Forgot my mask!

[PST]

My wife and I took a weekend automobile trip to visit our octogenarian and nonagenarian parents. As I was packing my CPAP to leave, handling the machine reminded me that I had seen a package downstairs that I assumed was a new mask I had ordered (the first in more than a year), so I excitedly ran down to retrieve it. It turned out to be something else, but somewhere along the way I lost the thread of my thoughts and ended up packing everything I needed except a mask. This I discovered at Saturday midnight in a hotel in a small city a couple of hundred miles from home. There was nowhere to pick one up there on Sunday either, so -- for the first time in several years -- I was forced to go bare. I got on my left side and did the best I could. On the first night I hardly slept. The second was worse for my wife than for me, since she lay awake listening to the freight train in the room and worrying at the same time that my snoring might stop. That next day the benefits of CPAP all came back to me. I felt grouchy, flu-like, and too sleepy to drive. I went to bed at 7:30 when we got home and slept like the dead until morning.

I share this mostly for the benefit of newcomers who are still having trouble adjusting. It can be so rough at first, with difficulty finding the right pressure, leaks, poor fitting masks, and the whole nine yards. But for many of us, a few weeks of discomfort yield life-changing benefits that we eventually start to take for granted. After things are dialed in, using CPAP can be so routine and so easy that you hardly think about it until the unfortunate day you goof up like I did. Cpaptalk is a wonderful resource, but I seldom come here anymore because, after ten years or so, CPAP is such a piece of cake I don't think about it. It took a forceful reminder to trigger my memory of what astonishing value the treatment provides me.

[Okie bipap]

Since I carry my Kindle when we travel, I keep a copy of my prescription on it in case I run into trouble on the road and need to pick up CPAP supplies for some reason. The first time I traveled with the machine, I didn't have the prescription with me and my machine quit working on me. I had to wait until I could get back home to get it exchanged.

[BlackSpinner]

I am a fanatic list maker for those reasons.

[Sir NoddinOff]

Usually a day or two before a trip I spread out a small blanket on the floor in the corner of our bedroom and start laying out the stuff I intend to take. This gives me a lot of visual reminders of what needs to be collected... I tend to work well with visual ques readily on hand. Of course the trick is not to remove something from the blanket (or whatever) and then put it back where it usually goes, say, a toothbrush. Also, if you have dogs and cats then you might get little surprises left behind.

[PST]

Lists are good. Unfortunately, I don't think it would ever occur to me to list the various parts separately. That would be sort of like writing down "left sock, right sock." My downfall was throwing the unit, hose, and power cord into the suitcase, and then, while adding the mask, having the bright idea to go get the new mask. I actually had my prescription with me, but it was "Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio," to quote the late John Denver, and I couldn't find anyone carrying CPAP masks open on Sunday.

[70sSanO]

If I found myself in that situation, I would find a pharmacy and buy a cervical collar and try to sleep sitting up. Not a substitute for xPAP, but stabilizing the head from tilting down or back may help to keep the airway open.

John

[ChicagoGranny]

Forgot my mask!

I am so sorry this happened to you. At my age, two nights without CPAP might cause a stroke, heart attack or dirt nap.

Having CPAP every night is so important to me, I post here my "traveling procedure" for critique.

- A general carry-on bag with stowed in it a spare mask and hose is kept in a drawer ready for travel.

- Upon arising on travel day, before making the bed, I pack the machine, power block and cable, mask, hose, cervical collar, head Buff and tights in the medical device bag to be carried on. An extension cord stays in the medical carry-on bag at all times.

- At the same time, a tube of Orajel and my medications go into the aforementioned general carry-on bag.

- As I make the bed, I look for any item that may have been missed.

- Then I carry both bags to the car trunk.

- We are careful to keep the trunk lever in the cockpit of the car (whether our car or rental) locked. If you leave it unlocked, you make it easy for a thief who breaks into the cockpit to flip the lock and take items from the trunk.

[egzbuen]

Happened to me once.

Catching a flight to attend to an out of town court hearing. Packed everything including the mask.

The one I forgot was the adapter used to connect the wisp nasal mask to the tube.

That was a long night. Learned my lesson and really need to pack a day before and not on the same day.

Sent from heaven

[ChicagoGranny]

Sent from heaven

Surely, you don't still need CPAP.

[DreamStalker]

I very rarely travel these days .... but when I do, I always grab my CPAP gear before my underwear.



Stay breathing my friends.

[egzbuen]

Sent from heaven

Surely, you don't still need CPAP.

Sent from heaven