CPAP diary (1)

Don't worry, I won't be doing this forever. I just thought I'd log the experience, if only so I have a record to tell the technician.

Playing spaceman with my full-face mask was fun, but when the time came I learned lesson 1: you have to adjust the mask while you're lying down. Because doing it while you're upright and playing spaceman doesn't really get it adjusted correctly.

Took longer to get to sleep than I expected, even longer than usual, but I don't know why. Should have read for a while, although the mask means I have to hold things a little further from my face than I usually would, and seeing at that distance turns out to not involve so much binocular vision. In other words, I have to work at getting a unified field of vision in the middle. Next time, may do the reading and such without the mask, and then put the mask on at lights out. But I was still playing spacemand.

Woke up several times, with the mask puffing air all over my face. Pressure had zoomed up to at least 15 (cmH2O) and was blowing the mask off. I don' t know what woke me up--it was probably the apnea actually, since with all the leaking I'm not sure the machine was doing its job (which is to pump enough pressure into my airway to keep it from collapsing closed while I sleep). Reset the machine, tightened down the mask, and tried to go back to sleep.

Woke up, eventually, on my right side, which is par for the course, machine going at 13.5, mouth dry as a bone (although the nasal passages and throat seem okay) and actually sort of refreshed. I don't know how much of that is psychological, but there it is. I have a silicon pad-shaped dent in my forehead and I think I should start using the toner-clarifier in the morning, to sooth the 'mask-face'. We'll see tomorrow.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd say 5. As usual. Woke up sort of refreshed and certainly more alert than usual, but now, an hour or so later, I'm not sure I'm not going for a nap later. Had the usual trouble getting to sleep, and woke up several times during the night, and didn't exactly have an easy time getting back to sleep. Best sleep late in the morning as usual. So 5.

I'm not expecting 10s anytime soon, but I'm hoping in the 3 weeks or so before I see the specialist again (and head off to TO) I hope to be up to 7 fairly consistently.