The Sleeve of Care
Jul. 10th, 2004 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenNow that I have the sticky gunk washed out of my hair, and am feeling a bit more human, I can reveal that the magic number is: twelve.
What am I talking about? Well, last night I went to the hospital to "Implement CPAP". CPAP stands for "Continuous Positive Airway Pressure" and I was interested to discover, was invented by a professor in Sydney. Ha! How's that? Australia is the leading sleep apnoea place! Okay, so the idea is that one puts on a mask, and the machine pumps air into your airways at a positive pressure so as to keep one's airways open when one is asleep. So basically what I was doing was trying it out, with all the wires up and the (I don't know, were they nurses or something else?) night-shift person monitoring and upping the pressure until my hypopneas and apneas stop happening. (I asked and found out that hypopnea is when the airway narrows but doesn't close completely). So, there are basically two things happening: one to figure out the right pressure, and the other to figure out the right mask. Though the guy (now, was his name Brett or something else?) kept on assuring me that I didn't have to be limited to the choice of masks they had there, I could get something else if I liked it better. But at least they had a range of a few different types of masks, and a few of each type.
There were four types of mask. The most common is the nasal mask, which just goes over one's nose. That was the one they had the most of. So I tried a few on, initially, just to see what seemed most comfortable when I was awake (this was after they'd wired me all up like they'd done last time, electrodes on my head and face and chest and feet and thingies to measure my breathing and position). I ended up picking the newest one, which was more flexible than all the others, it could cope with my face moving more, without losing the seal.
The CPAP was funny. When you had it on, you didn't notice it after a while, I mean it was no harder breathing against it than if -- well, it was easier than blowing out when breathing out underwater. But if you opened your mouth, then it was all funny because the air started coming out of your mouth. And if you took the mask off, then suddenly you found there was this rushing air blowing into your face.
However, one thing I hadn't accounted for is that I'm a mouth-breather. Not all the time, but I'm used to being able to breathe through my mouth, especially for sort of catch-up breaths, partly because my nose tends to get a bit stuffy sometimes. So there I was, trying to breathe only through my nose, and I was alternatively very tense trying to remember to shut my mouth, and then there were times I felt as if I was suffocating!
So I pressed the button and we tried out a full face mask, which did a lot to relieve my stress, since I didn't have to worry about how I was breathing. Unfortunately, a full face mask is much harder to make sure that it fits properly and doesn't leak, not without possibly pulling the straps too tight and making it uncomfortable that way. We ended up trying two of those, because the first one started leaking after the pressure had gone up (they have to start the pressure low and gradually increase it until it stops the apnoeas, and they can't tell if it is or isn't stopping the apnoeas until one is asleep).
Then the second one wasn't that great either, being cold and maybe a bit leaky and rather tight. I thought maybe I should look at the third type of mask, which was a thing sort of like a scuba breather, this thing you put in your mouth and there's no need for straps at all. Unfortunately, I could hardly keep from gagging when I tried to put it on (it has a thing that presses down on your tongue, presumably to keep one from choking) so we gave that a miss. (The fourth type, for those who are interested, is like the oxygen canulla they use in hospitals, but since my problem was with mouth-breathing, having a different kind of nose thing sticking things up one's nose would seem the worst of both worlds. Besides which, they didn't have any of those there, because they were too hard to sterilise for repeated use)
By this time I was so tired and had gotten somewhat used to the way it worked that we tried the first nasal mask again, this time with a chin strap. Though Brett said the chin strap was really more psychological, since one could open one's mouth even with it on. However, it did seem to work, no paniced feeling of suffocation this time. Just feeling like... one's nostrils were being blown open. Which, is, in fact, exactly what was happening.
Then I was waking up groggily again, wondering why the machine was being turned off, was the mask leaking again? Then I wondered if it might not in fact be morning, because it being winter would mean that 6am could still look pitch black outside, and that indeed turned out to be the case. Brett said that people never seemed to notice when the air pressure was increased, but a lot of people noticed when it was turned off.
Despite all the interruptions, I'd have to say that the sleep I did get was more like real sleep, more real sleep than I've had in a long time. So, yes, It Works! It feels wierd, but it works. Not something I would reccommend for any but those who really need it, though.
So, then I filled in my little survey, and got dressed, and had some cereal from their little kitchen, and then caught a taxi home. There I did a bit of gathering of forces, turned on the heater, read email, and then finally hit the shower to wash my hair of the remaining goop.
Funny thing, this morning I'm finding myself breathing through my nose a lot more... I guess that's something I'm going to have to train myself to do. Okay, make for the sugarless Fishermen's Friends, and I'll have my mouth full and be motivated not to open it...
So, I'm going to be terrified of colds, and I'm going to have to braid my hair every night, so that it doesn't get tangled in all the paraphenalia.
Oh, and the magic number twelve is my optimal CPAP pump pressure setting. We didn't try a humidifier, and I hope I don't end up needing one. I'm going to have problems enough trying to get a nice machine that is international-travel-friendly. Oh, they assure me that there are such machines, but it will still be reducing my range of choice.
What am I talking about? Well, last night I went to the hospital to "Implement CPAP". CPAP stands for "Continuous Positive Airway Pressure" and I was interested to discover, was invented by a professor in Sydney. Ha! How's that? Australia is the leading sleep apnoea place! Okay, so the idea is that one puts on a mask, and the machine pumps air into your airways at a positive pressure so as to keep one's airways open when one is asleep. So basically what I was doing was trying it out, with all the wires up and the (I don't know, were they nurses or something else?) night-shift person monitoring and upping the pressure until my hypopneas and apneas stop happening. (I asked and found out that hypopnea is when the airway narrows but doesn't close completely). So, there are basically two things happening: one to figure out the right pressure, and the other to figure out the right mask. Though the guy (now, was his name Brett or something else?) kept on assuring me that I didn't have to be limited to the choice of masks they had there, I could get something else if I liked it better. But at least they had a range of a few different types of masks, and a few of each type.
There were four types of mask. The most common is the nasal mask, which just goes over one's nose. That was the one they had the most of. So I tried a few on, initially, just to see what seemed most comfortable when I was awake (this was after they'd wired me all up like they'd done last time, electrodes on my head and face and chest and feet and thingies to measure my breathing and position). I ended up picking the newest one, which was more flexible than all the others, it could cope with my face moving more, without losing the seal.
The CPAP was funny. When you had it on, you didn't notice it after a while, I mean it was no harder breathing against it than if -- well, it was easier than blowing out when breathing out underwater. But if you opened your mouth, then it was all funny because the air started coming out of your mouth. And if you took the mask off, then suddenly you found there was this rushing air blowing into your face.
However, one thing I hadn't accounted for is that I'm a mouth-breather. Not all the time, but I'm used to being able to breathe through my mouth, especially for sort of catch-up breaths, partly because my nose tends to get a bit stuffy sometimes. So there I was, trying to breathe only through my nose, and I was alternatively very tense trying to remember to shut my mouth, and then there were times I felt as if I was suffocating!
So I pressed the button and we tried out a full face mask, which did a lot to relieve my stress, since I didn't have to worry about how I was breathing. Unfortunately, a full face mask is much harder to make sure that it fits properly and doesn't leak, not without possibly pulling the straps too tight and making it uncomfortable that way. We ended up trying two of those, because the first one started leaking after the pressure had gone up (they have to start the pressure low and gradually increase it until it stops the apnoeas, and they can't tell if it is or isn't stopping the apnoeas until one is asleep).
Then the second one wasn't that great either, being cold and maybe a bit leaky and rather tight. I thought maybe I should look at the third type of mask, which was a thing sort of like a scuba breather, this thing you put in your mouth and there's no need for straps at all. Unfortunately, I could hardly keep from gagging when I tried to put it on (it has a thing that presses down on your tongue, presumably to keep one from choking) so we gave that a miss. (The fourth type, for those who are interested, is like the oxygen canulla they use in hospitals, but since my problem was with mouth-breathing, having a different kind of nose thing sticking things up one's nose would seem the worst of both worlds. Besides which, they didn't have any of those there, because they were too hard to sterilise for repeated use)
By this time I was so tired and had gotten somewhat used to the way it worked that we tried the first nasal mask again, this time with a chin strap. Though Brett said the chin strap was really more psychological, since one could open one's mouth even with it on. However, it did seem to work, no paniced feeling of suffocation this time. Just feeling like... one's nostrils were being blown open. Which, is, in fact, exactly what was happening.
Then I was waking up groggily again, wondering why the machine was being turned off, was the mask leaking again? Then I wondered if it might not in fact be morning, because it being winter would mean that 6am could still look pitch black outside, and that indeed turned out to be the case. Brett said that people never seemed to notice when the air pressure was increased, but a lot of people noticed when it was turned off.
Despite all the interruptions, I'd have to say that the sleep I did get was more like real sleep, more real sleep than I've had in a long time. So, yes, It Works! It feels wierd, but it works. Not something I would reccommend for any but those who really need it, though.
So, then I filled in my little survey, and got dressed, and had some cereal from their little kitchen, and then caught a taxi home. There I did a bit of gathering of forces, turned on the heater, read email, and then finally hit the shower to wash my hair of the remaining goop.
Funny thing, this morning I'm finding myself breathing through my nose a lot more... I guess that's something I'm going to have to train myself to do. Okay, make for the sugarless Fishermen's Friends, and I'll have my mouth full and be motivated not to open it...
So, I'm going to be terrified of colds, and I'm going to have to braid my hair every night, so that it doesn't get tangled in all the paraphenalia.
Oh, and the magic number twelve is my optimal CPAP pump pressure setting. We didn't try a humidifier, and I hope I don't end up needing one. I'm going to have problems enough trying to get a nice machine that is international-travel-friendly. Oh, they assure me that there are such machines, but it will still be reducing my range of choice.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-07-10 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-10 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-10 08:10 pm (UTC)International Travel Friendly
Date: 2004-07-12 04:38 am (UTC)Re: International Travel Friendly
Date: 2004-07-12 05:10 am (UTC)Re: International Travel Friendly
Date: 2004-07-12 09:09 am (UTC)