Let this be a warning: Anyone who needs a sleep study done on themselves, or knows someone that needs a sleep study done, stay away from Southern California "Sleep" Disorders Specialists in Anaheim (a few blocks away from Disneyland). The place is a complete joke. You come out of there feeling like someone glued your eyes open for 24 hours. Here's some brief background:
The ENT tells us Zach needs to get his tonsils and adenoids taken out. The ENT says that we need to have Zach go through a sleep study to 1) determine the level of care Zach will need after surgery and 2)see how how well Zach sleeps at night and whether he is breathing properly at night.
Randi, Zachary, and I arrive at the sleep center this past Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. (already a bad idea because we work the next day). On our way to the study, I realized that I forgot to bring our comforter (another mistake, but not because we were required to bring it...keep reading). When we got to the sleep cetner, a woman named "Hilda" or "Hild" or "Hilia" (let's call her the "technician") greets us and takes us to the room where we will be sleeping. Her breath was horrible. She takes us to a room where the study will take place. We see the bed, which is hard as a rock. The linens/blanket were extremely starchy. The blankets measured about 2 feet by 2 feet, so for me, it covered up to my kneecaps. The technician brought a cot into the room so that I could sleep in the room. The cot had steel beams piercing throughout the entire fabric of the cot, so, the 3 hours that I did sleep I was pretty much sleeping on a metal fence. When I did sleep those few hours, 3/4 of my body was frozen because of the 2 by 2 blanket and the draft from the window.
Getting back to the study, the technician wanted to place all the wires, patches, etc., on Zach once he fell asleep. From 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., we were reading Zach books, slowing things down. About 9:00 p.m., we all laid down in the bed, hoping Zach would fall asleep. [I forgot to mention that although we had the lights off in our room (because thats what people do when they go to sleep), lights from the outside were beaming through the cheap blinds. The sleep center was on a busy Anaheim Boulevard very close to disneyland and lights were coming into our room from traffic signals, etc. It was also a full moon and I think the moon's light was coming into our room. So, we were having a sleep study conducted in light.] As Zach is closing his eyes, freaken fireworks start going off from Disneyland. This lasted about 20 minutes. While the fireworks are going off, car alarms start sounding off. Randi looks at me and we both start laughing, thinking that this has to be some sort of joke. Zach aint sleeping. The fireworks continue... Just when I thought that we were at the finale part of the fireworks, it starts up again. I then got out of bed, open my door and throw my hands out at the technician yelling at her saying what kind of venue is this sleep center. She tells me that she can't control the fireworks. I agree but tell her that whoever decided to place a sleep center at this location was mental. I go back in the room and the foreworks stop. Car alarms are still going off because of the vibrations the fireworks caused. About 9:45 p.m., Zach falls asleep. The technician then comes into the room to start application of the wires, etc.
About a minute after the technician starts application, Zach opens his eyes, looking at this woman, wondering what she is putting on his scalp. At first, Zach is scared, just watching. We try to sooth Zach but he was not having it. (I'm not sure how these wires and belts get attached to a human being while asleep, let alone a toddler.). After about 10-15 minutes of application, Zach starts laughing and thinks its some sort of game. He then rips out a huge fart while the technician is wrapping things up. Oh boy.
It's about 10:45 p.m. and the technician is about to finish when Zach says he needs to go to the potty. Are you kidding me!!!!!!!!!!! Randi tries to convince Zach that he needs to pee in his night diaper because that it what the night diaper is for. But, Zach is potty trained so well that he does not want to pee in his diaper. I try to tell Zach that its okay to go in the diaper. He then starts crying (forgot to mention that going to the bathroom requires the technician to disconnect a some wires - big pain in the ass). We then go to the bathroom.
It's past 11:00 p.m., and Zach is finally about to go to sleep (keep in mind that the Sleep Center told us earlier that they need 6 hours for the study and they need us pretty much out at 6:00 a.m.). At about 11:15 p.m., Zach gets on his knees, starts bowing to the wall, and mumbling something. Randi and I start laughing.
We have no clue what that was about but in any event, Zach is sleeping at 11:15. From 11:15 to 2:00 a.m., Zach is sleeping, but every 30 minutes, his nose piece pops out. The nose piece apparently is the most important apparatus for the study. Each time the nose piece comes out, the technician uses the intercom to tell us that the piece came out and that she needs to come in to the room. Everytime the technician comes in, she keeps the door of our room open because she needs light. I guess the light from Anaheim Blvd. was not enough. I think Randi and I got about 1 hour of sleep during this time period.
From 2:00 to 4:00 a.m., more nonsense with the nosepiece - it kept coming out because Zach was pulling it off. Again, everytime this piece came out, the tech would use the intercom to let us know...
Finally at 2:00 a.m., we (me, Randi, and Zach) all fell asleep. The tech wakes us up at 6:25 a.m. We are all in a terrible mood. The tech takes off Zach's wires, etc. and asks us to fill out a questionaire. Randi pretty much says to the tech, "Are you kidding me?" I looked at the questionaire, which I did complete. One of the questions asked if we felt more rested after spending the night at the Sleep Center... What a complete joke...
Bottom line: If this study comes back with a bad report, we are asking for our money back.
