CPAP on a plane ...

Okay, so maybe that title is a little misleading.  I didn't actually use it on the plane.  But it was my first time taking it on a trip that required air travel.  Check off another "first" for me.

I had to go to Florida on business, so it was actually a double "first", in that I was also sleeping in a hotel room alone for the first time since getting the CPAP.  If you will recall, I have in recent years had a really hard time sleeping well when away on business.  So this was actually a really good test.

But first ... the travel part.

Since this was a short trip (2 days), I figured I'd just take everything as carry on luggage, and see if I had any trouble with 3 items - overnight bag with laptop, CPAP, and purse.  The answer was an overwhelming NO.  Went through security without a problem.  Okay, no problem with the CPAP, that is (though my learned lesson is not to put stacks of paper such as books, notepads or the like in my carry on luggage).  I actually had someone ahead of me in line ask about it, and whether he had to take it out of the case.  Apparently, they are becoming so common, and commonly travelled with, that removing from the case is not required any more.  Yay!  A little cumbersome to have to deal with yet another item when getting through an airport, not to mention stowing and retrieving carry on baggage.  But not horrible.

Second part of the test was how well I slept in the hotel.  This one passed with flying colors!  I almost feel guilty about how well I slept without someone making noise on the other side of the bed.  I also have realized that I need to replace my pillow at home to something softer.  I have the contoured pillows that are really good for supporting my neck, but not so good with the CPAP face mask.  So softer pillows it is!

Overall, though, I was pretty amazed at how well I slept, and how I wasn't waking up every 40 minutes or so checking the clock and taking 10-15 minutes to fall back asleep.  Only took me about 24 hours to adjust to the new time zone, which was really nice.  Unfortunately, I had a lot of work to do after the meetings, so I had to stay up late and get that done, which gave me less total sleep than I really wanted/needed.  Same thing with the late flight home Thursday followed by an obscenely early call Friday morning.  But that wasn't so much an issue with bad sleep as simply insufficient sleep.

All in all, it was really quite wonderful to know that I can do long distance travel requiring air travel, especially for business, again and not have it wreaking havoc on me physically.

Woo hoo!!!!

Oh, and the mojitos and Cuban food were AMAZING!