I had quickly drifted off to sleep last evening and was happily dreaming away when a high-pitched whistling sound slowly penetrated my consciousness. Sheesh! What could that be? It sounded like one of those whistling tea kettles.
I roused myself enough to wake up and realize that it was my CPAP mask leaking air. Groan! I jiggled the mask, trying to stop the whistling. Great! All that accomplished was making the darn thing whistle in different pitches.
The Commander grunted in his sleep and rolled over. I hate disturbing his slumber since he has to work during the day and I can always sneak a nap if I have to. I grasped the hose which was attached to the CPAP machine and pushed it tighter onto the mask. Didn't make any difference.
I sat up in bed and tried tightening the head strap until I felt like my eyes were bugging out. The noise stopped. I snuggled back down under the covers and burrowed my head into the pillow. Bliss! My eyelids drooped as I slowly relaxed and felt myself heading off into slumber again. EEEEEEEEEEEE! Oh, bugger! The whistling was back.
That did it. I turned off the CPAP machine and threw off the mask. It was quiet and dark for a change. I didn't even have the glow of the machine to ruin my sleep. However, I DID have nasal congestion now and couldn't get my darn nose to decongest. At least with the CPAP mask on, it tends to keep my nasal passages somewhat open.
I tossed and turned for a few minutes, trying to breathe and finally gave up. I sat up, turned on the light on my nightstand and rummaged through the masks in the drawer. Ah, here was one that would probably work even if it meant I'd wake up in the morning with a line pressed into each cheek. At least I'd get some sleep. I switched the masks and hooked myself up again to the CPAP machine. This time I just had to adjust the straps of the replacement mask and I was good to go. Go to sleep, that is. No more tea kettle sounds. Thank goodness!
2 comments:
laugh laugh laugh, ok, I'm sorry but that was so me 15 years ago. I have found that putting a ring on the wall behind my head to hold the hose in a position helped.
This is suposeto get you a better sleep. We work around what we have until we find something that works.
Not to take away from your story, but, I have an air conditioner on my machine, simple the air passes over water and you can heat it up. This is important in the winter time here as the night air might be too cool and it is awful to wake with a frozen nose. Worse was the first night I hooked up the air conditioner and set it on the table top beside the bed just higher than the bed. The condensation built up in the long hose and let go racing down the hose at about 3:30 am like a tidal wave. I woke thinking I was drowning..what a feeling. I wish you better adjustments tonight
You are so good at laughing at yourself! I love the title of this post. :)
Hope things work better tonight!
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