Sleep Study, Part 2
Aug. 21st, 2003 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jbsegalSo I went back for the CPAP titration sleep study...again, 17 stuck-on electrodes or sensors, 2 elastic-banded on, a pulse-ox finger thingie and the nose/mouth airflow sensor...but this time add a cpap machine.
A) If you ask, they can turn off the red light. Yay.
B) If you ask, they can adjust the nasal airflow sesor so that that it doesn't actually poke you.
C) You can move the pulse-ox finger thingie from finger to finger and if you do it fast enough the alarms don't go off.
D) The idea of bringing a sleep mask with you with all of the above is truly laughable.
So, I arrived at 11:30, was through check-in at 11:32, and by 11:40 was having all of the sensors applied. 45 minutes later I climbed into bed.
We tried 2 different masks and I went with the larger one. The problem turns out to be that, no matter how soft you make the gel of the mask, when it's got the little plastic block of the nose/mouth airflow sensor between it and your lip, the blockk is going to be jammed into your upper lip all night. Ow.
It's Very Very strange to have something blowing air into your nose so that if you unseal your tongue from your upper palate you're automatically blowing air out your mouth. It's also very hard to talk that way.
Design flaw: In order to keep the constant airflow from blowing the mask off your face, there's an exhaust port on the hose, where it connects to the mask. That exhaust ends up blowing all over you - or something - all night. I woke up a couple of times with parts of my body extremely cold from the constant directed breeze.. I want to put that exhaust port someplace farther down the hose.
Note: I expect it'll be hard to have any sort of gas-mask fetish after actually using one of these things on a regular basis...either that or you just fall asleep as soon as you put one on.
This time I think I got 4 hours or so of sleep - not that I was watching the clock at all - and despite only getting about 90m of nap later in the day, I'm only now getting tired. I've been somewhat out of it, but not tired. I wonder if this is in any way related to the machine.
I also dreamed more - or remembered it more as I was waking up pretty regularly. The one I really remember is the one where I dreamed it was morning and it was time to get up and take off everything. I was really upset when I realized that that was only a dream and there were unknown hours to go.
There's also a condensation problem...a couple of times I woke up with a pretty significant stream of water leaking out of the mask...
But we'll see. They say there were no incidents and that now I have to wait a couple of weeks til they can arrange a home visit from the vendor.
...then I had breakfast, went home, showered, napped, and went on a job interview. I'll hear more about that in 1½ - 2 weeks. It doesn't look my dream job, but it seems pretty cool. Here's hoping.
A) If you ask, they can turn off the red light. Yay.
B) If you ask, they can adjust the nasal airflow sesor so that that it doesn't actually poke you.
C) You can move the pulse-ox finger thingie from finger to finger and if you do it fast enough the alarms don't go off.
D) The idea of bringing a sleep mask with you with all of the above is truly laughable.
So, I arrived at 11:30, was through check-in at 11:32, and by 11:40 was having all of the sensors applied. 45 minutes later I climbed into bed.
We tried 2 different masks and I went with the larger one. The problem turns out to be that, no matter how soft you make the gel of the mask, when it's got the little plastic block of the nose/mouth airflow sensor between it and your lip, the blockk is going to be jammed into your upper lip all night. Ow.
It's Very Very strange to have something blowing air into your nose so that if you unseal your tongue from your upper palate you're automatically blowing air out your mouth. It's also very hard to talk that way.
Design flaw: In order to keep the constant airflow from blowing the mask off your face, there's an exhaust port on the hose, where it connects to the mask. That exhaust ends up blowing all over you - or something - all night. I woke up a couple of times with parts of my body extremely cold from the constant directed breeze.. I want to put that exhaust port someplace farther down the hose.
Note: I expect it'll be hard to have any sort of gas-mask fetish after actually using one of these things on a regular basis...either that or you just fall asleep as soon as you put one on.
This time I think I got 4 hours or so of sleep - not that I was watching the clock at all - and despite only getting about 90m of nap later in the day, I'm only now getting tired. I've been somewhat out of it, but not tired. I wonder if this is in any way related to the machine.
I also dreamed more - or remembered it more as I was waking up pretty regularly. The one I really remember is the one where I dreamed it was morning and it was time to get up and take off everything. I was really upset when I realized that that was only a dream and there were unknown hours to go.
There's also a condensation problem...a couple of times I woke up with a pretty significant stream of water leaking out of the mask...
But we'll see. They say there were no incidents and that now I have to wait a couple of weeks til they can arrange a home visit from the vendor.
...then I had breakfast, went home, showered, napped, and went on a job interview. I'll hear more about that in 1½ - 2 weeks. It doesn't look my dream job, but it seems pretty cool. Here's hoping.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ONE OF US. ONE OF US.
Date: 2003-08-21 08:34 pm (UTC)yes. yes it is. it took me a while to learn how to talk with it on. mostly i just nudge it so the seal's broken so i can talk normally.
Design flaw: In order to keep the constant airflow from blowing the mask off your face, there's an exhaust port on the hose, where it connects to the mask. That exhaust ends up blowing all over you - or something - all night. I woke up a couple of times with parts of my body extremely cold from the constant directed breeze.. I want to put that exhaust port someplace farther down the hose.
i've had a couple of different masks that deal with this differently. the one i use now, the hose connects to the mask with a 90 degree connector (so the hose itself is sort of parallel to my face) that can pivot 360 degrees. and the air squirts down the direction the hose comes from. my preferred position is with the hose heading up over my head so the air blows away from me and doesn't hit me at all.
Note: I expect it'll be hard to have any sort of gas-mask fetish after actually using one of these things on a regular basis...either that or you just fall asleep as soon as you put one on.
when i first started using a cpap i worried i'd develop some sort of gas mask paraphilia by getting used to getting frisky in the morning with the mask on or something.
as for the condensation, i have no useful answer. it's only been a problem for me since i've been back here, for the most part, and living in the high-humidity summers.
i remember the first few months of cpap, it felt like i had INTENSELY VIVID DREAMS. massively so. and then eventually things settled down - i think as i finally started catching up on over a decade of sleep deprivation.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-21 10:42 pm (UTC)given that you only thought you got 20 minutes the last time, this seems like a dramatic improvement..
*hug*
do they now review the data and compare with last time and say whether the CPAP machine helped?
no subject
Date: 2003-08-21 11:34 pm (UTC)Good luck on getting the job!