The third night, which is at least more successful than not

[truepenny]

Things you never want the technician to say: "Wow, I've never seen that before."


The best guess is that that particular Cthulhu machine is defective; they gave me a new one rather than trying to get clever. So last night, I set it up, with the distilled water for the humidifier and all the connectors connected, and it did in fact turn on with the menu screen and everything.

And eventually, I went to sleep.

I would not say that I slept well. It's difficult, for one thing, to get your head comfortably situated without disrupting the seal on the nasal pillows (which is what they call the thing that fits in your nose). Then there's the part where rolling over requires a good deal of forethought and planning (lydy, I do not have the type of rig that allows the tubing to be anchored, but the suggestion about up and over was helpful nevertheless--thank you!). On the other hand, I only got the tubing wrapped around my neck once. And speaking of the tubing, it is EXACTLY like a tentacle; it has a mind of its own and flails about the bed in an exasperting way, especially if you have gotten up and are coming back to bed and trying not to wake your long-suffering spouse as you grope about--NOT HELPED, I might add, by the way the menu screen backlights itself whenever the machine is turned on or off. I mean, the light is great, you can practically read War and Peace in the original by that light, even if you don't read Russian, but it's awfully hard on the other person trying to sleep in the bed.

The sensation of having air blown into one's nostrils all night is disconcerting and got into my dreams, which were weird even for me. (There was one about Punky Brewster (which I watched maybe all of three times, and which I have not thought about in a good thirty years--proving that the brain stores everything, just in case), in which Punky grows up to be a very noir, hardboiled cop.) And I kept waking up, either because I was making horrible snorting sounds or because I was dreaming I was making horrible snorting sounds.

Or maybe that's the sound a moonbeast makes right before it tears your face off. I dunno.

mirrorthaw has to get up about an hour before I do, so when his alarm went off, I admit it, I wrenched the thing off my head and TURNED THE FUCKER OFF. And gleefully rolled over to go back to sleep.

Comments

[cassandraterra.livejournal.com]

This is making me really NOT want to do a sleep study. Also since I work nights do they have ones in the day time?

I can't stand to have things in my nose. Besides one side is always clogged. There is no where for the air to GO. And I have to sleep on my left side.

Freaky. But I hope you get used to it and sleep better.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Sleep studies are a pain, speaking both as a sleep tech and someone who has had four sleep studies and two nap studies done. Your night in the lab is unlikely to be your best night of sleep. It is important to remember that getting a good might's sleep is not what the study is about. If possible, take the next day off work. Most labs do do day studies. The thing about sleep apnea is that in addition to making you sleepy, it strains your heart, so treating it does have significant health benefits. Given your nose, you probably won't want to use nasal pillows. A nasal mask that fits over rather than in your nose would probably work better. A full face mask, which fits over your mouth and nose and let's you breathe through your mouth is also a possibility, but they are large and cumbersome.

[catlinye-maker.livejournal.com]

I used to have the "one side of my nose is always clogged" thing going on. Wound up at an ENT for something unrelated and happened to mention it - turned out after the endoscope wouldn't go up my nose (oww!) that polyps were the issue. Might be worth checking out if you haven't already; having the polyps removed and a few other minor tweaks made at the same time made a huge difference to me.

[cassandraterra.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Two surgeries to "fix" it and all I got was easier way to get a bloody nose. They removed almost all of my turbinates. Still have to be on decongestants 24/7 if I want to breathe. Got my tonsils out and that really helped my sleep apnea. But I think it is back. I can wake myself up with a roar.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Sounds...jolly.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I salute you for actually managing to get to sleep with the thing on. The two times I managed to get to sleep with it on, I woke up without it...

The cat in the icon, the Late Lamented Striped Cat of Chaos, discovered that if she bit holes in the Spouse's CPAP hose he would wake up (and then pet her, because he was a sucker). Electrical tape works *really* well to a) seal holes, and b) deter clever cats from biting further holes.