CPAP Madness

9/13/2016

Both Jeff and I suffer from sleep apnea and wear our masks every night and even take the machines with us when we travel.  Since we are long-time users of the CPAP masks, it would feel odd, not to mention unhealthy, to sleep without the masks.

Unfortunately, Bella looooooooooooooved my CPAP mask a week or so ago.   She put a tear in the mask, which obviously needs to be replaced.  I have ordered a new mask but in the meantime went through our stash of CPAP supplies and found an adequate old mask.  I'm getting ready for bed last night and have my strap on and one of the little plastic pieces that holds the mask in place fell off.  It's late and Jeff has been asleep and unfortunately now I've woken him up.

We found a mask but I think it originally was used by Jeff.  The mask is too big and the bottom edge of the mask goes down into my upper lip.  Needless to say I was not a happy camper and didn't sleep well at all last night.

I called again to the medical folks who supply us with our equipment and put out an "SOS" call to have at least a new mask sent to me as soon as possible.  

When you have sleep apnea you can either: (a) use the appropriate equipment so you keep breathing, which is very important; or (b) sleep without it and find yourself waking up through the night when you stop breathing!  Obviously, option (a) is the right answer.

So mission critical today is to sort through old and tired masks and find one that will work in the interim, until my new mask arrives.  The representative from the medical company asked me how long it's been since I've had a new hose.  I had to laugh because the answer is years.  He asked how many years and I told him it has been so long that I've actually forgotten.

Here's hoping that I'll be able to find a mask somewhere in the CPAP stash box!

P