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I hit the floor
before I was even awake
03/23/2008 08:25 PM
Picture this. In my
bedroom I have the oxygen concentrator which makes enough noise to hide
all other sounds. On the concentrator we have installed a little humidifier,
which adds to the noise the sounds of a babbling brook. Then, the gear I wear on
my head has its own forced-air sound, so generally speaking, once I'm lulled
into this deep sleep, nothing on earth should awaken me, right?
At 2:22 a.m. this morning, from somewhere I hear the shrill
clanging of a telephone (kind of like the old ones you see in the 1940s British
movies.) I sat upright in bed and swung around to answer the
phone; at least I think that's what I was going to do.
Did I ever tell you my bed is three feet high and my
feet dangle? When I get out of it I more or less sit on the edge and slide down
to the floor, which is what the plans were that night, I'm sure. Much to my
surprise, I was on the edge of the bed and there was no sitting up and sliding
down to it. I just hit the floor with my arms grabbing at the dark space for
anything to hang onto! Needless to say, as I flew across the room the umbilical
cord to the machine my face mask is attached to was stretched to the max and the
old head came to a rather jerky stop.
By the time I jerked the CPAP off and got the light
turned on I was laughing at the predicament I
found myself in. I couldn't believe how fast everything happened. Who would ever
have thought I
could move that fast!
As soon as I got my bearings, a quick glance around the
room revealed my nightstand looking like
a tornado had swept over it. The radio, now registering 2:24, was dangling
precariously over the edge, the lamp was ready to follow and the old machine had
tipped over and turned itself off in self defense.
In the morning Ed asked if I had heard the phone ring
around 2 o'clock. I was glad to hear that he had heard it, too. I would hate to
think I had gone through that experience and blamed it on a non-existent ringing
phone.
Kind of gives me an idea what a fish must feel like when he's
just cruisin' along minding his own
business and innocently bites on what he perceives to be a "treat" only to be
jerked around uncon-
trollably, then hauled up to shore before it even knows what's happening!!
The caller? Beats me. Nobody on the line and no one has
admitted to having made a call in the
middle of the night.
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