I love that commercial with all the people in the CPAP support group sitting in a circle wearing masks and hoses with the sound of air whooshing around them.
There seems to be universal agreement that the darned thing is a pain in the you-know-what.
My mom also struggles mightily with that machine. She’s 93 and has lived her whole life without any trouble sleeping. She’s awake and perky all day long too — no feelings of tiredness. But they ran a test and presto, now she’s a CPAP user!
She hates everything about it.
My dad helps her get “suited up” before bed each night, tightening the straps around her head, careful to keep her hair from getting caught in the elastic.
She keeps her “sippy cup” on the night stand next to the bed because of the dry-mouth she struggles with. But to take a sip, she has to disengage the hose that extends out of the mask in front of her mouth. Then she can poke the straw from the sippy cup in through the small hole where the hose was connected. After that she plugs the hose back in. She does this multiple times each night.
Mom says the elastic straps pinch her head causing her scalp to itch. And during the night, her mask loosens up and air leaks out of it causing a whistling sound that wakes up my dad.
Mom: Hey, stop pushing me!
Dad: You’re leaking
Mom: All I want to do is sleep!
Dad: Fix it – I want to sleep too!
So Mom gets up to turn off the machine and free herself from the plastic contraption. This is usually in the early hours. Then she sleeps great for the rest of the night.
They’ve fiddled around with that thing for years, ordering new masks in an effort to find one that fits better. Recently they discovered Mom can wear one that only covers her nose instead of her mouth too. But the company sent her the wrong masks so now she has a big bag full of the wrong kind. And they can’t send them back because they already opened the box. (Sigh)
I keep urging her to consider having the Aspire implant put in under her chin, so she doesn’t have to struggle with the darned CPAP. But she’s hesitant and probably a little afraid of the surgery. If it were me, I’d get it done in a hot minute. (This is not an endorsement and I get no money for mentioning the Aspire implant here.)
But it seems like everyone these days are hooked up to a CPAP. There are reports that they are over-prescribed and some say that losing weight and/or sleeping on your side can reduce or eliminate symptoms. (Another disclaimer: This is not medical advice. I am not a medical professional. I don’t even own a white jacket.)
There’s got to be a better way for folks to get a good nights sleep without “waking” multiple times gasping for air and without fighting with a hose and mask contraption.
My husband and I have agreed we just won’t go there.
Neither of us want to roll over in bed and see the other with an octopus strapped to their face!
