New CPAP machine

One is supposed to purchase a new CPAP machine every five years - at least, in Israel we are entitled to receive participation from our health insurance once every five years. The first machine that I had (not the one on the left) had internal problems after three years so I had an incentive to replace it when the five years were up.

At the time, one needed to go to an ENT doctor who would give a referral to the sleep doctor who would then write a 'prescription'. As my current machine (the one on the left) has not given me any problems, I decided not to bother with the trouble of seeing these doctors for what should be an automatic process.

On the other hand, one should replace the mask every year; I have been somewhat lax about this, even though one receives full participation and so the mask doesn't cost anything. I phoned the CPAP company the other day and ordered a mask; I was persuaded to buy a new machine at the same time. It seems that the requirement for the two doctors has been dropped: one can buy a new machine and request participation once every five years.

So I ordered a new machine a few days ago which was delivered on Friday. This is a very smart looking device although it took me a while to find where the SD card resides (the data from the machine are written to this card). Along with the machine, I also received a new mask and even a 'CPAP pillow'. 

The mask 'fell apart' when I awoke during the first night for a toilet visit, so I had to reconnect the part which separated while still half asleep and almost in darkness. This stunt did not repeat itself last night, although there are a few parts which I want to glue together on the mask. There is a part called the pressure modifier that disappeared from my previous mask and caused a terrific leak. I had to put sellotape over the holes which ameliorated the problem somewhat but not totally. Gluing this piece of plastic will prevent coming loose on this mask.

As a result, it might well be that I had much fewer apneic events over the last two nights; I can't tell as the machine records its data in a different format to its predecessor. Stored on the disk are several files, one of which being a file in JSON format (if that means anything to you, dear reader) that I can read, but I don't know yet what the various numbers mean. One can upload this file to a website that presents the data but only in a graphical manner: I want numbers!

I have written to the company that manufactures the machine in the hope that they will reveal the format of the file so that I can write my own parser and so input the numbers directly into my CPAP/walking program. At least, I hope that they will show how I can see numerical data in their web app and not just graphs; I'm a 'tables' man and not a 'graphical' one.

And as for the CPAP pillow: this link gives one an idea what I'm writing about. It's a sculptured pillow with two cut-aways (as we would call them on a guitar) that enable one to lie on one's side and have the mask fit into the cutaway. It's true that I had back pains when I first started with CPAP because of the difficult of finding a suitable sleeping position with the mask, but that was a long time ago. Last night, the pillow was harder than I'm used to, but I fell asleep and didn't even wake up in the middle of the night, so at least the pillow didn't cause problems. On the other hand. I did swim and walk a lot yesterday so I was also fairly - and honestly - tired.

The new machine's shape (think of a giant wedge of Toblerone) caused me to wonder how I could put it in a small suitcase, should we ever go on holiday again. The answer came to me this morning: leave the machine at home and take the old machine on holiday. Not only that, I can store the old machine in the small and smart suitcase which I always take with me as personal baggage: I put the CPAP machine, laptop computer, cables and medicines in this suitcase, so I have the most important things with me at all time, even if our luggage gets lost.