There Is No Panacea

This is sad news. There should be a panacea. For everything. A pan-panacea, if you will.

The keep-me-breathing-while-I-sleep machine is not a panacea. There were a couple of days when it looked like it might be. I was sleeping for 6 hours, and waking up! Refreshed! Even my sinuses were clear! And I thought, maybe this could be it. Sure, I look like a Doughboy up against mustard gas in WWI when I go to sleep, but maybe it's worth it.

Because, if I could sleep well and only need six hours a night--why, that would free up so much time! I could wake up, and have enough energy to go to the gym! I could finally lose the weight I gained after my kids were born! I wouldn't have to stay up so late out of a desperate need for a few consecutive minutes of mental clarity! The price of gas would go down! The Shia and Sunni would go to dinner at the Kurds, and Iraq would be as Eden! I could think of something to have for dinner! Caffeine free Diet Pepsi(TM) would run from the water taps!

Alas, it was not to be. I started having a reaction to the material that touches my face. I'd call it a "latex allergy" but I have been informed (and rather snottily, I might add) that there IS no latex in the damn thing. Okay, so tell that to the spots on my face that are raw and painful!

Maybe I had the mask on too tightly? Okay, so I loosened the straps. And spent that night feeling like I had a 50 pound elephant's trunk strapped to my face. The sucker had its own momentum whenever I rolled over, and tried to take my face with it.

So, boil some water, pour it over the mask and let the water cool. Some help, and the raw spot disappeared, but there is still some unpleasant reaction between that mask and my face.

Then, I find I'm still not getting enough sleep. I wake up after seven hours of sleep, and I'm still tired. I still need another 2-4 hours of sleep--which maybe isn't fair, since then I don't use The Machine, but still eats into a lot of my time. And I'm yawning through the day. Again.

I have an appointment in three weeks to check the data The Machine is gathering. And I think I need to get another mask fitting appointment, as I spend about 15minutes trying to get the thing onto my face so it doesn't weigh so heavily on my upper lip.

Yup. It's official. I'm a whiner.