Tag: cpap

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Vital Statistics

My back is all better after the pressure washing whirlwind last weekend. In fact, this morning I felt like I had more energy than I have for quite awhile. I’m taking a day off from work tomorrow so I can expend some energy on the yard and house before the party on Saturday.

Bike odometer: 196 miles
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Science Friday, John Prine, Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers, One Hot Minute by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Recent viewing: Countdown, CBS Evening News, American Masters: Gene Kelly, High Stakes Poker
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Cleaned and disinfected CPAP equipment, bank, post office, FedEx
Imperative To Do: Hair cut, new rear fender for bike, mow lawn, follow-up phone calls for birthday, finish old blog entries
Cool Link: Drug-danger league table: When ranked according to the harm they cause, which drugs are the most dangerous? (Hint: the top two are legal.)

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Vital Statistics

Today Tina and I celebrated losing 20 lbs. each by having sushi for lunch. It’s been remarkably easy on the South Beach plan. Tina tells me everything I can and can’t eat which makes it even easier. I wouldn’t be able to do this well without her.

On Saturday I rented a power washer and spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the deck and all of our concrete. After 8 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday, my whole body is complaining today but especially my back. It doesn’t feel like I “pulled” anything, though, so I’m sure it will be OK in a few days.

My mom is getting here on Wednesday and we’re having a big (for us) birthday party for my 40th birthday on Saturday. You are invited!

Bike odometer: n/a (drove today)
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Coverville, MC Front-A-Lot, MC Chris, It’s The Jump Off
Recent viewing: Dead Zone, Countdown, An Evening with the Dixie Chicks, Sportscenter, The Simpsons, The Alternative, The Daily Show, National Pie Championship
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Recycled styrofoam, power washed the deck and concrete, emailed birthday invitations
Imperative To Do: Clean CPAP stuff, bank, refinish deck, hair cut, service van, new rear fender for bike, mow lawn, follow-up phone calls for birthday
Cool Video: Four-year-old drumming prodigy

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Vital Statistics

I think I got better sleep last night, but I still woke up many times either because the mask was leaking or my mouth had opened. After blogging this weekend, I went back to Wikipedia to see if there was any information about my problem. At the end of the CPAP article, there were a number of links that I tried including one for CPAP Talk, an online forum for CPAP users. I found an article by a guy who had the same problem as I have (mouth opening during REMs) that solved it by taping his mouth shut. I’m going to continue as I have for a couple of more weeks, but if I keep waking up because of my big mouth, I’m going to give my doctor a call and ask him his opinion about taping it shut. Sounds pretty simple!

Five years ago today I drove my little truck to work instead of biking or riding the Max. I think I forgot the faceplate for my stereo because I didn’t listen to the radio on the way there. Usually, I would listen to NPR if it was early enough, or Mark & Brian if it was later. When I got to work, Tina called me and told me to go to CNN.com. That’s how I found out about the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. We turned on the satellite receiver attached to our projector at work, but we had let the subscription lapse. So I wasn’t subjected to the media coverage until I got home that night. I remember driving to work for days after watching the taller buildings expecting a plane to fly into them. I remember how happy I felt when I heard a plane fly over our house again after the airport was silent for a week. Little did we know then that it would be used as justification for the biggest mistake this country has ever undertaken.

Bike odometer: 137 miles
Current reading: The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Taking The Long Way by Dixie Chicks, John Prine
Recent viewing: Bad Santa, U.S. Open Men’s Final
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Paid bills
Imperative To Do: Labels for my sister’s CDs, test drive new bike seats, bank, refinish deck, hair cut, service van
Cool Link: HowStuffWorks: A great site with easy explanations, diagrams and animations to show how stuff works. Examples: How Car Engines Work, How Blogs Work, How File Compression Works, How do stringrays kill?

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Vital Statistics

Graham got an extremely late birthday present today – I finally got around to wiring his bedroom for the internet. I did manage to get him a new computer on his birthday, but many weekends have passed since where I have promised him that I would get it installed but never found the time. He’s been understanding the whole time. Last night I told him that we could do it today if he would help and he was very excited to do it. His most important part involved traversing the crawl space from Thomas’ room (where the “hatch” is) to our room and back. There are several pipes and heating ducts in the way that make it very difficult for me to do it. When I wired Thomas’ room about five years ago, it probably took me an hour to make my way to our bedroom and back to Thomas’ room. This afternoon it took Graham about three minutes to do the same thing. Probably half of that time as me explaining to him where he needed to go. He was my Briar Rabbit today. Anyway, we got it all done and Graham is very excited to have iChat and his own computer for playing internet games.

After my first night with the CPAP, things have gone down hill. The chin restraint keeps my mouth from flying wide open, but my lips still open a tiny bit during REM sleep. This produces a hissing sound that makes Tina think that her ocean-sound alarm is going off. No, it’s just me so she rolls over and taps me on the lip so I close my mouth again. After the first morning of that (I usually go into REMs at around 4:00 am), I adjusted slightly and have since been getting the “chipmunk cheeks”. The valve (for lack of a better word) in my throat opens and air rushes into my mouth puffing up my cheeks. This wakes me enough to close the valve and go back to sleep. However, it’s not making for very good sleep and I’ve had a couple mornings where I slept past 10 hours. On Friday Tina and I saw my sleep doctor and he said to be patient with it. I go back to see him in 6 weeks and take my CPAP in for evaluation (it also records sleep data) in 4 weeks. If it’s not better by then, I’m going to insist on getting fitted for a nose-and-mouth mask.

I think I’ve noticed more motivation in myself on the weekends lately. It’s probably related to the weight loss I’ve had since Tina and I started South Beach about 6 weeks ago. But the whole sleep diagnostic experience has also made me more hopeful about my life in general, I think. I can’t tell you how great it feels to wake up after 8 hours of sleep and be completely rested. I’m looking forward to when every day is like that.

Bike odometer: n/a
Current reading: The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Humpy’s Soul Show, The Jumpoff, Dave Allen’s Neighborhood (all available here)
Recent viewing: Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Ed vs. Spencer, Countdown
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Installed network in Graham’s room, new music for Tina
Imperative To Do: Labels for my sister’s CDs, test drive new bike seats, bank
Cool Link: Spam: An excellent gift for a 40th birthday (the variety pack would be awesome!)

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Vital Statistics

Tonight I sleep at the hospital so they can study my sleep. It’s very likely that I have sleep apnia and we’re hoping that the study results in a prescription for a CPAP machine.

Starting Sunday, I’ll be in San Francisco until Friday for the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.

Bike odometer: 27 miles (new battery)
Current reading: The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Prince by Machiavelli, I Love Being The Enemy by Reggie Miller and Gene Wojciechowski
Recent listening: Diver Down by Van Halen, Feels Like Home by Norah Jones, Spirit Trail by Bruce Hornsby, Running On Empty by Jackson Browne, Taking The Long Way by Dixie Chicks
Recent viewing: Monk, Sportscenter, Countdown, Rockstar: Supernova, Last Comic Standing
Recent playing: Snood
Recently accomplished: Trimmed the hedges, fixed the new extension cord I chopped with the hedge trimmer, burned CDs for my sister, bike tune-up, fixed watch
Imperative To Do: Truck shopping, Internet for Graham’s room, weed, send CDs to people
Cool link: Honey, why is the water bill so high?