Living with Diabetes and Lapband

When the DME brought me my CPAP last Friday, I made sure that he saw my emergency backup battery and cleared it with him for use. I did a test run last night, and was able to use BOTH the CPAP and the humidifer all night on battery backup.

While Pittsburg is in the same country, I will still bring the backup battery, in fact, I might very well use it on the plane -- I did call and clear it even though the person I talked with said -- it's not a night flight so you don't need it and I didn't contradict her.

Anyway, I'm thrilled it works well with the new machine. Primarily because it cost over $250.00 I haven't used it much -- in two power outages locally and when I tried to go to Monte Carlo. There were plenty of times I wanted it before I bought it, so it's been a good purchase. I try to remember to take it on trips, since once when I went to Austin they had a power failure and I ended up driving home instead of waiting for the power to come on -- I did wait an hour.

I'm going to actually try it out in a few minutes.

I am the proud owner (leasee) of a Respironics Remstar Auto M Series. The DME brought it by at 1:00 pm and showed me how to use it. It even works with my emergency backup battery which is a super good thing. It is definately half the size of the loaner machine.

I'm looking forward to lugging it around the airports next week.

Patterns: Sleep Proves More Elusive Than Many Believe - New York Times

Patterns: Sleep Proves More Elusive Than Many Believe

Dr. Rack answers another question I've had (but haven't asked yet).

sleepdoctor: Short Naps are Better

I'm the commenter who asked the question -- if you have any sleep issues this is a great blog to keep up with.

sleepdoctor: The difference between CPAP, BiPAP, and auto-CPAP

The difference between CPAP, BiPAP, and auto-CPAP

Man, do new machines stink. Okay, any time you do anything different to a PAP, it stinks. But I took a short nap, and I feel better already.

My first sympthom of a non-working PAP (notice I'm changing initials already), is allergy symthoms. Very congested but very dry at the same time. It's awful. That's already better.

Plus the diet coke I drank for lunch is doing away with the caffeine headache.

The good news is that I have an old machine that still works.

The bad news is that it gotten through another DME that I don't do business with anymore. When I got it, they didn't bother to tell me they were out of network. Of all my DME's I've used, I like the current one the best. Locally owned, by the son of a retired coworker (teacher).

They have given me super service. Though I don't look forward to dealing with it.

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A lot of my health issues stem from untreated sleep problems for decades...

And I really have problems getting those 8 hours of sleep.

Here's the weird thing, I was diagnosed with Restless Leg years before I was diagnosed with diabetes.

Diabetes In Control - Restless Legs Syndrome Common in Diabetics

Restless legs syndrome can be a major cause of sleep disruption in this population

They also say it causes a lot of my "wake ups" but I don't notice that near as much as I do the GERD wake ups.

Okay, I'm ready to slap the press.

I'm watching the local NBC affliate and they do a "news update on sleep apnea".

Guess what, sleep apnea patients can die unexpectedly in the middle of the night.

BIG DUH! I was told that when I was diagnosed. Where have the study people been for the past 10 years.

The only good news, is that it DOES let other people know that it IS a serious disorder and it can kill. Either slowly or quickly.