OT: The Klingon, was My Daughter

[Guest guest]

At 03:09 PM 12/2/2008, you wrote:

Marilyn to the rescue any day..

every day!! Woohoo! Klingon is doing you good!!

Just in case anyone is wondering about this referent, I was diagnosed, a

couple months ago, with complex sleep apnea. (Oh, boy! Another health

challenge! 2008 has been just chock full of them!)

Sleep apnea is when you stop breathing for a few moments while sleeping.

It's treated by means of CPAP -- constant positive air pressure machines.

However, some 15% of the apneic populace has what's called complex sleep

apnea, which means that when they're put on CPAP, the brain says,

" Oh, don't need to tell her to breathe any more... " and the

person starts throwing what are called central apneas. This also gets

treated with CPAP, but it's a very special kind of CPAP which can quickly

adjust the pressures to match what's needed to keep you breathing

properly.

The chief problem with CPAP is finding a mask which works for the given

patient. The chant is " Everyone is different! " but yowser, I've

come to the conclusion that CPAP mask designers are (a) all male, and (

all bald, 'cause there ain't a mask I've seen yet which really takes into

account a woman's head... and hair!

I'm going to try to paste in a picture of the rig I'm sleeping in these

days, but if it gets stripped out, you can find it here:

http://tinyurl.com/6pkmjn

Now, realize that this rig was, for me, the most comfortable of the dozen

or so I tried on. Anyway, you can see why I called it my Klingon head...

'cept I don't think Klingon foreheads come in blue...

—

Marilyn

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund