Embracing the Hose

[mikemoran]

I like you am one of the millions of Obstructive Sleep Apnea sufferers who woke up one day to the realization that we don’t know how to even sleep properly. Something so every day and common that every one takes for granted. Sure we can be angry at ourselves that we can’t even do this simplest of things right. How can our bodies betray us so? Stealing the very rest we all crave and need. Such a juicy morsel for us to feed our self pity with and so easy a trap for us to fall into.

I have only one thing to say “Get over yourself”. Next to explosive flatulence we have one of the funniest disorders available on the medical hit list. Snoring has been a comedy best seller for ages, even before the Three Stooges. We really all should be thankful that someone in the medical profession even bothered to look into the health ramifications. Imagine the snickers as the first Sleep Doctor stood up in front of his esteemed colleagues and said, “I have a treatment for snoring and apnea, and it involves pumping air into the patients”.

I don’t want to minimize the challenges we all face. Such as uncomfortable testing, indomitable waits between diagnoses and treatment, macabre paraphernalia and the lack of understanding from family and even the medical profession. These so pale in comparison to other disorders and treatments that they should be laughable. We are not dealing with daily injections, massive blood replacements or even weekly canister deliveries. We get to breath the air around us and in return we return peace to our households and energy to ourselves.

So take the disorder serious, just not yourself. Don the mask, look at yourself in the mirror and see how funny it looks. The masks comes off and you are just you when it does. I guarantee that your partners in life are laughing no less than when you so often denied you were snoring, even when the plaster was falling off the ceiling. Maybe it’s just me, but I love to see my family smile and this is just another way to generate those grins.

So embrace the hose and take the mask as your own. You have found the path that makes you more unique than those around you. Adopt that knowing smile of all jesters who realize how much life they breathe into the world through laughter

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): hose

[wading thru the muck!]

Hey Mike,

You took a break from you famous humor to make a serious post... and it's a good one.

I completely agree that "some of us" look at the prospects of having this condition as something much more serious than it is. All we have to do is blow plain old air in our noses... and only while we sleep. In exchange for this, our companions get the benefit of sleeping without induring the racket of a chainsaw that came out of our mouths prior to therapy. We get to sleep soundly and wake up refreshed. Sure, we may end up with a few bad hair days or a sore shnoz one in a while, but for the most part we are lucky to have such a simple solution to our problem.

[SLEEPYCD]

Silly Man Moran,
Ah, so true, we take ourselves much too seriously!!!!! For example, my physician is so anal now, he checks my heart and lungs everytime I see him, he treats me like I'm made of glass and will break at any given moment. So, for Christmas I got him a little stuffed Moose that is holding a X-mas ornament that says "Lighten Up, It's Christmas"!!!!! I'M FEELING GREAT NOW AND GETTING BACK IN SHAPE AND AM AS HAPPY AS CAN BE!!!!! Thanks for your insight and neverending HUMOR!!!!!!
Carolyn

[deedster]

Well said Mike. I think we get so hung up with something being wrong with us, the bizarre-looking treatment, etc. that we forget to be thankful that we have a diagnosis and a treatment available to us.

It’s just air for heaven’s sake – not chemo, surgery, etc.

There are many diseases that have very extreme or no treatment. At least they didn't have to amputate our heads!!! Think of all the people out there that are clueless that they have something wrong with them and receive no treatment.

So in the days ahead, stop and be thankful for what you have (CPAP, doctors, a healthier and longer life, etc.) instead of thinking of it as what you have to endure.

[ozij]

Mike serious is just as good as Mike jesting.


O.

[mikemoran]

Have to make a confession. I wrote this as a justification for my not so serious postings

[SLEEPYCD]

Silly Man Moran,
Yeah, we know, you were compelled to do a serious post!!!! Please don't let it happen too often!!!! LOL
CD

[snork1]

[quote="mikemoran"]....Next to explosive flatulence we have one of the funniest disorders available on the medical hit list. Snoring has been a comedy best seller for ages, even before the Three Stooges. ......