I have a cold

I have a cold. With my awesome kick-ass immune system, this almost never happens. Which is fortunate. Because even a mild cold can really screw me up. Basically, I have a stuffy nose. Which, for reasons I won't get into right now, means I also have a sore throat. Also a little queasy from time to time. But mostly it's the stuffy nose that's the problem.

I have sleep apnea. I don't breathe well when I'm dreaming, which wakes me up out of the dream until I start breathing again. Which means that even though I'm asleep, I'm not really getting the actual restorative benefits of sleeping. The treatment for this is to pressurize the air I breathe, helping me to keep breathing so I can get some real sleep.

The problem is that the apnea machine I have works through a nasal mask. And I have a stuffy nose. Even with a combination of decongestants, my nose is pretty stuffy. My apnea index (number of incidents per hour) has tripled. I'm waking up a few times a night. And the congestion is worse today than it was yesterday. Right now, I can't breathe through my nose at all.

Which means... tonight is going to suck.

Also, today has sucked. Also, tomorrow is going to suck more.

The good news in all this is that my kick-ass immune system generally gets rid of this nonsense relatively quickly. Should hopefully be back to normal soon. And then I have to try to catch up on sleep and deal with the pain and exhaustion associated with that.

Shorter version: This week sucks.