so my cpap machine finally came yesterday! is it weird that it was so exciting to me? i guess i am pretty tired of waking up tired. lol. my dad's perception of cpap machines is a bit jaded.

the setup was super easy. i had to boil some water to distill some for the machine, but that was probably the hardest part. the cords and plugs were pretty intuitive. the headpiece, well, i struggled a little putting it on, but after a bit of trial and error, i managed to get it on my face comfortably.

and, honestly, it wasn't hard to keep it on. i was worried i'd toss in my sleep and cause a tangle that'd make the whole thing fall off the shelf, but it didn't happen. i wasn't tossing really, either. woo! i think the only difficulty was keeping it on without it leaking air, but i think i can just look up how to properly keep it in place via youtube demonstrations, so i'm not worried.

i dunno if i ever said the results of my study a few weeks back. so, what happened was, i woke up fully about 18 times (!), slightly awoke around 26 times (!!), and my blood oxygen levels got as low as 89% (which i was told isnt dire, but was still a bit concerning). i was told i'd be a good candidate for cpap, and, well, yeah!

i slept pretty solid. i got around 8 hours of sleep (went to sleep very late - oops! - around 3am, then awoke around 11pm). i didn't get up AT ALL in the middle of the night. before the machine, i was getting up anywhere from 2 to 4 times a night. i woke up feeling less achey, and my chest felt normal, and i wasn't gasping for breath like usual.

if i had to grade my quality of sleep before and now... i'd say before it was like, a 3 or 4. and now, it's more like an 8 or 9. that's just after one session, too! so i'm optimistic. my dad thought i might drop off using it at some point (i assume he's thinking about how my mom did things - we are not the same person, father!!!) but i think, aside from wanting a good night's sleep, i also think i'd like to be able to sleep next to my girlfriend without snoring as loud as a jet engine. sorry but gay love is more powerful than whatever my mom had going on.

hopefully after a week of it, my long covid symptoms might also disappear a little. that's best-case. but i'll take whatever i get!