Brother Cats, Still Hunting at 19

Meet my two cats. This is Mikasi:
and this is Maori:

Littermates, they had their 19th birthday in August. That makes them 83 in cat years.

They are showing their age in some ways. They weigh less than half of what they once weighed, with the angles of their bones easily felt beneath the skin. And, their kidney disease started almost two years ago, so they get subcutaneous fluids twice a week; the bag of fluid a permanent fixture in the diningroom.

But, let them out into the sunshine on a warm afternoon, and they rediscover their virile youth.

One has taken to chasing the squirrels from under the bird feeder. One day he stood his ground at the base of a tree beneath a chattering squirrel perched about six feet above him. I don't know how it would have ended if I hadn't intervened.

The other one usually spends his outdoors time taking a bath in the sunshine. But yesterday I caught him in hot pursuit of a small lizard that was scooting across the brick wall. If only he had front claws, he might have snagged its tail--darn!

Back indoors they return to their sedate, napping selves. Dreaming of their hunting adventures and looking forward to their next outing into the sunshine...

Sleep... Shouldn't it be the easiest thing one does?

Actually, sleep does come easily to me. Most nights I don't notice that my head has hit the pillow because I'm asleep by then. And, if I wake up in the night for one reason or another, I go right back to sleep just as immediately. And, I sleep until the alarm goes off. So, what's the problem?

Nothing except that even with all that sleep, I've been exhausted for the past 4-5 years. I wake up tired in the morning, and spend the day tired. For a while I thought it was just stress, but if that were the cause, then I would have had great rest while hiking, especially after my house sold. But, no, I woke up tired on trail, too. So, finally, this fall I decided to do a sleep study, something I'd been talking about for a couple of years.

Sure enough, I have a moderate case of sleep apnea. On the night of the study, I was asleep for 7.5 hours, and stopped breathing 10 times, almost stopping (called hypopnea) 107 times. That's something like once every four minutes. I was relieved to find a reason for waking up tired--I really am not getting enough quality sleep.

With that diagnosis, the next step was to choose an intervention. The least invasive option is to use a CPAP machine at night. Essentially, it puts a pocket of air in my airway, splinting it open so I can't stop breathing.

I've now been using the machine for 34 nights. I'm still in the getting-used-to process. I'd have thought that I would just need to get used to sleeping with a mask on my face, but that's the easy part. I've tried two different types of masks and had issues with both. But I haven't given up yet. Even though there have been very few nights when I've managed to wear it all night long, the hours I have been able to sleep well have helped me to feel more awake, with more energy than I've had for a long time.

So, I'm still working with it, trying different things each night, in the hope of finding a combination of factors that will work well. Because it will be SO worth it, when I am able to get 6-8 hours of quality sleep every night. I am looking forward to having more energy than I'll know what to do with!

Back to Blogging

My last post was in the middle of summer, and here it is almost winter. Since then I've been settling in to life in Atlanta. I have also been through the sleep study process, which I'll share more about in another post.

Before it becomes en vogue to make resolutions, I'm making one to keep my blogs more current... Stay tuned to see how well I do with that!