post Ablation so wish me luck all! See you on the non-AFib side.🙏

The Call

The Call

So if you have been following this #AFibAsian journey then you may know I've been waiting for "The Call" So about three weeks ago while I was on a business trip I did get that call, BUT I did not turn on my personal cell phone as we decided to just rely on Kiera's phone while on travel as really the girls were at home and would relay any messages to us if necessary and since we have VOIP we tehnically could get calls IF we really needed to. Anyhow I digress and during the time I was away on business I did get a call and when we arrived back in Canada we were back on our home network so I flipped on my phone and noticed a missed call so I dialed my voice mail and discovered a call from the Heart Institute so I called them back immediately, but discovered that I had a date, but unfortunately since I didn't return the call they gave away the date! 😢 Needless to say I was disappointed, BUT not as disappointed as having to wait three weeks to talk to the triage nurse as she had gone on holidays. 😞

So today, November 16th, I finally was able to get her call, well not exactly, I was in the shower and ML took the call so she ran up and said you have to call them back right away so I did!

Ablation Date received

December 6th cannot come any quicker!

I can't explain why I'm excited about an invasive procedure, but then again living with restrictions and complications from the side effects of the medication and other factors has been tough. I have to say I'm looking forward to moving on.
And now the countdown begins. I'm hoping that the procedure will be a success, but I will need a full month before I return to strenuous activities. My next step is to talk to my employer and hopefully can arrange some destress time and prep for the surgery.
Like I said earlier...I am ready to move on!

Thankful

Thankful

2018 I embarked on a journey to better my running and build on my cardio and endurance; however, that came to a screeching halt just past the halfway point of the year when I was diagnosed. Now I look back on the last several weeks from that diagnosis and reflect on all the people that I am grateful that stuck with me during the dark times and the road to redemption. I do push myself to try and overcome the AFib, but sadly your body does crazy things like oh rebel and say WTF are you doing?? Fact in point when doing the Army Run this year I was actually doing well for the 5K but then going into the half I had an episode which I fought hard to contain, but the more I stressed the worse it got and my Garmin kept screaming. I perserved and finished and enjoyed the views of this great city and the support of the running commnity cheering us crazy runners on.

I'm thankful to my run buddies from the marathon clinic who I bonded with and the crew from Run  Ottawa, the Bushtukah trail runners to the ever hugging November Project tribe who are always motivated to #justshowup so I do with no regrets if I can't pace myself the way I used to and just be happy being back of the pack runner again. It's like coming first circle as I wait for the call.

You all are a part of me and I'm thankful for you. 

In fact yesterday my west end crew of runners went to Gatineau Park and enjoyed Pie and "running" the Wolf Trail. One of the hardest trails in GP and yes I may have tweaked my left calf again. Sigh. More rest.

I can't forget my crew at work as I don't think I've been part of team like I am now. My Exec Director is one of a kind and cares for every member of his team. I've knowin many of my coworkers, but the ones close to me are with me to the end! Even if I act like a jerk or be immature 😉

As I write this I am waiting for the Turkey soup to be made as we made a turkey (one of the best ones we have cooked) for dinner and it was amazing!

Kudos to the wife for making the traditional dinner and now all the leftovers for the week and of course Turkey soup!

Cam usually in the front leading the way

Wolf Trail is not exactly easy

Part of the crew

Classic jump shot

Making Turkey dinner and you need to hydrate 

Support crew

Dinner setting

Team Awesome 2019

So it begins again!

In 2018 I went out on a limb and I applied to be a social media ambassador for Run Ottawa's Team Awesome!
Guess What?? I got in! Last year I had an amazing experience sharing my training, guest speaking at some Running Room clinics and basically putting myself out on the Internets through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram sharing my training for #RunOttawa2018 with #TeamAwesome2018 I met a lot of great ambassadors who I still communicate through these channels and it was an an adventure of a lifetime. It was like a bucket list item and thought I would not have another opportunity so I seized the day and made the most of it.

My 2018 Team Awesome Family

Synopsis

Let me do a quick recap of last year. 2018 I did the Voyageur Challenge and it was definitely a challenge. Running the 5K and 10K on Saturday and then the 1/2 marathon on Sunday. It would not be a typical Ottawa Race Weekend if the weather wasn't crazy hot and it was. By the time the races started in the afternoon it was probably with the humidex in the 35C range if not muggier. Then the 1/2 on Sunday was different as it was cooler and the plan was to take it easy as I did already two races and just finish. At that time I was only worried about high blood pressure and my heart issue wasn't even known to me at the time so I raced as I normally did and held off for the 1/2 to finish knowing full well that my legs may or may not be with me.
Long story short I did it! I finished all three races for the challenge medal!

Final kick to the finish for the 1/2!

All the bling!

2019

After finishing Army Run this year there was buzz about Team Awesome applications. I wasn't sure if I wanted to devote my time and effort into sharing my running journey again in addition to my new found heart issue. I knew I had one more race and I also knew that I was going to be close to having my procedure, but did not know the date so that was a big factor in my race planning for 2019. I am already committed to helping Eunice out with doing #50b450 but other than that nothing.

I did the hum and haw and was ambivalent and decided if I did do it again I was going to approach it differently and focus on shorter distances as I knew part of the recovery from an ablation would be at least a month. So I would need to focus on a short training cycle to be able to either 1: finish a 10K in sub 1 hour OR 2: come back as a race without having any heart issues at all OR maybe a bit of both. 

So I submitted my application and while I was away in Washington I received the email that I made it in. When you apply to be on Team Awesome you have to choose which social media platform you use the most. It was an easy choice for me so it was Twitter, but I do use the others. IG and then Facebook. 

So this year I get to do this all again and share my journey along with my potential from my heart ablation to doing race weekend. I could have chosen the 5K, but that race is SOOOO busy that the 10K is later and last year I was humbled on that course as it was a twisty course with some elevation and challenged my body to withstand the humidity on the pavement. I've done those on the 1/2 before but my pace was a tad slower, but I want to focus on my speedwork and maybe I will be in condition to actually race. I won't know until the procedure and I won't know what my body will be like when I finish my recovery and begin training so there are zero expectations on myself but I hope everyone does follow along my #RunOttawa2019 journey as yes I am back as a 2nd year ambassador. Putting myself out there for all to see and hope to inspire you to do something that you are proud of. It doesn't matter if you run slow or run fast. You run because you can!

So I look forward to you following me either on social media or along with the other members of Team Awesome for 2019.

 

My Own Personal Avatar

My fellow ambassadors

Also for those on Strava you can follow some of our members here to see some of their training runs!