Renting A Sleep Apnea Machine

As the result of his sleep lab experience, DH (dear hubby) picked up his CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine and will be renting it for a month or two (at $18 per month) to see if that kind of sleep apnea machine  is effective for him.

The machine comes in a back-pack sized case with a compartment for the mask with its long clear tube and another for the little (about the size of a half piece of letter paper) black box.  Two of the three buttons have been programmed and punching them won’t do anything.  The middle button is the on-off switch.  The mask fits over the nose.

He was told it might take a while to get accustomed to it.  He tried it for about 20 minutes the first time.  That night or the next he said he had it on for about an hour. 

 I discovered that I had to get a good-night kiss in before the nose thing goes on as there’s not much room around the mouth with the mask on.  I fell asleep listening to the kind of heavy breathing  that isn’t very unusual when DH is fast asleep. (He very seldom snored– not all with sleep apnea do snore.)

Temperatures in our rooms will fall to 55 degrees in the autumn.  The machine’s forced air felt cold to DH so we tried setting the thermostat higher.  The air also was fairly dry.

Today DH went and picked up a humidifying attachment.  With the attachment the machine is about the size of a full piece of letter sized paper.  There is also a knob for adjusting the temperature of the humidity.

On the way home we stopped by the store for distilled water.  Only distilled water should be used in the reservoir.  Every week or more the water holder can be cleaned with a solution of 3 parts water to one part white vinegar.

Wondering about the cost?  Under the medicare plan that DH has, our portion of cost of the machine with carrying case  is about $200.  I haven’t seen the charge card receipt for the humidifier. 

 I’m writing this as a record of the journey into another aspect of sleep. Wikipedia shows a photo similar to his at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPAP_machine.  I have high hopes that higher energy and less need for DH staying in bed for longer than eight hours will be the result of having the CPAP sleep apnea machine.

Sleep Lab Testing for a Second Time

I got an eye-witness view of what happens to make a sleep test work.

When DH (Dear Hubby) saw his doctor, the doctor said he still needed him to go through the sleep lab.  He would prescribe a sedative this time and he re-scheduled him.

Things were a bit different this time around.  He still got the call to remind him what to do. Rhis time the arrangement was different.  I drove him. I was able to stay overnight in a separate room for no charge. He had some idea what to expect. Ladies of my Bible study prayed for him and the test.

He had a different technician.  He showed us to a fairly large but quite cool room.  This technician sat down and discussed the test and why the testing is important. He mentioned the connection between breathing and high blood pressure and heart attacks.  He explained that to use the toilet DH must call him to take care of the wires.  With two patients he might have to wait if he was helping the other patient. 

He talked about why no cd or radio signals to help one go to sleep.   Such noise could cause a problem in recording the sensors signal. 

Before any wires were attached the tech had DH wear and use the breathing apparatus for about 20 minutes to accustom him to it. When the tech was out of the room we did some reading and talking. 

This technician put the tiny wires in the back instead of the front.  I was surprised to see what the wires looked like.  They were very tiny.  Each was a different color and they plugged in to a box about the size of a wallet with lots of holes. They reminded me of a miniature pegboard.  The other end was secured with some adhesive tape.  He pre-tested at least two sensors.  One sensor could tell if one’s eyes were open or closed, another sensed foot or leg movement.

Lights out was closer to our usual bedtime.  The tech explained that he needed enough time to be sure they got a good reading on all the tests. This time DH didn’t have to have the light out until 10 p.m. and I was in the room until then.

During the night DH’s throat did close up so he woke up as the tech placed a larger devise on him to keep that from happening. Other than that, he slept well.  I slept well in the next room until DH woke up.  We showered, dressed and went out to breakfast.

Flunking Sleep testing

DH (dear hubby) was scheduled for a sleep test in a sleep lab.  He had a couple of problems.

It wasn’t the bed.  The bed was very comfortable- superb, he said.  Perhaps it was a disruption of his usual ways of getting to sleep.

 Was it the time of night? His beginning time was a bit after 8 p.m.  By 9:30 he was all wired up, after watching less than a half hour of television while that was being done.  He doesn’t fall asleep until about 10:30 usually.

Was it the darkness? He regularly either watches t.v. or reads until he gets sleepy.  The t.v. controller was taken and hung up on the wall.  The light was switched off.

Was it lack of music?  He almost always uses earphones and falls asleep while listening to a c.d.  The earphones were taken away.

  Was it the feel of the head wires?  Wires are attached to test all kinds of problems.  On the head was a patch, about 3 by 4 inches.  Lots of wires were going into it, including one that could sense whether eyes are open or closed. 

Was it too many wires? Two wires on the cheekbone or jawbone, the neck, the chest, and legs.  A hose is in the nose. Something is under the ears, around the back of the head and by the mouth. He got a crawly feeling with the wires touching him.

Did the sensing equipment effect his balance?  He started feeling dizzy and queasy.

Why did he start getting unpleasant images?  He usually visualizes pleasant things, but nightmarish images started coming. 

We know that DH gets claustrophobia and that he has to get to a toilet about every two hours, probably due to diuretics he takes. To get up he would have to get some wires disconnected.

After two hours he ended the test, in spite of their urging to continue.  Very few people do that, but who would ever call DH anything but unique.