Gary’s been creeping toward getting a C-Pap to deal with his sleep issues. So far, after being told be probably has sleep apnea, he has purchased an Oxygen ring monitor and found that yes, his oxygen does dip under 90 up to 40 times a night.
Since then he has gone through these stages of denial:
Minimizing: “Well, still, 86% oxygen isn’t that bad.”
Cherry-Picking: “See, this number says overall I got 94 percent, and that’s in the green zone.”
Delaying: “Instead of a wearing a mask I am going to lose weight.”
Alternative medicine: “I am going to [a) sleep on my left side b) elevate my back c) lie on my back and elevate my feet and jam my jaw shut with a pillow] and then see what my oxygen numbers look like.”
Prioritizing: “My swollen feet are the real problem, and I can’t lie on my side and elevate my feet at the same time, so a I can’t deal with sleep apnea right now.”
And of course I have said all the things (you can be on a machine while you diet, you can be on a machine while you elevate your feet, when I come out and see you sleeping in a recliner in the living room it reminds me of my dad in a hospital bed in the living room, I don’t think you’ll end up addicted to oxygen, etc.)
Gary still needs another twenty days of processing until he starts repeating back to me the points I’ve made. (“You know, it occurred to me, I could diet and be on a machine!”) After that we’ll just need to clear some books out of his room, that will be the next insurmountable obstacle, and then he’ll get hooked up probably mid-summer.