Cinders meets an alien

In article

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 23:06:54 -0500, John F. Eldredge
wrote:

snip

John I hope Cinders adjusts and that you get a good nights sleep.
Suz
Macmoosette
Thank Heavens There's Only One
=^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^=



Waiting for inspiration. Please hold while I contemplate my navel.

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In article

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 23:06:54 -0500, John F. Eldredge
wrote:

snip

John I hope Cinders adjusts and that you get a good nights sleep.
Suz
Macmoosette
Thank Heavens There's Only One
=^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^=



Waiting for inspiration. Please hold while I contemplate my navel.

|\__/|
(=':'=)
(")_(")

In article

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 23:06:54 -0500, John F. Eldredge
wrote:

snip

John I hope Cinders adjusts and that you get a good nights sleep.
Suz
Macmoosette
Thank Heavens There's Only One
=^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^=



Waiting for inspiration. Please hold while I contemplate my navel.

|\__/|
(=':'=)
(")_(")

John F. Eldredge wrote:

When I go to bed, I have to wear a mask, somewhat resembling a blue
rubber pig snout, that fits over my nose and is connected by a hose
to the CPAP machine. A net of elastic webbing fits over my head to
hold the mask on, and makes me look somewhat like the villain in a
pro wrestling match.

Six years ago I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and was prescribed
a CPAP as well. On the first night I used it at home, Roxy - who was about
6 months old - sat across the room from me, kind of leaning backwards,
with a shocked look on her face. I mean, there I was, wearing this mask,
with a long hose connecting to a noisy machine. She might have thought
I was wearing a vacuum cleaner on my face. So she was understandably
alarmed. Over the months, though, both she and Smudge got quite used to
it - and no, John, there were no "hunt the snake" games.

Over the next few years, I tried sleeping with and without the CPAP, and
I found that my quality of sleep was about the same either way. There's
a certain awkwardness factor that comes with having a vacuum cleaner on
your face, but if your apnea is bad enough, the benefits far, far outweigh
the inconvenience. For me, though, I think they more or less balanced
each other out. I'd wake up with neckaches and backaches from sleeping in
odd positions, and from tensing up in response to the tangled hose and
other problems - and that interfered with my sleep as much as the extra
air pressure improved it. The severity of my apnea was only slightly
above the lowest that is clinically treatable, and in the end I stopped
using the machine.

Joyce

John F. Eldredge wrote:

When I go to bed, I have to wear a mask, somewhat resembling a blue
rubber pig snout, that fits over my nose and is connected by a hose
to the CPAP machine. A net of elastic webbing fits over my head to
hold the mask on, and makes me look somewhat like the villain in a
pro wrestling match.

Six years ago I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and was prescribed
a CPAP as well. On the first night I used it at home, Roxy - who was about
6 months old - sat across the room from me, kind of leaning backwards,
with a shocked look on her face. I mean, there I was, wearing this mask,
with a long hose connecting to a noisy machine. She might have thought
I was wearing a vacuum cleaner on my face. So she was understandably
alarmed. Over the months, though, both she and Smudge got quite used to
it - and no, John, there were no "hunt the snake" games.

Over the next few years, I tried sleeping with and without the CPAP, and
I found that my quality of sleep was about the same either way. There's
a certain awkwardness factor that comes with having a vacuum cleaner on
your face, but if your apnea is bad enough, the benefits far, far outweigh
the inconvenience. For me, though, I think they more or less balanced
each other out. I'd wake up with neckaches and backaches from sleeping in
odd positions, and from tensing up in response to the tangled hose and
other problems - and that interfered with my sleep as much as the extra
air pressure improved it. The severity of my apnea was only slightly
above the lowest that is clinically treatable, and in the end I stopped
using the machine.

Joyce

John F. Eldredge wrote:

When I go to bed, I have to wear a mask, somewhat resembling a blue
rubber pig snout, that fits over my nose and is connected by a hose
to the CPAP machine. A net of elastic webbing fits over my head to
hold the mask on, and makes me look somewhat like the villain in a
pro wrestling match.

Six years ago I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and was prescribed
a CPAP as well. On the first night I used it at home, Roxy - who was about
6 months old - sat across the room from me, kind of leaning backwards,
with a shocked look on her face. I mean, there I was, wearing this mask,
with a long hose connecting to a noisy machine. She might have thought
I was wearing a vacuum cleaner on my face. So she was understandably
alarmed. Over the months, though, both she and Smudge got quite used to
it - and no, John, there were no "hunt the snake" games.

Over the next few years, I tried sleeping with and without the CPAP, and
I found that my quality of sleep was about the same either way. There's
a certain awkwardness factor that comes with having a vacuum cleaner on
your face, but if your apnea is bad enough, the benefits far, far outweigh
the inconvenience. For me, though, I think they more or less balanced
each other out. I'd wake up with neckaches and backaches from sleeping in
odd positions, and from tensing up in response to the tangled hose and
other problems - and that interfered with my sleep as much as the extra
air pressure improved it. The severity of my apnea was only slightly
above the lowest that is clinically treatable, and in the end I stopped
using the machine.

Joyce

John F. Eldredge wrote:

I've got enough hose length to be able to roll over. The main
problem that I have had so far is that, when I shift position, the
mask sometimes moves slightly away from my face, resulting in a cool
breeze blowing on my face (distracting) or a whistling sound (even
more distracting).

Yes, I remember that from sleeping with the cpap. I woke up tons of
times from all that disturbance.

The only solution that I have found so far is to
fasten the straps tightly, which produces a third type of
distraction.

Known as a "headache". When I slept with the straps too tight, I'd
get a big headache from it. Also, deep red welts on the sides of my nose
from where the mask was digging in too tightly. It was a constant struggle
between too loose and too tight.

Joyce

John F. Eldredge wrote:

I've got enough hose length to be able to roll over. The main
problem that I have had so far is that, when I shift position, the
mask sometimes moves slightly away from my face, resulting in a cool
breeze blowing on my face (distracting) or a whistling sound (even
more distracting).

Yes, I remember that from sleeping with the cpap. I woke up tons of
times from all that disturbance.

The only solution that I have found so far is to
fasten the straps tightly, which produces a third type of
distraction.

Known as a "headache". When I slept with the straps too tight, I'd
get a big headache from it. Also, deep red welts on the sides of my nose
from where the mask was digging in too tightly. It was a constant struggle
between too loose and too tight.

Joyce

John F. Eldredge wrote:

I've got enough hose length to be able to roll over. The main
problem that I have had so far is that, when I shift position, the
mask sometimes moves slightly away from my face, resulting in a cool
breeze blowing on my face (distracting) or a whistling sound (even
more distracting).

Yes, I remember that from sleeping with the cpap. I woke up tons of
times from all that disturbance.

The only solution that I have found so far is to
fasten the straps tightly, which produces a third type of
distraction.

Known as a "headache". When I slept with the straps too tight, I'd
get a big headache from it. Also, deep red welts on the sides of my nose
from where the mask was digging in too tightly. It was a constant struggle
between too loose and too tight.

Joyce

O J wrote:

Since I looked it up, I now know that 'CPAP' stands for Continuous
Positive Airway Pressure. Mine *is* a Bi-PAP machine. It has
separate pressure settings for breathing in and breathing out and an
option to set a minimum breathing rate.

During my sleep study, they tried both a CPAP and a Bi-PAP on me to see
which would work best. I had a terrible time with the Bi-PAP - it was
"breathing" faster than I did. So it would start trying to force air into
my nose before I was finished exhaling the previous breath. Naturally,
this disturbed my sleep quite a bit.

Of course, this was in a sleep clinic with technicians at the controls.
When you have your own Bi-PAP, can you set the pace of the breathing to
match your own?

Joyce