This Geek

I’ve been having the CPAP treatment for about two weeks now. It’s taking me a long time to get used to the mask - but I’m finally sleeping through the night (mostly). My only problem so far is that because of the tightness of the mask initially - I developed (almost literally overnight) a pressure sore just above the right hand side of my top lip. It wasn’t too painful, but now it has developed into a cluster of really painful pimples. The pain from that caused me to take my mask off at about 4 this morning - it was getting a bit too much. Hopefully I’ll have a better night tonight.

I’m meeting with a rep from a different medical company on Wednesday - I’m going to be fitted for some new masks. I’m getting a Respironics Comfortgel mask to replace the Fisher & Paykel HC405 that I’m not really happy with - and I’m also getting a ComfortFull 2 full face mask to use in those times when I’m sick or have nasal congestion. It’s a crapload of money for these damn things here - around $250 for the full face mask, and around $150 for the Comfortgel (That’s based on ~7.4 exchange rate). Insane prices - but then this is also my second choice mask. I would have preferred to go for a Resmed Ultra Mirage Activa nasal mask, but that sucker is around $240! And the problem is that the company that sells the Resmed products is not contracted out to the medical aids (insurance), so I would have to fork out of my own pocket and claim back. Not good, because I don’t have that kind of money. At least with the other company, they deal directly with the medical aids, so I don’t have to physically spend a cent.

Back to the treatment - I am definitely noticing a difference. I still have tiredness - but that’s usually in the morning. I’m much more alert now, and I don’t have the desire to doze off while I’m driving home from work. so it seems the treatment is starting to work.

I don’t know how long it will take until I feel “normal” - or what I think “normal” is supposed to feel like, as I’ve had this for so many years, that I never realised that anything was wrong.

Thinking back with my new found knowledge, it certainly explains some of the happenings in my life when I was in high school, so I’ve had this condition at least since then, if not all my life.

Kinda sad to go through life for 31 years not knowing that it could actually have been better.

I’m driving to work this morning, it was very dark, so naturally, I was driving with lights on. I end up behind some prat driving a Citroen (I think - it was dark), who had switched on his rear fog lights. These morons don’t realise that rear fog lights are VERY bright, and in some cases are blinding. I was annoyed, but not particularly surprised, so I was hanging back about 3 car lengths behind him. After a couple of minutes, the guys moves out my lane, so I pass him. He immediately pulls in behind me and flashes his brights. Wtf?

Now I wasn’t driving with my brights on, the angle on my lights was at neutral (well, considering I can only dip them lower), my lights are focused, and I wasn’t tail gating him, so I couldn’t figure out what the heck his problem was. So while he had his brights on, behind me, I flipped my own rear fog lights on and off a couple of times. He then slowed down and backed off.

I continued on my way, wondering what that guy was up to. I eventually decided that maybe he thought my brights were on, so I was going to teach him the error of his ways by pulling in behind him and showing him the difference between the normal lamps and the brights. I moved to the middle lane, and slowed down, hoping he would catch up to me. No such luck unfortunately. He must have dropped to WELL below the speed limit, because he didn’t catch up to me before I had to change highways. sigh

And then I arrive at work. Park in the basement in my usual spot, hop in to the elevator, and arrive at my floor. The elevator doors open, and there’s a great big hulking flower pot with a small tree in it sitting slap bang in the door way, with caution tape attached to either side of the doorway, going around the plant. Again, wtf?

I detached one side of the tape and exited the elevator, all the while looking around cautiously to see if I could figure out why that plant had been deposited right there. No such luck either. shrug

I slept with the assistance of my very own CPAP machine. It’s a top-of-the-line Fisher & Paykel HC608 (Linked in the last post), with humidifithingymabob and heated hoojakawhatsit. Since I tend to get sinusitis on a regular basis, I need the moistened air so that my sinuses don’t freak out from a constant air flow (which, I must say, is a breath of fresh air) (smirk). It’s quite nifty, since the air pipe is heated (Not so you’d notice), it prevents condensation building up inside the tube, thereby avoiding an apparently annoying gurgling noise. I’ll have to take their word for it. The problem with that though, is that condensation forms inside the mask, and I spent the night (unsuccessfully) avoiding the icy cold puddle of moisture that had formed in the bottom of the mask.

It’s really crappy — you’re too deur die blare to actually wake up and take care of the annoyance, so you live with it. sigh, maybe one day I’ll learn.

It’s a bit premature to tell if the therapy is working or not. Admittedly I wasn’t feeling so bleh (Technical term) this morning when I woke up, but I’m feeling darn right sleepy as I type this 2 hours later. Time will tell. (The damn thing had better work. The whole kit and caboodle cost over R7k. Gotta love medical aid.)

Sloppiness really irritates me. Case in point - I install some updates for the server, and schedule a midnight (my local time) reboot so that some of the updates can take effect. It turns out that one of the updates decided to disable the mysql daemon from starting up. Nice going Mr. Package Maintainer, thank you.

Unfortunately, not only do my web sites rely on it, but my mail system does too.

It could have been worse though.

A rep from Afrox Medical Gas phoned me. It seems I’ll be getting my 608 CPAP unit tomorrow.

So I’ve changed my theme. Whoop. It’s quite a change from the old one. I’ll keep this around for awhile… I’ve got plenty sitting on the back-burner, so if it’s different every time you visit, don’t be surprised.

(Mind you, who the heck visits here anyway?)

I went for the 2nd sleep lab on the 7th, as I mentioned in my last post. Technically, it wasn’t a sleep lab, since I was only hooked up to the CPAP machine, though it was monitoring and recording what was happening.

The neurophysiologist (what a mouthful) told me that I have around 60 apnoeas per hour, which means I’m not breathing for 20 seconds of every minute in an hour. She said “severe” cases are only around 40 apnoeas per hour, so I have it to the extreme, especially for my age. She says she usually sees apnoea this badly in people over 75 years old. Apparently my oxygen levels drop to below 80% (in some cases as low as 75%), which apparently is quite bad for the heart, and can lead to heart failure. Fun.

Being connected to the CPAP machine wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I could get used it. Actually, I have to get used to it. sigh Despite (or perhaps because of) being hooked up to the CPAP machine, I slept quite badly. The nursing staff at the hospital didn’t help either. Damn they pissed me off.

When I did the first sleep lab - the polysomnogram - I was supposed to be sleeping while the machine recorded what happened while I slept… so the stupid fucking nursing staff woke me sometime after 4am as if I was a normal hospital patient. Considering the CPAP trial was in a different part of the hospital, where they seemed to be used to patients coming in for these trials, I thought they would have a clue. Not so. For one thing, someone opened my room door at around 1am, so I woke up (it’s a noisy door). Then again around 3. And then another stupid-ass nurse came in at around 04h40 and yelled loudly ‘Good Morning!’. She was lucky I had the breathing mask on my face, otherwise I would have told her to fuck right off. I was not impressed. I gave them a bad mark on the patient satisfaction survey when I was discharged. Suck on that. :p (Yeah yeah, childish I know.)