And it works!
After alot of talking and debating, fiddling and observing, testing and adjusting, yelling, screaming... it looks like it's working.
The major problem this whole time was when the naps were bad, they were BAD. Jeremy could barely function which led to more naps.
what made a bad nap? the apnea. Jeremy did everything he could to try to reduce the sleep apnea episodes. The problem is you really can't do much to prevent them.
out of pure desperation, he ended up using the bipap machine for naps.
why didn't he do this earlier?
well, the bad part is you need to wash the damn thing every time you use it. so, 6 naps a day, 6 sets of washing. and he HATED doing that just ONCE a day. he put off needing to put on all that head gear and doing the maintenance as long as he could.
finally, after very stressed times around the house, he started using the bipap during the early morning hours, the naps he consistantly over slept in.
STILL, he had apnea episodes.
ok, so, what are these episodes? well, mostly, the ones that are the most disturbing are where he opens his mouth while asleep. When he sleeps without any aids, he snores. When he has his dental mouth guard (meant to move his jaw forward) he can actually breathe through the guard. When he is using the bipap, well, he can't breathe, his face turns a shade of purple, talk about disturbing sleep!
so, how to get his mouth to stay closed...
wrapping his head with an ace bandage? you can breathe through an ace bandage, looks funny, you drool a little, but you can do it.
using the chin strap (accessory to the bipap) AND wrapping your mouth with the ace bandage? um, no, same problem as above, just less drooling
ok, so, you can't keep your mouth closed, can you block it somehow?
mouth guard? an actual obstruction IN your mouth?
so, Jeremy takes a piece of plastic, wraps it with plastic wrap and puts that in his mouth. (have I mentioned that he's a bit crazy?)
ok, so, this kind of works, enough that he's getting better sleep, but for obvious reasons, we'd like to find a bit better method.
sports mouth guard? YES! that's it, right? just a boxing or football mouth guard?
Dunhams Sports... nope, none in stock
MC sports, I actually think that one closed
Meijer... nope
A specialty Tennis store? definitely not, but hey, you can't tell it's just Tennis when it's named something like "Smith's sporting outfiters" can you?
so, that's where we are. the naps are better with all this fiddling, he actually FORGOT to nap at his 12:30pm nap on Friday, he didn't feel tired.
so, anyone know of a boxing or football store? I'm sure we'll have one by the time anyone reads this. who knows, maybe this really IS the missing piece.
That would be wonderful.
Not only for the benefits to Jeremy's health, our family etc. but because his mother STILL THINKS he's nuts. One of the most unsupportive people I swear.
She actually said to Jeremy that if he didn't get enough REM sleep with this, he'd die. Yea, THAT'S supportive. I don't think she knows how to make an I, feeling statement. You know, like, wow, Jeremy, I had no idea you were having so much trouble you would be willing to try this. I feel (see, not so hard) I feel a little worried/scared/insert feeling here about you trying this.
no, no, ATTEMPT TO SCARE HIM AND HIS WIFE WITH SOME EQUALLY CRAZY WORST CASE SCENERIO. Now, THIS is the way to communicate in a healthy manner. The good Catholic, scare 'em, guilt 'em, shame 'em. She's a pro.
When this works, when he doesn't die from lack of REM, when he doesn't need as much help with getting up, maybe THEN she'll stop.
oh, sorry, I got lost in Neverland, there's no way a silly little thing like SUCCESS would stop the worst case thinking.
so, hopefully I'll be able to blog again soon with more success info.
sorry the blogs are few and far between. It got very VERY busy here after my surgery (I'm doing great btw) and over the last 2 weeks, we "discussed" polyphasic sleeping alot forcing Jeremy into trying more things to make this work. It was crunch time. Something had to work or the whole thing was going to be scrapped.
thanks for reading! later...
The major problem this whole time was when the naps were bad, they were BAD. Jeremy could barely function which led to more naps.
what made a bad nap? the apnea. Jeremy did everything he could to try to reduce the sleep apnea episodes. The problem is you really can't do much to prevent them.
out of pure desperation, he ended up using the bipap machine for naps.
why didn't he do this earlier?
well, the bad part is you need to wash the damn thing every time you use it. so, 6 naps a day, 6 sets of washing. and he HATED doing that just ONCE a day. he put off needing to put on all that head gear and doing the maintenance as long as he could.
finally, after very stressed times around the house, he started using the bipap during the early morning hours, the naps he consistantly over slept in.
STILL, he had apnea episodes.
ok, so, what are these episodes? well, mostly, the ones that are the most disturbing are where he opens his mouth while asleep. When he sleeps without any aids, he snores. When he has his dental mouth guard (meant to move his jaw forward) he can actually breathe through the guard. When he is using the bipap, well, he can't breathe, his face turns a shade of purple, talk about disturbing sleep!
so, how to get his mouth to stay closed...
wrapping his head with an ace bandage? you can breathe through an ace bandage, looks funny, you drool a little, but you can do it.
using the chin strap (accessory to the bipap) AND wrapping your mouth with the ace bandage? um, no, same problem as above, just less drooling
ok, so, you can't keep your mouth closed, can you block it somehow?
mouth guard? an actual obstruction IN your mouth?
so, Jeremy takes a piece of plastic, wraps it with plastic wrap and puts that in his mouth. (have I mentioned that he's a bit crazy?)
ok, so, this kind of works, enough that he's getting better sleep, but for obvious reasons, we'd like to find a bit better method.
sports mouth guard? YES! that's it, right? just a boxing or football mouth guard?
Dunhams Sports... nope, none in stock
MC sports, I actually think that one closed
Meijer... nope
A specialty Tennis store? definitely not, but hey, you can't tell it's just Tennis when it's named something like "Smith's sporting outfiters" can you?
so, that's where we are. the naps are better with all this fiddling, he actually FORGOT to nap at his 12:30pm nap on Friday, he didn't feel tired.
so, anyone know of a boxing or football store? I'm sure we'll have one by the time anyone reads this. who knows, maybe this really IS the missing piece.
That would be wonderful.
Not only for the benefits to Jeremy's health, our family etc. but because his mother STILL THINKS he's nuts. One of the most unsupportive people I swear.
She actually said to Jeremy that if he didn't get enough REM sleep with this, he'd die. Yea, THAT'S supportive. I don't think she knows how to make an I, feeling statement. You know, like, wow, Jeremy, I had no idea you were having so much trouble you would be willing to try this. I feel (see, not so hard) I feel a little worried/scared/insert feeling here about you trying this.
no, no, ATTEMPT TO SCARE HIM AND HIS WIFE WITH SOME EQUALLY CRAZY WORST CASE SCENERIO. Now, THIS is the way to communicate in a healthy manner. The good Catholic, scare 'em, guilt 'em, shame 'em. She's a pro.
When this works, when he doesn't die from lack of REM, when he doesn't need as much help with getting up, maybe THEN she'll stop.
oh, sorry, I got lost in Neverland, there's no way a silly little thing like SUCCESS would stop the worst case thinking.
so, hopefully I'll be able to blog again soon with more success info.
sorry the blogs are few and far between. It got very VERY busy here after my surgery (I'm doing great btw) and over the last 2 weeks, we "discussed" polyphasic sleeping alot forcing Jeremy into trying more things to make this work. It was crunch time. Something had to work or the whole thing was going to be scrapped.
thanks for reading! later...
posted by myhusbandiscrazy @ 5:41 PM
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