Jul 30

Its been a while, as usual. I broke my tooth a few weeks ago. I had been stressing out about the dentist for oh, I dont know, 15 years or so. I was waiting for something like this to happen. It did. I bit into a bagel when I was on the phone with a friend, spit out a large portion of a tooth. Great.

Called a dentist, I actually looked them up on city search and found they had some great reviews. I made an appointment. They agreed to see me that day. I came in covered in sweat, about to pass out. I stammered and stuttered and tried to tell them why I had such a phobia of dentists. I removed my own braces, etc. They put the kid gloves on. I have been back three times now. Still dont know about the crown or not. I have been in for a two part “deep cleaning” 12 shots of novacaine. When I filled out the paperwork I circled extreme 8 times when it came to the “how freaked out about dentists are you?” line.

I am never honest about the medication I am taking, I dont know why, Im just not. That may be my downfall at some point but I do try to keep track of it online to check for any adverse reactions. At any rate, the bill for the filling which was really more of a reconstruction of the tooth was only $38 after my insurance. The deep cleaning, well I dont know. I couldnt pay today so I deliberately forgot my check book. They said pay next time, because there will be a next time, and time after that, and time after that. This is going to cost a small fortune. I think they are breaking the bad news to me slowly, which is good and bad. Im paranoid by nature, and I HATE doctors. This dentist is actually fantastic and so are his “girls”, I dont call them that – they do.

As far as sleep apnea goes, nothing to report, actually its quite boring. I hacked the machine, lowered the pressure from an 18 to 14, now I get 0 AI’s most nights. I still feel like shit, and the machine has been clogging my ears so I stopped using it for a while. I think I have gone to collection for not paying the rest of the money I owe for the bipap. Oh well, its blood from a stone at this point.

If you’re in Milwaukee and you want a good dentist, call Dr. Zeeb on broadway. Tell them Ben the basket case sent you , maybe I’ll get a break on my bill.

I feel compelled to tell you that I don’t write this drivel because I think someone is interested. Im not that self absorbed. I am using this to test out some search engine stuff. If there is something here that is interesting to you, well then bonus – thats awesome. I placed an very similar post on my online confessions site to test some duplicate content theories.

Feb 25

I was unaware of this. Good, now I have something to do at work today! My AHI is up to 10 but my AI is still down around 1.8. I need to get back over to cpaptalk to figure this out. As far as I understand, the AHI is all events (snoring, etc) and the AI is apneas, so this would be the one I want to keep low.


Dmitriy Kruglyak (creator of trusted.md) asked me in December to listen to a webinar put out by the drug company Cephalon on their sleep apnea / narcolepsy drug, Provigil, and to blog about it. As you can see, I’m a little behind in my commitments! Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition that affects 18 million Americans, and is linked to heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, depression, liver disease, not to mention various cognitive impairments, so beyond the obvious problems of fatigue and inability to function well due to lack of sleep, sleep apnea has far-reaching health consequences. Good sleep is one of the foundational health principles of everything – one simply CANNOT be healthy without adequate sleep.

Full story here

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