I'M GOING TO WRITE ABOUT MYSELF, WHICH I HAVEN'T DONE FOR A LONG TIME IN MY BLOG.

This year has been very difficult for me, beginning with a fall on an icy street in the winter. That aggravated my ongoing neck and back problems and probably worsened my sleep problems. In the spring, after having waited for about two years, I finally got an appointment for an overnight study at the Royal University Hospital's sleep clinic. They found that, as a specialist had already thought was the case, I have sleep apnea. For those of you who don't know already, sleep apnea is when you stop breathing many times during the night. Severe cases of it can lead to things such as heart damage. My results had both good and bad news. The good news was that my case of sleep apnea is mild and I don't need to use a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine, which some people have to do at night. The bad news is that there's no real treatment for a mild case of sleep apnea. Fortunately, knowing that I don't have a severe case relieved a lot of my anxiety, which improved my sleep somewhat. Despite that, I still feel tired a lot of the time.

There have been some things happening in my personal life and at work that have been difficult for me recently, but I won't bore you with the details.

I've come to realize that I've probably been depressed for a while. I have many of the physical and psychological symptoms. This is probably part of the reason why I haven't been writing, have had low energy and haven't kept in regular touch with most of my friends and family members. (Please forgive me!) A lot of the time I've just wanted to stay home and be alone. David has often had to encourage me to go to social events.

Well, enough whining! I just thought I'd try to explain to people who know me why I haven't "been myself" lately. Thanks for reading this.