Memorandum Monday

The one in which I realise that the lines, dark rings under my eyes and wrinkles are not the result of some nasty photo filter.

I'm not a great one for selfies.  I blame it on short arms and the inability to know where on the phone I'm supposed to be looking while trying to press the photo taking button before I blink.  But my friend Denise introduced me to Snapchat as a bit of fun and we randomly send each other funny photos ofourselves now and again.  You can add all manner of weird and wonderful filters to your photo, flower crowns, vampire teeth, rabbit ears, silly hairstyles - you name it, it's on there.  But I noticed that no matter what silly filter I added, I couldn't help but see the sad state of affairs that my skin had fallen into.

We went out to dinner with friends last weekend and it came up in conversation that my friend has a salon treatment nearly every two weeks.  No wonder her skin looks so good!  It helps that her sister owns her own salon so she doesn't have to pay the full price, but she was surprised to hear that I never go anywhere to have a professional facial.  So I decided to address this and popped into a local salon when I was in town to book an appointment.  The lady on reception looked at me and asked what kind of facial I wanted as she flicked through their brochure.  I was expecting her to diplomatically suggest one for dry skin but oh no, she turned straight to the page on anti-ageing treatments.  I've never felt more in need of a bit of pampering! 

So this week I had my first anti-ageing and rejuvenating facial. 

It seemed a bit extravagant but oh my goodness, after I had spent an hour in that spa treatment room  having all manner of creamy goodness massaged into my skin I felt amazing.  It was the best money I spent all week.  The products were by a company called 'comfort zone' and I've been sent home with various free samples to use.  I'd never heard of them before but I'm a convert.  My skin, even after one treatment and 2 days of using the products at home, feels so much nicer and I'm already on the point of booking myself in for another facial pre-Christmas.

But I'm not the only one trying something new this weekend.  Oh no.  My husband has gone above and beyond the call of duty to join in with  Sian's idea of sharing something new on a Monday.  Unlike my spa treatment, it's not a very glamorous subject but one I think is still worthy of sharing.

 

For years now I've been complaining about his snoring.  Now, I know that it's quite a common theme between couples of a certain age, but this snoring had been getting worse and he had started to hold his breath in his sleep too.  So he reluctantly made a doctor's appointment, just to shut me up for once and for all.  We live fairly close to a Sleep Disorder Clinic at Papworth Hospital and he was referred there for tests.  He had to use two different monitors while sleeping at home and went back on Friday to get the results.  It turns out that on the night he was tested, at one point he actually stopped breathing for 17 times in one hour.  Now, that's not good is it?  It wasn't the first time I've been tempted to say 'I told you so' but it certainly was the time I felt most justified in saying it out loud!

 

There are no lifestyle changes that he can make; he's not overweight, he doesn't smoke and is not a heavy drinker so the first thing they will try is for him to have CPAP therapy which is basically a small mask to cover the mouth which continuously pumps air while he sleeps.  So this weekend he tried it for the first time.  All I'm saying is, it isn't silent but a heck of a lot quieter than the snoring was!  However, there is a serious message here too, there's fine line between annoying, noisy snoring and sleep apnoea.  We honestly did not realise how bad his sleeping was or the implications of not treating it - so if you suspect that someone you know (or maybe even you yourself!) may be at risk, it's easy to check out and could drastically improve their health.