Wednesday, December 10, 2014

CPAP Adventures

In our continuing saga of Gastric Bypass Tales, L's CPAP machine arrived on Friday. She needed one because the sleep study showed that she had sleep apnea with 15 waking events an hour. So a woman from the company brought her out a machine. And wow, surprises ensued.



A friend of mine has a CPAP machine. He took pictures of his, to show me about how big they are. OK, not too big. Little water reservoirs on them so you can add distilled water to keep yourself hydrated at night. The water vapor comes through with the air, like it would in a room humidifier. OK, cool.

The woman was in and out of the house before I even noticed she was here. L let her in, and brought her up to her room. She wasn't carrying anything other than a small purse-sized bag. That was the actual unit. Well, the thing inside the bag. (Right now Son J would be saying "Actually, mom, that was the bag. The unit was inside.)  Anyway, CPAP woman set the thing up, and explained to L how to use it, answered questions, and told her how to contact them if she needs anything, where to order supplies, how often insurance will pay for supplies, etc.. Oh, man. Having this thing is like having a job.

There are parts you have to wash every day. Mostly the face mask. Parts you have to wash every week. Parts you have to replace monthly; parts you have to replace at various other intervals, and they can't call and remind you that you need to replace things, because insurance companies consider that soliciting on the part of the medical company. Not even kidding.

So now by Wednesday, she figured out that the face mask wasn't fitting her properly. She got sores inside her mouth where it rubbed on her teeth. She got marks on her cheekbones from the straps and the mask itself. Apparently, there's a diagnostic test you can run, to see if you're getting a good seal. She had to tighten the thing way down in order to get a good seal. So, she ordered a smaller mask. They're bringing it tomorrow. I hope this one fits.

Oh, and the unit itself was smaller than my friend's, plus it had girly vines or flowers or something on the side of it. Decorative girly CPAP. Interesting. It also uploads her nightly results to somewhere, and she can see how she's doing. The first night, she had 1.5 waking events per hour. I feel like that's a pretty good reduction.  And, it showed her commercials for an entire line of girly CPAP parts. Apparently there are smaller masks designed specifically for women. They come in purple, and they... how did they put it? They allow you to wear your hair up or down, while the machine is on. Sexist, or practical? I can't decide.

Well, other than tomorrow's outcome, that's it for us until next week. That should be interesting. We have group nutrition and behavioral health next week, which we absolutely can't miss. (Missing either of those in a month resets our 6 months of pre-surgical appointments. And that would suck. A lot.)  But my truck door is effed up. It won't shut. The lower hinge pin is loose. L & I watched videos about it. I asked my ex- to come over and look at it. He decided that the problem isn't the hinge pin, it's the door latch. The videos L watched said that the problem with the door latching is that the hinge pin is loose. Ex said, "no, it's the door latch. It needs to be welded. But yeah, that's loose." So he didn't replace the hinge pin, even though we bought the part. Frustrating. So I guess I get to try and figure out if someone can fix it for the amount of money I have. Which is basically none. WTF truck, breaking at Christmas? Argh. Still, fingers crossed. Oh, and did I mention that since the door won't shut, the dome light won't go off? And so I'll need a tow and a jump start?  Wonder if I can get AAA to do both, so I don't get charged for them. I can't drive it, even with the jump start, because the door won't latch. So I'd need a tow, then a jump start afterward, to leave. Although they'll probably need power to test the door closing, so maybe they'll just do it. I hope they don't charge for that.

Meanwhile, I think I am going to call the medi-van thing and see if we can get rides to Concord next week, just in case. They take our insurance, and I'm pretty sure other people from here go out there. K saw someone she knows from work there, once. Wish me luck!

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