Done With the Bi-PAP

In January of 2006, I posted this introduction to the brand new bi-PAP machine that Master had just been prescribed to treat His fairly serious case of sleep apnea. At the time, we both believed that the machine was a C-PAP (continuous positive air pressure). We didn't figure out that it was properly called a bi-PAP (not continuous pressure but alternating between two pressure settings) until just about a year ago. Whatever it ended up being called, our daily lives have been bracketed, morning and night, by the reality of that machine: take it down and clean it in the morning, fill it up and set it back up each night. We have arranged our sleeping area to accomodate it. We have dragged it on every trip away from home.



Every single night since January 18, 2006, the machine has roared away through the night. We have come to simply encompass the noise it makes, and sleep despite the ruckus. It blows freezing cold air. The mask becomes maladjusted and He wrestles and struggles with it. The hose that feeds the air to the mask wraps around Him -- around us. We've survived it all.



Wednesday night, that all came to an end -- one that we never ever imagined we would see. As of now, Master has lost enough weight (115 pounds) that His sleep apnea is resolved and the machine is no longer needed. So, it was that, as we went to bed last night, there was no roaring machine; no howling gale of freezing cold air; no straps to adjust; and no tube to negotiate. We curled up together and just went to sleep like people.



I'll admit that I stayed very close, and woke up frequently to watch and be sure that He was OK. But it does seem that it all went just fine, and we are one step further along this healing path that has taken us from deadly overweight, to increasingly robust good health. One more milestone: no more bi-PAP!



Hooray!



swan