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| To insure the best fit, this man has no nose. |
This fine morning I went down to Arrow-med and received my new CPAP machine. For those of you wondering, the machine forces moisturized air through your wind pipe, forcing it to stay fully open thus counter acting the sleep apnea which restricts air flow and leads to you sounding like a grizzly with bronchitis operating a buzz saw under a 747. This ups oxygen in the blood and helps you slumber the sleep of comas.
The element most important to the success is the mask. They come in all shapes and sizes. From small nose only models to full face masks that look like the diving helmets from The Abyss. The best way to describe how it feels is how Tia put it, "drowning on air". You feel like you're going to suffocate even though you can feel air coming in. The machine I have starts low and then adjusts to my "prescribed pressure" as I fall asleep. There is an unusual feeling in breathing in and out and not being able to tell its happening. The first mask on my nose pulsated like a frog's throat sack, and the pressure was way too high. After several adjustments and breathing exercises out of a Lamaze book, we had the right one.
When I was younger I had this bizarre ability to stay up for a couple days at a time with out aid from caffeine. I did this so as to have more time to myself and equal out time I was happy with time I was sad (aka in school). As I've gotten older, sleep is more important, a nap now and again is good for the mind. I wonder what I'll be like with more energy? I might get off my ass and exercise. And losing weight may even undo the need for the CPAP! Or nor. We'll see.
