I had dinner w/Tom and lazyJ the other night, and I came to realize that I haven't really been filling everyone in on my sleep issues. To catch everyone up, I've had two sleep studies, two MRIs, a septoplasty, and a million doctor visits.

My current deal is I sleep with a bipap on, a machine that helps me breathe when I sleep since I suck at respiration so much. It's kind of like someone giving you cpr, but without the chest pounding. This of course is not the easiest thing to sleep through. During my last doc visit, I was prescribed ambien to help me get drowsy enough to sleep through the discomfort. It's a temporary measure until my body gets more used to the bipap.

I joked some with my doctor about the ambien side effects, but she assured me I had nothing to worry about. Last night was my first night on the little blue pill, and when I woke up in the morning I felt decently well rested. I had a little bit of a soreness in my upper stomach, but figured it was due to the air I had swallowed on the bipap (that's another story). Tonight when I was brushing my teeth, I noticed something was missing.

See, I have this other issue called bruxism, which is the grinding of your teeth when you sleep. The cause is unknown, but the solution is wearing a mouthguard when you sleep. It's lame, but I've seen the pictures of people's teeth when they don't wear the mouth guard, and it ain't pretty. And yes, I wear both a mouth piece and a breathing mask when I sleep. I look super cool in bed. Anyways, I couldn't find my mouthpiece, and it suddenly hit me. Did I eat it when I was sleeping last night?

lazyJ's birthday is Saturday, celebrating tonight. It's gonna be awesome! Wish him a happy 30th.