Idk who else needs to hear this but

remember to change your CPAP filter!

Woke up at 4 am

Because of a SMELL

The source of which was in THE NEXT ROOM

Spouse wakes up because of the light on and wants to know why I'm cleaning at 0400 and I considered (briefly) how to kill him with his CPAP

I had the most bizarro dream that I was marrying @punkitt-is-here ????

Which like. She's cool and all. But also I am already married. And she has an awesome boygirlfriend. So there is no reason for us to get married

Most of the dream was just me stressing out about meeting her family and trying not to make a fool out of myself anyway. Why does my brain do this to me

How Clean CPAP Filters Enhance Device Performance and Health Benefits 

Ensuring the cleanliness of CPAP filters is crucial for maximizing the health benefits provided by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the standard treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition where breathing pauses occur during sleep due to narrowed airways. CPAP machines ensure uninterrupted nighttime respiration by regulating airflow through a mask, keeping the airway open. To maintain the effectiveness of CPAP therapy, it is crucial to regularly clean the filters in the device.     CPAP filters are designed to capture airborne particles such as allergens, bacteria, pollen, and other contaminants, preventing them from entering the user's airway. Over time, the build-up of debris on these filters can reduce their effectiveness and potentially compromise the air quality provided by the CPAP machine filters. Insufficient filtration can lead to various complications, including reduced effectiveness of treatments, increased vulnerability to respiratory infections, and worsening of allergy or asthma symptoms.     Regular filter replacement and cleaning are crucial to ensure that your CPAP device functions properly and keeps you safe. Flexible filters allow for smooth airflow, ensuring that the CPAP machine delivers the prescribed air pressure consistently throughout the night. Through the maintenance of sufficient oxygen levels and the prevention of airway collapse, this reliable ventilation method effectively addresses obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and improves the overall sleep experience.     Furthermore, using brand-new CPAP filters can improve air quality by reducing the entry of harmful particles that could exacerbate respiratory conditions or cause irritation. Filters help create a cleaner breathing environment for CPAP users by capturing allergens like dust, pollen, and pet debris. This reduces the risk of allergic reactions and respiratory symptoms. CPAP Supplies Australia offers a wide range of filters to ensure users have access to high-quality options for maintaining optimal air purity.    Regular filter maintenance can significantly extend the lifespan of your continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) equipment. This helps reduce strain on the motor and other components, ensuring their longevity. Regularly maintaining CPAP machines helps prevent mechanical malfunctions and failures, ensuring that users can rely on uninterrupted and effective therapy.     Regularly cleaning CPAP filters not only improves the device's performance, but also offers significant health benefits to its users. Proper filtration in the CPAP system plays a crucial role in preventing the spread of airborne pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses. Ensuring that filters are kept clean is crucial in preventing the buildup of microorganisms in the humidifier's chamber or ducting. This helps to minimize the risk of respiratory infections and other health issues that can arise from using contaminated equipment.     In addition, it is crucial to maintain clean CPAP filters for individuals with pre-existing conditions such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to ensure their respiratory health. Through the elimination of respiratory irritants and pollutants, clean filters effectively decrease the chances of exacerbations and flare-ups, resulting in a more secure sleeping environment.     Ultimately, it is crucial to use clean CPAP filters to maximize device performance and improve the health benefits for users. Regular filter cleaning and replacement during CPAP therapy helps improve airflow, prevent contamination, and enhance respiratory health. By prioritizing filter maintenance, CPAP users can achieve better sleep quality, reduced respiratory symptoms, and an overall boost in well-being. 

Revitalize Your Sleep with Top-Quality CPAP Filter Replacements from MiniTravelCPAP

Ensure optimal performance for your Transcend 365 MiniCPAP with our air inlet filters at MiniTravelCPAP. Keep your sleep therapy equipment in prime condition and experience uninterrupted restorative sleep. Explore our selection of CPAP accessories, including the Transcend 365 MiniCPAP air inlet filter, designed for easy replacement. Trust MiniTravelCPAP for your sleep apnea needs, providing reliable products to improve your sleep quality. Don't compromise on your health and well-being – choose our CPAP filter replacements to maintain clean and efficient airflow.

Maintaining your CPAP, like any other piece of equipment, is necessary. The CPAP machine's filters are an often-overlooked component. Changing your CPAP filters regularly is crucial to the machine's health and the well-being of the individual.

Alex & Friends Part 26-Deterioration

thanks to @jaydiann and @whumpy-daydreams for helping with the medical stuff

Aaron belongs to @pigeonwhumps

cw: medical whump, intubation, medicinal drug use, general suffering and misery

Joseph watched as the ketamine took hold on Alex and she drifted off. Once Aaron was satisfied that the drugs had worked, he slid his hands under the blanket that was laid over her chest. He couldn’t actually hold her neck because of the collar, so this was the next best option.

He watched as Aaron closed his eyes, then slowly exhaled. She whimpered as the healing started, but it quickly grew into a pained howl. Even though he knew that the drugs would prevent her from remembering it or feeling it, that didn’t make fun to watch. Listening to someone wailing in pain was always going to be uncomfortable. It was worse when you were just watching. At least when you were treating you had something to block it out.

Aaron kept going, face furrowed in concentration. Necks were difficult places to heal, and the spinal cord made it especially agonizing. Most healers wouldn’t heal spinal stuff without pretty strong analgesia, even though it made it harder to. Her screams were half-panting now, and her legs were twitching and kicking with the pain. She slowly started to quiet after Aaron pulled his hands away.

“Alright, let’s get going,” he said as he stretched his fingers out. There was nothing he could do about her chest for the time being, not until they got to the hospital. One of the paramedics went around to the front, and Joseph checked to make sure Alex was secure. The ambulance was carefully backed out of the lot, and they were off.

Alex fully came too several minutes later, accompanied by a wearily mumbled curse. Her eyes flickered around as she searched the back of the ambulance, unable to turn her head. “…oseph?” she murmured quietly.

“I’m right here, Alex.” He leaned forward so that he was more in her line of sight. “How’re you feeling?”

“ ‘s hard to breathe,” she groaned.

“We’re nearly to the hospital.” Joseph said, patting her hand. He looked over at the monitor, and Aaron did the same, turning away from Phoenix to check. She was satting high enough to avoid intubation, and she’d been protecting her airway so far, but it still wasn't great.

Aaron grabbed his stethoscope and carefully rose to standing. “I’m just gonna listen to your chest, okay?” He started to pull the blankets away as he spoke.

Alex whimpered as she tried to draw more air in. There was a hint of panic behind her eyes.

She flinched a little when the cold bell of the stethoscope made contact with her chest. Then, she reached out for Joseph’s hand. He took it, letting her squeeze it while he rubbed his thumb on the back of it.

“We’re gonna take good care of you,” he assured her.

While the look on Aaron’s face remained mostly stoic, Joseph had known him long enough to tell that her lungs hadn’t sounded good. Their eyes flickered to the monitor again. Her saturation had dipped even lower, down to the low nineties.

“How far are we out?” Aaron asked.

Joseph peered out the window. “We’re on the hospital side of the river. What are you thinking?”

“I would prefer CPAP, but HAL has been HAL and our ambulances don’t carry those.” Aaron mentally cursed the damn cheapscapes that ran the alliance.

“RSI?” Joseph suggested.

“Not yet.” He wasn’t happy with her sats, but she was holding for now, and the c-collar would make intubation significantly harder.

Alex’s eyes nervously filtered around, breaths increasingly labored.

“It's alright, I know it’s scary.” Joseph rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand. “Just keep breathing for me.”

Aaron sat back down, but he was still watching his patient like a hawk, eyes moving between her and the monitor.

Joseph kept a hold of her hand, reassuring her with a soft voice. The fear in her eyes was no longer subtle. She mumbled something from behind the mask, but he couldn’t hear it. “What was that?” he asked, leaning in closer.

“ ‘m sorry.” Her voice was whisper quiet, and Joseph pushed certain memories out of his brain.

“You don’t need to be sorry.” He smiled, continuing to brush her hand with his thumb. “We’re taking good care of you, yeah?”

“I-” she gasped for air, eyes growing wide, “-cn’t..mmh..breathe.” Her saturation took a nosedive into the eighties as she tried to heave enough air in. “..elp.”

It didn’t come back up.

Aaron jumped into action. “We’re gonna have to RSI.” He quickly started setting out his supplies. “Tell Cole to pull the ambulance over.”

Alex was obviously distressed now, frantically pounding her arm on the side of the stretcher as she fought to breathe. The vehicle came to a stop while Aaron was drawing up his medications, Joseph helping him set out his supplies.

Joseph spoke to Alex as he worked, explaining what was going to happen. “We’re going to put a tube down your throat to help you breathe easier, okay?” She whimpered, coughing violently. “We’ll give you drugs so you can’t feel it, you’re doing great, just keep breathing for me.” He kept talking to her as Aaron sat down behind her head.

“You ready?” Aaron asked while he started to preoxygenate her. “Any questions?”

Joseph shook his head. “I’ve got 7.5 tube with stylet, laryngoscope with a mac 3, bougie, ket and roc already drawn up, cric kit’s up here just in case.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Aaron said.

“We gotcha, Alex,” Joseph said as he pushed the ket. She was still too panicked to acknowledge it, but the drug took hold, and she slowly started to relax. Her breathing wasn’t great, still, even though she looked less distressed.

Once Alex was out, the procedure commenced quickly from there. He pushed the paralytic next, grabbing his laryngoscope while he waited for it to take effect. Aaron had to use more force than he would’ve liked because of the c-collar, but he was able to visualize what he needed to and get the ET tube in easily enough. Joseph secured the tube while Aaron attached it to the ventilator.

The intubation had helped, and even though her sats were still not great, they were higher then they’d been. The ambulance continued towards the hospital, and Joseph found himself holding her hand again. They turned into the hospital, and Joseph gave it a squeeze before letting go so he could get ready to unload her.

Even though she’d made it to the hospital, she still had a long way to go.

Taglist: @/pigeonwhump @rainydaywhump

Okay... I have 4 days left of holidays before I have to start back at work. It's muggy and gross and pouring with rain and I'm too freaking hot. I am going to bed. Tomorrow I will do some shit.

Wash the fucking CPAP machine

Change sheets on the bed

Write 250 words x 20 (+1, 2, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)

Remove 50 weeds from the garden

Finish cutting the fucking quilt

Get Hubs to clean the fucking shower filters

Facial (+6)

Manicure (+6, 7)

Pedicure

Get car WoF (can't - just checked hours - closed until Wednesday)

Shave (+10)

Organise the kids bedrooms for student (+6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

Go through kids clothes

Organise kids uniform from old school for selling

Do a Lego thing for side blog (+14)

Do 5 loads of washing

Email student

Tidy dresser flat surface (+17)

Clear piano

Spend 10 minutes doing a quick whip-around tidy of house (+16, 17, 18, 19)

If I have decision paralysis over the above, I am rolling a fucking D20 dice because I need to get this shit done because my brain is SOUP. So much to do and I'm not feeling the greatest about all of it.

People without cpaps will never understand the glee that you feel after you replace your mask and filters. I am so pumped to sleep!!! 😂

how important is cpap maintenance? I struggle with it now and want to know if I should invest effort into actually changing the filters or putting water in the humidifier will help my sleep or if it's mostly okay and would only bring marginal benefits

When I was briefed on mine, I was assured that it's very important to keep it clean. You don't want to be breathing in dust and mildew after all. The thing that prompted me to make that post last night was that I'd changed out the filter two weeks late and breathing felt SO much easier and nicer. (I did uhhh use a cut out bit of an n95 mask because I haven't gotten around to ordering more filters, but honestly I think this works just fine, maybe better. And it's cheaper so I might keep doing it.) It was a relief and I slept pretty well last night.

I'm not a professional in any sense so take this as a limited experience opinion, but I'd also say putting water in the humidifier is probably important, unless it's very humid where you are. I forgot once and woke up with a horribly dry throat and it was awful compared to when I don't forget. :c Also rinsing it out is important because mildew and other build-up; another point in time I'd just left it for a while (it was super humid out and the water wasn't even going down each night) and when I opened it up again to rinse out, it smelled... weird. And I felt better after cleaning it out.

In general, I think it's important to make sure you're not breathing in particles that could hurt your health all night long.

I just dug out the maintenance guide I was given when I got mine. I don't rinse the tubing every day anymore (the doctor I spoke to said the once a week cleaning was fine enough), but it's a good guide and maybe it'll help you too? For reference, this is directed toward people with ResMed PAPs.

(The ratio it mentions is 1 part distilled white vinegar to 1 part hot water.)

Varkhal + Assistance Tech

Loathe as he is to admit it, Var uses assistance tech to make dealing with his conditions not only easier, but in some cases possible at all. It's only because he's from a family of old money (and inherited double what he was meant to, with the loss of his brother who was meant to get the other half) that he can afford the tech he needs. He likely wouldn't have survived in the Empire without it.

Rebreather

Breathing issues cause him to have a hard time getting enough air. He needs to wear a rebreather - or some other form of mask, tube, nasal canula etc. connected to a source of oxygen - at just about all times. He can take it off for short periods of time given he's somewhere with good air quality + ventilation, mostly to eat or shower, before putting it back on.

His usual rebreathers function almost as filter systems, filtering extra oxygen from the air to feed into the mask, while also filtering the CO2 out of the mask. The ones meant for daily use, wearing into combat or the field and such, tend to be clunky and somewhat uncomfortable, as they need the space to have the technology in them to work properly.

He has more "lightweight" ones, as he'd describe them, for when he's just hanging out, tinkering, not doing anything that makes his breathing pick up. These ones are more comfortable, but can't keep up with oxygen intake if he's doing anything remotely strenuous.

When he sleeps, he uses something similar to a CPAP. His breathing is worse when he's asleep, so he needs a stronger source of pure oxygen. The mask connects to a high-quality machine via a tube; the machine is like a large version of his usual rebreather, filtering larger volumes of oxygen at a time through itself and into the tube/mask, while dispelling the CO2.

While not fully intentional, the filters in his rebreather(s) also help to keep him from getting sick.

Koboh (no serial number)

Var uses she/it interchangeably for Koboh.

Outside of his rebreather, Koboh is his most obvious piece of assistance tech. She's a large droid, modelled after a varactyl (the flower of her namesake, Koboh spiker, is engraved on her head). Var has an implant in his skull connected to her, allowing him to communicate simple things with her, as well as allowing her to get certain types of readings from him. She can also get readings from his various rebreathers/other masks.

She's essentially an alert droid, with a number of other tasks also programmed into her.

Tasks and alerts include:

-Informing Var (or others) if his rebreather or components in it are nonfunctional. She carries both a spare, lightweight quality one, as well as one connected to her via a tube, similarly to his sleep setup. Lightweight one is for more mobility but can't give as much oxygen, one connected to her for if he's really struggling for air and being stuck at her side is fine. -Carries his immunosuppressants, and also gives him a ping when it's time to take them -Carries his AAC -Keeps track of his blood oxygen levels via the implant -Finds another person to aid Var if he's injured or unconscious -Able to use his AAC to communicate something Var might need if he's unable to -Meant to be a mount, he uses her if he's expected to travel long distances or over rough terrain by foot -Keeps track of air quality -Has an emergency combat setting, reserved only for if Var is in immediate danger and can't defend himself. Priority is to run, with him on her saddle -Emergency setting for if Var isn't breathing, is unconscious, and there's no one around to help -She scans most people she meets, then sends a ping to Var's implant. He can then set "tags" for the person, ping them back to Koboh, and the tags get saved to her databank. Different tags allow her to have different interactions with people (all of the polycule has friend tag, with priority tag be noted for some of them for certain circumstances, for example)

TZ-9947 - "Bluebell"

Var uses it/its for bluebell.

A very small droid that floats near Var. There's a bluebell squish bloom engraved over its compartment.

Since Koboh can't follow Var everywhere, Bluebell is intended to follow him places that she can't go. It's usually mounted over Koboh's chest, but when Koboh is told to stay put and to release Bluebell, it activates to follow Var.

Its compartment carries immunosuppressants, it alerts him if he needs to take them, and it also keeps track of his blood oxygen levels via the implant. He'll sometimes keep a pain stim or two in it, as well.

AAC Device

Var's voice is so quiet that his rebreather can easily drown it out if someone isn't giving him their full attention. Paired with the rasps from the rebreather itself, and general communicator interference, he can be anywhere from difficult to impossible to understand over comm. To make up for it, he has an AAC with pre-set words and phrases to each button.

There's general, military/command-type buttons, and medical ones on the device.

As it's physical buttons, Koboh can also use it to communicate if Var needs something.

Just got a phone call and it was local and seemed legit and I answered it all excited and nervous thinking it would be a job thing

It was the CPAP people reminding me it's time to change my filter

*sigh*

well it was at least nice to go to rhode island over the weekend. bc even before the air quality improved (was similar both places just like slightly better there) i at least could breathe normal smelling air inside. if i had to simultaneously go about my day with my cpap leaking more than usual bc the mask is on its last legs, being indoors around huge crowds for the conference and wearing a mask as usual for me, wearing a mask outdoors even with no crowds even right outside my house bc of the air quality, feeling nervous and uncomfortable in my car even with the outside air circulation turned off bc i need to replace my cabin air filter and coolant and its sweltering in there, AND had to be in my smelly fucking apartment all together for another day this week i think i wouldve just gone crazy from all the various forms of breathing and air problems

so grateful to go to a place that not only smells good but also has a smell that i actively love and is nostalgic for me :)

I'm somewhere between "I can't wait to be old enough to feel like I have some control over my life" and "I wonder if I need to change the filter on my cpap machine soon"... like I'm quickly dying in slow-mo

I've asked this before on here and gotten reassuring answers, but I need to ask again because it's been a lot of it the last week and when I Google it it only says it might a brain tumor and that's too scary.

Is there anyone else who smell phantom smells in connection to their mental health?

A year or two ago I started smelling cigarettesmoke at odd times of the day and there was nothing nearby to make that smell. It was most often at work and it was a turbulent and stressful time there.

And I haven't experienced it much since. But now, the last week I've been smelling smoke more and more and it's becoming pretty annoying. I thought at first it was a neighbor, but the smell is there all day, and it follows me when I'm not home too. I even smell it when I use my CPAP mask, which I know from earlier experience block out smells because of the air filter. So it's clear it's in my head. But it smells like the entire apartment is filled with smoke 24/7.

There is currently things happening in my life that is stressful in many ways and this started almost at the same time as grandma was admitted to the hospital for the second time in a week.

So, TL;DR... Does anyone else smell phantom smells when mental health is not optimal? Or should I get myself checked for a brain tumor?

Should probably mention my boss smell smoke when she's stressed too and she has a supposedly benign tumor the doctors don't want to remove, in addition to chronic fatigue syndrome, vertigo and Ménière's disease.