Grizzles and unloads – Bill Leithhead's Personal Blog

Me and a rubber mask.

Last Monday night I did a Sleep Lab. That’s where you sleep overnight in a hospital suite, where you are wired up by dozens of wires – especially from the skull – for the different patterns of brain waves during sleep- and also over the body, to pick up other muscle movement. And you get monitored by a nurse in an observation room. They can see you by infrared light camera, plus via all of those wires. They go through the wall to a computer, and you are watched by nurse. They do this to a group of people, each in separate rooms.

That goes on all night. In a later appointment, the sleep specialist discusses the ways you went into various levels (4 levels) of sleep, plus REM sleep. As well, snoring is monitored, and the breathing pattern. They’re looking for the occasions where the soft palate collapses, blocking the airway and causing cessation of breathing – that’s sleep apnoea. As well, they monitor the level of oxygen in the blood.

All of this is in order to check my performance using the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airways Pressure) device that I’ve been using most of the time since 2004. Yes – that’s a long time! I’ve been using a CPAP pump which delivers slightly pressurized air through my nose to my lungs when I sleep. It was set at 9 cmH2O, meaning the pressure of a column of water 9cm high. The current doctor, whom I met when a different illness put me into hospital, picked me up as a “likely customer” when I was using the CPAP device in hospital. He does sleep labs. I hadn’t been checked for just 13 years! So I did a sleep lab!

It was OK – I sleep well with my own mask, which covers only my nose, into which the pressurized air is delivered at 9 cmH2O.

BUT … they found that to prevent the collapse of my soft palate, they needed to increase the pressure from 9 cmH2O up to 15 cmH2O.

BUT again … they found that at that pressure, the air escapes from my mouth! That wasn’t happening previously, but is undesirable because it reduces the pressure applied to the soft palate .

HENCE .. they needed to use a different mask which cover my nose AND my mouth. That cost me the tidy sum of $280. The Sleep Lab itself cost me zilch – I suppose because I have a high level of private hospital cover. SO … they gave me a free sleep lab, with free supper and breakfast, and close attendance of a nurse during the night.

Here’s the problem! They adjusted up the pump pressure of my own pump to 15 cm. —————–

BUT … when I tried on my expensive mask the first night at home, it was hopeless! The pressure was tending to blast it off my face, making farting sounds. I just couldn’t use it!! What to do???

I found that I didn’t have any instructions in my booklets with the REMSTAR Plus pump from 2004 which enabled me to reset the pressure back to 9 cmH2O, so that at least I could operate at a pressure I was used to. There had to be some trick that enabled the nurse to change the pressure of my own pump back and forth.

Google! That’s the trick. I soon found that I could get into the control settings ONLY IF I held the unplugged it, and held down all 3 of the buttons it has, then plugged it in again! BINGO!

So far, I’ve had a night where I’ve set it from 9 cm to 11 cm, but even that modest increase tends to cause my new mask to leak at the edges, with those “farting” noises! I could only sleep if I tied the mask down quite strongly against my face. So that was last night. not a lot of fun. I got to sleep about 1 am, woke up for the toilet at 2:30 am, then woke up again at 5 am, to a freezing house. I toileted again, and gave away the mask and pump for the night.

Not sure what I’ll do tonight. Might fiddle with the adjustments and loosen them up a bit to see if I can work out some position on my face that sits right without pressure escaping with those peculiar noises. You can’t sleep like that, and neither can my wife! These masks are sold all over the world – surely there’s some way of using them properly!

Perhaps I’ll Google onto a user’s group … good idea!

More to come.

In for repairs at Rockhampton for 3 nights

Yah! sheeeez!! Zounds … and such-like appeals to the universe to spare me. Nothing serious has happened, except that my laptop’s hinge has broken somewhat – actually, a lot – and I’m cautious about the possibility that the screen might fail, which does worry me greatly. That’s because my sodding phone has turned out to be opaque to my logic, and major actions such as banking and emailing haven’t worked there, in my hands, anyway, so the loss of my contacts with the outside world in the manner to which I have become accustomed would be highly regrettable, to say the least!

To catch up: in the last episode I said we were heading for Injune. But we got there at 3 pm, so we decided to drive a further 174 km to Rolleston, where we arrived to claim almost the last overnight powered spot! The 456 km we drove was quite testing, and I came up OK, except that again I was too sleepy to do anything more than back up photos out of phones and recharge batteries, etc. The previous night was when the laptop hinge failure occurred, and after Glenyce and I inspected it, we decided that, as we are dependent upon the damned thing, then we need to have one that is not likely to fail. As it is, the data lines could be cut at any moment. Who knows….?

So we need to buy a new laptop, and set up sufficient software to run it in the manner I have become used to. This means bloody Windows 10, and Office 365, etc., etc. Anyway, today, Saturday 23rd, we headed from Rolleston to Rockingham – a fair way – not measured yet. So we need to shop for a good laptop on a Sunday. That’s because after phoning a lot of caravan parks in Rocky, we finally got on for only 2 nights powered site. Must have power!!

The drive through the Queensland countryside was very interesting, and because I put into my 6″ Tom-Tom navigator the address of the place, it took us there unerringly. The Voice is called Karen (according to the book), and she makes some funny mispronunciations of names. “Leichhardt Highway” came out a real hoot! The system really works quite well, in general.

Anyway, here we are, in Riverside Caravan Park, on the banks of the huge Fitzroy River which runs through Rockingham. It’s beautiful, with the lights of the CBD buildings twinkling across the river, reflected in the water. But although I’ve taken some interesting night shots, I’m just far too tired to resize them, etc. Everything from today is still in two cameras.

It’s nearly 11 pm, and it’s 27 degC in the van with the fan on and the screen door open. Apparently this is unseasonal – a heat wave, someone said. Anyway, I MUST get to bed NOW, because I have to find Officeworks and/or Harvey Norman, and make a purchase of a laptop somewhere over $1200, and then arrange for Office, and so on, as well as get to grips with bloody Win 10. I have no wish to use touch screens, incidentally. Gahhhhh!!

G’night from a healthy but tired Bill and Glenyce Leithhead. We’re OK but a bit frazzled by problems and heat. Have to be in Cairns for booking next Sunday, but know that getting powered sites all the way up will be a real problem. All these grey nomads – like a mob of sheep!!

Made it to West Wyalong

Well, too much has happened so far, and we’re tired but happy. Glenyce fell off the bed wrapped in her sleeping bag at 6 am, onto the narrow space between our beds, like an upturned turtle. We sorted it out and went back to sleep, but in 50 years it has never happened before. Exciting isn’t it.

We nearly ran out of petrol twice, went through towns we’ve never heard of before, and forded two slightly flooded creeks. Got to here, West Wyalong, on the Newell Highway in the dark, and had to set up by torch-light – once more, something we always avoid.

fake horse and tray cart vfrom local farm ,in Coolamon museum, 14/7/16 — ntique tray cart from local farm, plus very original fake horse made of vertical cross-sections of dark coloured, curved wood. In Coolamon Museum, NSW,14/7/16.

In the beautiful little township of Coolamon we met a nice man named Brian Holden, who showed us his museum. This was verging on staggering in its collection of old grocery store fittings and so on, and a huge display of antique farm equipment, tools, horse and carts and other vehicles and then an even more impressive collection of memorabilia from the 2nd world war (mostly the 2nd), especially regarding local personnel.

"up to date store" from q920s in Coolamon now an extensive museum — “Up To Date Store” was the title given to this large store in the 1920s. It is now a museum full of the most amazing objects including much farm machinery from nearby farms, and also much memorabilia from the World Wars One and Two. Well worth while!!

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Trouble was, he went on for so long that we lost track of time and were late getting going again.

But – unexpected surprises like this are just what are looking for on this trip. It’s a good start!!

new hotel coolamon — The beautifully kept ‘New Hotel Coolamon’ stands guard at the southerly entrance to the town of Coolamon. There is also an excellent museum up the street from here, as well as a range of places for good quality food.

Bill and Glenyce’s Caravan Trip to Cairns, 2016 – and blogs following our lives after that …….

PLEASE NOTE: Please check the <—– LH SIDE among the butterflies for further Recent Posts.

Hello and welcome from Bill and Glenyce Leithhead, from Glen Waverley, SE suburb of cosmopolitan Melbourne, capital of the state of Victoria, Australia. This ‘sticky’ Header was used in 2016 as part of a Blog, recording our caravan journey as a round trip from Melbourne to Cairns and back, from July 13th, to between the middle and the end of September. We aimed to escape the cold southern winter into the warmth of the tropical northern Queensland dry season, and to see more of this wonderful country of ours. It was an excellent trip, but too tiring to keep up the Travel Blog, so I ditched it. But I’ve left this part in.

And so our lives continue on … we both turn 80 in 2018, but try to keep going in the face of arthritis and other challenges to our well-being ….

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Nostalgia strikes again.

My wife Glenyce and I were watching a TV show which involved a personal parting under war-time pressure. The background tune was “There’s a long, long trail a-winding”, and I very, very often heard this in my early childhood. It triggered almost uncontrollable sadness, and I smothered a sob – not very successfully, and from the corner of my eye I saw Glenyce glance in my direction.

During a TV break she spoke in a very caring way, which is a little unusual. She asked me what was troubling me, and I couldn’t reply, and escaped into the toilet. When I came back, sitting in a different room, she came up to me and caressed me, which is unusual, asking me again what was going on because I was still tearful. I couldn’t put it all together and give an explanation then, but over the week I’ve figured it out, more or less, and in bed last night I raised the topic.

It’s to do with my feelings that I belong to a generation which is dying out, and, of course, some time my turn will come. That doesn’t concern me at all, but I want to leave a written record of what it has been like being Bill Leithhead, with my childhood experiences, career, marriage, children and grand-children. I’ve had some unique experiences, – nothing dramatic, but a wartime small boy, exposed to a social stratum and milieu which are passing away.

My mother was a dance-band pianist, and I grew up in the Western Australian town of Kalgoorlie with the WW2 going on. An only child, I was often taken along to musical events in which Mum played, most often with a drummer and saxophone. Other times she just played the piano or her piano accordion alone, surrounded by people singing the old songs, especially from the First Word War, but including popular music of those wartime days. These have been imprinted into my brain.

I was often tucked up in the parked car, listening to the tunes. Many of these were very sentimental, dwelling on parting, loss and destruction and the ever-present figure of death in the shadows. The local newspaper was always full of maps with arrows and symbols such as the Swastika and the Rising Sun, as well as the US and English flags – and others, of course.

Even now, at least three tunes press my nostalgia button. These are: “There’s a long, long trail a-winding”, “We’ll meet again”, and “Lily of the Lamplight” (also called “Lily Marlene”).

A week later I opened up on this topic in a chat in bed with dear Glenyce just before we were going to sleep. That’s because I had had enough time to work out what was going on in me. I’m still not sure, but it’s to do with the feeling that knowledge of the reality of those past times is painfully nostalgic for me. My generation is dying out – I see friends die out each year.

And another major factor is the music of today, or rather the general type of popular music played ever since the rock-n/roll revolution, coming down to just rock and metal, and such-like, brought in by the advent of the electric guitar. Most popular tunes up to the late sixties at least had a melody, and were not so monotonous. But now, all I hear is rather simplistic music with only a few notes in the “melodies”, and a lot of repetition. That’s in general – there are exceptions of course.

But this stuff is churned out in the thousands by talentless dolts who don’t sing, but just “say it”, approximately somewhere near the notes, and often don’t sing but they “yell”. Of course, I’m sounding like the stereotypical old buffer who is resistant to change. I’m in my late 70s, but can play pretty good jazz on the piano – and do the same on the drums, if necessary.

Another thing that’s gone is the idea of singing around a piano, as a family, or friends, or in pubs or clubs. That’s gone, as far as I can see, and that sort of thing was so formative about my whole being, that I absolutely mourn for the cultural loss that I’m experiencing. People just don’t seem to sing together in the way I grew up with – or at least not among my family and friends.

And that, dear readers, is what can render me to tears or a sob, when the triggers happen to be in some TV show or other. I’m stuck with it, but at least I understand it now.

Falling into old habits

So, I set up this WordPress blog, in a style new to me, hoping that it will encourage me to make entries more often, but I haven’t have I?

At age 77, I’m finding myself very tired a lot of the time, with severe sleep disturbances. Sometimes I’m up all night. Over the Xmas-new year period my wife and I were away at a friend’s holiday house near Torquay, south of Geelong. They’re very agreeable folks to be with and we enjoy each other’s intellectual and political levels. Strangely, my sleep disturbances were minimal, partly because of the use of Temazepam and Diazepam sedatives.

Because I did little but sit and stand and have meals and talk a lot, my chronic sciatica was reasonably controlled, again by strong analgesics such as codeine and Lyrica.

But since we’ve been back home, I just seem to have slumped into painful fatigue. I am hopeful that I can recover from that by slipping back into a routine. I have many things to do to my web site, and minor chores around the home.

But everything I work on upon the computer seems to run into some complication or other, and this is a damned waste of time. And as far as I see, probably millions of people all over the world experience this sort of thing, judging from all of comments in the various forums that are thrown up upon entering the error messages into Google.

And so I push on into the murky mush of sensory experiences commonly called “Life”.

Comfort? – or Art?

This article shows design-winning seats implemented in a so-called micro-park in London. I don’t know about you, but those seats look damned uncomfortable. To me, it looks as though it would corrugate your derrière. And speaking as a 77 year old chappie with broad-based arthritis, those backs would ultimately be painful.

If so, what is it that makes otherwise sensible people be overcome by the cute or artistic side of things rather than comfort? Fashion gazumps common sense. I’ve watched this all my life – whether it’s clothing, hairdos, furniture, appliances, or garden seating.

Is it just me??