Sniff, Sniff, Snore, Snore

Between my wife and I, she is the one who has more health issues. Typically, if one of us is sick, nine times out of ten it will be her and not me. But that doesn't mean I'm without my own health issues. For instance, one of my ongoing issues is sleep apnea. This condition means that I periodically stop breathing while sleeping. It also means that even if I sleep for eight or more hours on a given night, I can still feel completely exhausted the next day. I have slept but not rested. To help with this condition I actually have to wear this odd contraption, an air mask that prevents the apnea from stopping my breathing. Anyone who sees it thinks it very odd. You might wonder how anyone could sleep while wearing it! But over the last couple of years I've gotten used to it.

Unfortunately wearing this mask has gotten more difficult over the last couple of weeks. This is because I also have allergies -- hayfever, as it is sometimes called -- and I've been waking up with stuffed up sinuses, sneezing and sniffing, unable to wear my mask. I'll take some allergy medication, and wait for it to take affect. Wearing my apnea mask while I'm dealing with allergies is basically impossible. So there are two things keeping me from sleeping well: not wearing my mask because of allergies that are acting up and the allergies themselves, which make it hard to sleep. The last three or four days have been the worst, and even though I've ended up sleeping in a little I still feel drug out when I climb out of bed.

Yesterday morning after I got up it wasn't long before our little girl woke up. And when she got up, it was the morning routine as usual: potty, breakfast, get dressed, and either a video or some other activity. But for some reason, I felt quite short. I had a lot less patience than usual. Things that normally don't irritate me did. I didn't feel this way for long before I realized that it was because of my lack of restful sleep. And today I sort of feel the same way, though not as bad. I don't have much energy or get up and go. I might get some other kind of allergy medication today. What I've been taking these lasty couple of weeks doesn't seem to having the effect it initially did. So I hope to get a better night's sleep soon! Unfortunately, sometime this week I need to mow our lawn, and there's no way that will help my sniffer. Maybe this is a good reason to find someone else to mow my lawn? That I wouldn't mind!