After switching to a new CPAP nasal cushion on the 12th, I found it much easier to breathe. The change was really astounding. On the nights after the change, I actually had too much air at times. I assumed the difference was because the old nasal cushion was dirty as hell; since then, I’ve been diligently washing my nasal cushion every day.
Weirdly enough, it hasn’t helped that much. Several times this week I found it difficult to breathe at night. This difficulty breathing sucks because it makes my days long-winded and tiring. Napping and caffeine helps, but it’s just not the same.
Contrary to what you might think, my gut instinct is not to blame the nasal cushion. The difficulty breathing is more likely due to the bad AQI. Once again, fire season has arrived. The Dixie Fire up near Sacramento has passed 700,000 acres, making it the second largest California fire of all time. Smoky air seems to really affect my mom and I; my dad and my brother are less affected. In fact, my brother left his window open the entire Friday and my dad biked to work on both Tuesday and Thursday.
Anyway, I’m already feeling the effects in full force. It was hard to concentrate while watching the first two episodes of Loki even though the plot was very interesting. Reading anything for long periods of time takes a lot of extra effort. I haven’t yet had a CPS seizure yet, but I find myself lost in my thoughts and briefly staring into space quite often. On the bright side, things do seem a lot better than they were last fire season and I attribute that to my healthier habits.
