Spiritual weekend

This weekend was a wonderful, spiritual weekend.  We had stake conference this weekend.  For those of you who are not LDS, stake conference is a conference for  a group of congregations, also known as wards, that make up a stake.  Stakes are kinda like a school district.  There is usually about 10 wards in a stake.  We all meet together and listen to our stake leaders speak to us.  We have them twice a year.  This conference, we had a visiting general authority from Salt Lake.  He was a member of the Quorum of the 70's.  His name is Elder Hamula.  He is an excellent speaker.  The  purpose of a 70 is to testify of Jesus Christ.  He did exactly that when he spoke and I could feel the spirit of the Holy Ghost testify to me so strongly of the truthfulness of the gospel.  I'm so grateful that I have the gift of the Holy Ghost to be my constant companion.  I am also grateful for the knowledge that my Heavenly Father loves me.  It makes these challenges I have to endure a little easier at times.  I'm not as likely to lash out at God even though I get frustrated at the never ending pain.

My most recent frustration is lack of sleep and daily fatigue.  I fall asleep all day long while I try to do things around the house and in my daily like.  Many of the things I fall asleep doing are not very safe to fall asleep during such as driving my wheelchair, cooking showering, washing dishes, sewing, standing and just about any other way you can imagine.  I broke my ankle on January 1st by falling asleep on the edge of the bathtub and falling over.  I rolled over with my entire weight on my foot and bent my ankle in half.  I had to have plates put in my ankle.  I spent 4 weeks in the hospital after that fall between complications after surgery and rehab.  I broke my ankle on my good leg, so I had to have a lot of rehab.  I'm not anxious to repeat that again.

My neurologist referred me to a sleep specialist last week.  I think I see 7 specialists on a regular basis now.  .On Wednesday, I had a 45 minute consult with the sleep specialist.  She is going to test me for sleep apnea.  She thinks I might have central sleep apnea from the MS.  I may not be breathing deeply enough to be getting enough oxygen at night because the proper signal is not getting from my brain to my airway.  She said it is a little more challenging to treat but it is treatable.  I have to have a sleep study done.  I am just waiting on insurance to authorize the sleep study.  She also put me on some medication during the day to keep me awake so I am not falling asleep in unsafe situations.  I"m still working on finding the right dosage, but I noticed a big difference even with the dose not being right.  I hope she can figure out what is causing my sleep problems.  I'm tired of not sleeping well  I rarely sleep more than 2 hours at a time at any given time.