Santa’s Coming And He’s Gonna, Fix Your Mask

Last Updated on: 24th November 2022, 04:43 pm

Allow me to give everybody a chance to laugh at me. Here we go.

So, remember when I said I needed someone to come over and adjust things on the machine? Well, it appears that more than the machine needed adjusting. For the last week, I’ve been wearing my mask wrong.

I don’t know how I did it, but I got the idea that the fabric strappy things went to the top of my head, and the hose was around the back. Whenever I would wear it like this, the nose holes would be under my nose, but at a funny angle. This, of course, would not get the air right into my nose, and make the machine not sense my breathing, which started my whole cascade of problems.

So, she showed me where it was supposed to go, and wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I wore it correctly, the air was flowing into my nose and doing all the things it should. She changed the other setting anyway, but I felt like the biggest dope. She kept telling me not to worry, but I still felt like a big dope.

She also told me that I’ve been more dedicated to the treatment than lots of clients. Um, why? I know it’s weird to stick a mask on your face and sleep like that, but when you’re either having to pay for it out of pocket or get a doctor’s authorization, it’s not exactly easy or cheap to get one of these. And when you’ve experienced the benefits at all, why would you go back to sleeping the old way? Here I am with the thing on my face wrong and still feeling miles better than I have in years! I understand the temptation to just take the damn thing off when you’re having mask issues in the moment, but the point is to figure them out. That’s why you’re connected with someone you can bug for help.

Here are some pictures to illustrate the right way, and the wrong way, just in case someone else is screwing it up too. The mask is an AirFit N30i.

Me wearing the mask with the Velcro straps at the back of my head and the hose coming down from the top. The nose holes are directly under my nostrils.
The right way to wear this particular CPAP mask

The Velcro straps are positioned on the top of my head, which puts the mask at a stupid angle under my nose
So close, but so, so far!

My last night’s sleep wasn’t the greatest, but I think it might have been because of other stuff. We’ll see how things go. My score in the app they give you was much much higher, and the place where I lost the most points was for playing with my mask, which I definitely did. But even with my kind of crappy night of sleep, I have felt pretty good today. This thing works wonders!

I sent a picture of myself in the mask to the technician, and she says I got it. This gives me hope.

So, if you’re blind and getting one of these suckers, I recommend recording your whole training session, including the part where they fit you with a mask. Then get them to describe out loud where all the parts go, so you can look back on it. For everybody else, you can just rely on the videos that are in the app, but I don’t find the videos to be super descriptive in a helpful way. “Put the blue strap with the logo facing up” does not help.

Let’s hope the next posts that Santa fuels are about weird and wacky dreams that I’m able to have because my sleep is so good.

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1 Comment

  1. Your adjustment definitely made a difference. You were already snoring much quieter with it on wrong when you did snore, but now that sound is pretty much gone altogether. I caught a couple of tiny ones right up close, but I’m never going to know where you are in this house again.

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