CPAP, night 3

Right now the plan is to clean my gear every other day, so yesterday I had to pull it all apart and wash the gaskets, humidifier tray, face harness, and nasal pillow. The strap that holds the harness to my head will need occasional cleaning, but it rests on my hair, so I'm not as worried about it as the parts that lay on my skin. I hand-washed it all with Dawn in the bathroom sink, put it on a plastic plate to dry, and closed the bathroom door on the off chance that Sam decided to come in and jump on the counter. I've only ever seen Steve jump up there and he's living downstairs right now, but it's always a good idea to get into the habit immediately. That door is normally propped open because I like to let the air flow throughout the house during the day, and if it wasn't propped, it might slam closed.

But there were still some droplets of water on the pieces, so I may just use the hair dryer. And my nostrils were killing me last night, so I used a little Neosporin before bed, and the nasal pillow will be washed today. I'm still trying to find what the recommended moisturizer is, the brands specifically sold for this are ten dollars an ounce! Ridiculous.

My sleep last night was pretty great. I only got up once to go to the bathroom, and that was also the only time I drank any water. Before the CPAP when I was snoring with my mouth open, my mouth and throat would get so dry. Wasn't an issue at all last night. The second and final time I woke up, there was a bit of moisture in my nose and I was just trying to lay very still and go back to sleep. After a couple of minutes, I decided to check the time and see if it might be worth it to take off the mask and go blow my nose, and it was 3:59! My alarm is set for 4am, so if you think about it, I really only woke up once throughout the night. Pretty amazing.

Today's a swim day and I expect it to be pretty uneventful. But my iPod's charged so at least I'll have music this time.

Sam's tail was sent in for a full biopsy after it was removed and we got the results yesterday. The results confirmed myxoid fibrosarcomas, which is cancer, but the margins are clear. Only five more days until the sutures come out and the collar comes off. But we still get to have supervised time where he doesn't have to wear it in the meantime.



I really have no idea why the back of my head has been so hard on that poor loveseat. Garrett likes to sit on a blanket so his side looks perfect. But it's perfect under a blanket.

One thing that's nice to see is that Sam's still hunting his toys and leaving them as offerings around the house while wearing the collar. I managed to catch him yowling with the duck last night.

I'm keeping my bedroom door open while we're doing the upstairs/downstairs thing and he spent the whole night in my bed, which was nice. I'd leave my bedroom door open all the time if they'd behave, but they usually don't.

Addendum

I realized when I was in the pool that it was stupid of me to balk at the $10 price tag on the recommended product for my nostrils. What's $10 compared to possibly a couple of months of relief? Plus, I still don't know how much the nostril pillows go for if you have to pay out of pocket, but I suspect it might be more costly to replace one than to maintain it. So I popped over to the medical supply center when I left the pool and grabbed this.



Looking forward to trying that, along with the next size up of nasal pillow. I've been using the medium but the large might be more comfortable.

That swim team I recently shared the pool with was in the pool when I arrived. At least, I think it was them. Same coach, but only six swimmers, as opposed to fifteen or so last time. Have a lot of people dropped out? Who can say. It was nice that there were so few because we weren't in each other's way at all.

And just like how I noticed before that they entered the pool without showering, this time they went from the sauna to the hot tub without rinsing off, walking right by the sign that says they should. The lifeguards were around and didn't say anything, so I suppose they don't care and mentioning it would make me the annoyance. I always thought it was a bit odd that they want you to rinse after the sauna because I'm sure people swimming and sitting in the hot tub also sweat directly into the water, but I do as they ask.

Speaking of lifeguards, Zoey the swim center cat jumped up onto one of the raised lifeguard chairs today. It was quite cute and I wish I had a picture. She's free to come and go as she pleases and I've seen her wander in the front door behind people as they enter. The other day when they were bringing the new lockers in, they had the door propped open for a long time and I saw her looking at it as if to say, "Can I go out this one? What's going on?"

A very nice song played on my iPod just in time to be the last song of my swim and it reminded me that I've been meaning to recommend that album here. I discovered the amazing-but-stupidly-named Got a Girl via the Secretly Timid podcast, and loved the song they played so much that I bought the album immediately. Got a Girl is Dan the Automator with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who happens to be one of my favorite actors. I love that she's also made such great music. Same goes for Milla Jovovich. Anyway, the whole album is good, but this is probably my favorite track from it and it's such a treat when it comes on.

I've reached an age where there's just not too much new music being made that I care about, which is fine, because I've amassed a huge library over the years. So when Information Society, Imperial Teen, and my other old favorites release something new, I'll buy it for sure. And I recently picked up the new Nervous Curtains EP, also because of Secretly Timid. My friend Nan who's on that show contributed vocals to their amazing cover of The Visitors by ABBA.

Oh and our friends Jenn and Jason have an awesome band named Mutiny Mutiny and you should go buy everything they have. I'm not just saying that because we're friends, I also like their music and always keep it in the rotation.