What have you done "naturally" lately?

[JimShedd112]

Spent overnight in a sleep clinic being tested for a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine/mask since I have sleep apnea. The young female technician was a bit unsure initially when I asked if it’d be okay if I slept nude and suggested I could sleep in my underwear but I advised her I don’t wear underwear. After a bit of thought she ascented saying since she’s in the medical field she should be accustomed to it and saying I should sleep in the way most comfortable for me. She departed the room and I shed my shorts since I’d already removed my shirt while she was attaching the electrodes. I slipped under the covers and remained there through the night while she came in several times to make adjustments to the head harness I wore to hold the nasal mask in place and to add a chin strap to keep my mouth closed when I began to breathe through my mouth, defeating the CPAP. This morning she returned to help me out of the electrode wires and mask. She asked me to sit up while she did so which I did while staying covered below the waist while she was present. I then dressed to use the restroom and then depart the facility. Later, at home I soaked up an hour of sunshine sans clothing while catching a few zzz’s to make up for the loss of sleep I experienced overnight.

Jim

[Bare_Truth]

Spent overnight in a sleep clinic being tested for a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine/mask since I have sleep apnea. .....

Jim,
I wish you the best for your health and the CPAP issue. but I am inclined to relate that while I hve found a few that appear to have excellent results, there are many who do not and find better sleep results with CPAP alternatives and there are some real shysters out there.

The first time I went for a sleep test. I was asked to watch a video about what was going to happen that night. The video was essentally a sales pitch for the wonders of CPAP that would gladly supply for a price and the ad "would have done Ron Popiel proud". (See at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Popeil The facility was set up in an older house that smelled of mold, and the doctor (supposedly a Pulmonologist) had equipped the house with automated perfume spritzers to cover the smell. There was no way I or anybody else shold be given a sleep test in a place like that, and any pulmonologist should have known that!

The next facility I tried I went and visited first and their facility had some scent in the air too.

My next attempt to get such a test was conducted in a local hospital in the old (and I do mean old) wing in what used to be the maternity ward, They put me in room and closed the door. Again I was assailed by some odd scent, but the room did have an openable window that opened onto an air shaft in the middle of the building. With the window open the air quickly freshened up. When the tecnician came in and saw the window open he indignantly responded "who opened that" I explained to him that the scent in the air, after he had previously closed me in, was affecting my breathing, He promptly scoffed at that and closed the window. He hooked me up and told me I had to sleep on my back with the bed positioned as he had set it and I eventually got to sleep in spite of the discomfort and numerous hoses and wires connected. The sleep tecnician threw in a few comments about the wonders and benefits of CPAP.

A few days later I went to see the doctor /Pullmonologist who had a Hindi last name. The reading of the results had just gotten back from [b]India[/b] after about a week. (Is anyone suspicious of a connection here?) The doctor said how much I really needed to get on CPAP BUT WAIT ! THERE'S MORE ! This doctor was now talking a mile a minuit about how they had to now repeat the test while they tried all sorts of adjustments to optimize the performance of the CPAP machine, YOU GET TWO SLEEP TESTS FOR THE PRICE OF TWO ! ! After trying to get any real information out of the doctor about the test and the machine etc. and getting nowhere, With great effort I summoned what ever degree of politness and civility I could still salvage, and left. Never to return ! I had managed, by researching over the next week or two, to find that 50 percent of the people for who CPAP was prescribed had chucked it all in about 6 months if that long. One can find CPAP equipment at many thrift stores where it was sent by people who found this wonder machine a nuisance requiring costly supplies (special filters or the like which needed frequent changes)and cleaning efforts.

It seems that one can find people who just swear by this technology, but it may be easier to find people who swear at it I really only sleep well on my side or on my front and my wife found that when ever I was laying on my back IF my breating sounded a bit off, all she had to do is nudge me a bit to roll up on my side or over on my front and any alleged problem vanished. I would rather that they had prescribed me a specially trained "sleep dog" as I suspecct that one could be trained to do that much, (provided it could also be trained to not mess with me during intimate moments and not get distracted either) (while I am sensitive to scented agents, I have no problem around dogs... Not that I am super eager to share my bed with one, but that would be more tolerable than that stupid head gear.) I do know one guy that loves his CPAP and would not want to do without it, but one can even sometimes hear his breatiing to be a little labored while he is awake. So if you find yourself dissalusioned some time in the first 6 months or so, dont dispair. I do not recall if you are married or not, but a wife may solve the problem or maybe you could get a trained dog to help out. Of course no wife wants to feel in any that she could be replaced by a dog that nudges you in the back or ribs, so what ever you do, if you are married, please do not tell her I suggested that! Or better yet do not spread that around to anyone who knows where it came from. As long as on the rare occasion that my wife thinks I could be breathing better, she nudges me, I get along fine and it has been working well for the last 15 years. And I am appalled that I encountered 2 out of 3 pulmonologists that thought they could, or ever should, conduct a sleep test with anything but pure clean filtered, unscented air in the room. I am skeptical enough to think that maybe that in scented (or odorous) air a lot of people would fail a sleep test. As for CPAP, after my experience, I expect that much of the time the results of the test could be characterized by the same acronym if they would just add a second leg to the first "P".

All my jaundiced comments from my unsatisfactory experiences with sleep tests and the pulmonologists who oversee them aside: I am wishing you sweet dreams and good health, and better experience than I had.

[Bare_Truth]

It suddenly sprang back into my memory about my brother's experience with CPAP. He had a history of breathing issues clear back to his younger childhood as he suffered with Asthma. In recent years he had trouble with his breathing at night and the put him on CPAP. There was no way it could work for him! Apparantly he would tear the head gear off during his sleep or not sleep at all. The doctor came up with a different approach. If he was breathing poorly and they could not get him to breathe better while sleeping; they switched their approach to leaving him breathing poorly but having him breath "better air".

They simply put one of those oxygen concentrators in his bedroom and put one of those clear plastic tubes that loops around the head and has nozzles in front of the nose releasing oxygen enriched air into his nostrils. It worked, and just like CPAP, he only uses it at night while asleep and his breathing while awake is just fine and his health is maintained. Just as there is more than one way to skin a cat. Apparantly there is more than one way to adequately to oxygenate one's blood. and while the unit is maybe more expensive apparantly it is less fuss and bother as he only uses it while in his bedroom. And as he does not smoke and there are no other flamability issues that poses no problem. I am not sure about operating costs so on that score I cannot comment. Personally I think I could live with that better than CPAP.

[JimShedd112]

Bare_Truth, thanks for your comments regarding the CPAP and, honestly, I’m not so far convinced I’m ready to use the machine if/when I receive it, though it will be provided by the Veterans Administration. The clinic is apparently new and the air quality was fine as well. The referring VA doctor is the son of the clinic director and apparently on the clinic staff as well so I suspect tgere’s a certain bias there. The director is also, according to his so, one of the top two heart specialists in the U.S., or world. I can’t recall what the son claimed.

Jim

[Maverick]

Home alone today, but it's cold out and actually snowing further north so it'll be an indoor nude day.

From the comments here on sleep apnea, I think both my parents may suffer from it. I think I'll suggest to them that they get it checked out. I love how there's always something to be learned from this forum, even if it's not naturist-related.

[jjsledge]

I find these help me breathe when I'm sleeping.

https://www.amazon.com/DILATOR-AirWay-O ... al+dilator

https://www.amazon.com/AirWay-FIRM-Ovi- ... al+dilator

[Bare_Truth]

After several cold days it finally hit 76F (24C)and pretty soon I will be past last frost date and need to be ready to do my transplants. So I thought I would do some prep work on that. I tilled the areas of the garden that have not already been planted with cold tolerant plants just in case any weeds had gerninated. And then I set about doing my trenches for my sweet potatoes. I do not actually plant the sweet potatoes in the trenches but in ridges made up of the dirt that came from the trenches. The trenches actually have two purposes.
1.-- They serve to allow flood irrigation of the plants which has the advantages
a.-- They allow for "open hose watering" which delivers the water much faster than a sprinkler ever would
b.-- The trenches allow for watering the roots but not the leaves therby reducing fungal infection of the plants
c.-- They make the digging of tubers much easier and safer because the shovel or fork can be inserted at the bottom of the trench assuring that fewer of the tubers are hit by the digging implement.
The downside is that you have to dig them but it is worth it.

Left Click for Better Resolution

Frames 1 and 2 illustrate several things. To get a good clean straight trench it is necessary to cut the edges of the trench and the slices of earth to be removed. But important to the process is the size and guide lines. The stakes are driven 2 feet apart and lines are strung about 6 inches above the ground. The earth taken from the trench is dumped directly on the strings and the strings are plucked upward to get back above the dirt before the shovel is used to pat the earth down. The objective is to get two reasonably stable ridges on each side of the trench. The plants will be placed in the ridges.

Sometimes it is possible to get both feet in the ditch but then the digger's stance is unstable so frame 3 shows 1 foot in the trench and the other out far enough not to knockdirt in It is a bit awkward but more stable than trying to get both feet in the ditch side by side or toe to heel.

Frame 4 shows the trench being flooded This serves several purposes
a.-- It tends to re-stablize the disturbed earth of the freshly cut trench.
b.-- it provides an initial watering.
c.-- because the water seeks a level surface it helps to identify flaws in the trench that are too low or could cause the an overflow leak. And at the same time gives an indication of how level the garden is and how level the trench bottom is and shows if the trench will evenly distribute the water.

This composite image shows taking measurements of the "freeboard" of the edges of the trench. The images do not well show the measurement value but at the end with the hose the top of the ridge is about 6 inches above the water and at the end without the hose it is only about 3 inches. As the trench is 15 feet long the slope of the garden soil at this trench is about 1 inchper 5 feet or 0.2 inches per foot. A measurement of the trench showed a typical depth of 10 inches with the other dimensions of the trench this worked out to roughly a100 gallon capacity of the trench. Because the trench can be filled from an open hose the watering for all the trenches in the garden is much faster than using a sprinkler and only needs be done about once a week in dry hot weather. The plants do very well with this kind of intermittant heavy watering.

An important point that is not all that well shown in the images is that it is necessary to buld up the ground at the end of the trenches just as high as the ridges along the sides.

Unless your soil is particularly hard to work. The ease of watering and tending the plants is worth the extra effort but the big labor reduction reward is the improved ease of digging tuberous crops at harvest time and the reduced damage to the harvest because the digging tool in the bottom of the trench usually cuts in below the tubers. without much effort. If the garden is being entirely manually managed, the trenches keep the soil loose and aerated to a greater depth which is good for root, plant and soil health.

But we who post on this naturist site should also see that spring garden work done nude is another nice side benefit to get out in the sunshine and breeze when we can work hard and enjoy the exercise and the weather is even more enjoyable.

[New_Adventurer]

They simply put one of those oxygen concentrators in his bedroom

My late wife needed one of those for about a month, but it was rather noisy, so I put it in the tool shed in the back yard and ran a hose under the back door and into the house. The rental company supplied a 50-foot hose so she could walk around the house, but it also was long enough to reach the tool shed too.

[Englishman]

In the last few days it's been tan topping, praying, keyboard pounding, swimming, worshipping &, today, dusting down the window slats & treating them to a new dose of baby oil; oh, & a bit of watering the (small) garden; we have no vast acreages to till. To be honest, I have no idea what baby oil does for the slats but I was asked to get it done & it got done; it is a dusty environment here in Lanzarote. Yep, we're back in the sun for a while.

[Maverick]

To be honest, I have no idea what baby oil does for the slats but I was asked to get it done & it got done; it is a dusty environment here in Lanzarote.

Was that on the "honey do" list?

I'm curious what it's supposed to do as well.

Spent about an hour nude this morning, reading the Word before church and writing a bit. One of the benefits of getting up early in a house of Sunday sleepyheads.

[Bare_Truth]

Well, I can say that in the last 24 hours I obtained my first two ticks of the season unfortunately they bit me about 6 times .
Bummer, I thought it was still too cold as the weather seems to still be dipping into the freezing range each w4 hours. That has led to me spraying the interior of the house withGamma cyhalothrin carefully and selectively. As I most frequently find that I have a tick bitten into me around the time I get up in the morning, the theory is that the ticks are biting me sometime during the night. One plausible mode is that the cat brings them to the bed and they hop off and come looking for me during the night. The wife lets the sweet gentle kitty come in and get on the bed at night so that is a likely route of infection, but also I take any clothes off that I have worn that day and place them on a chair in the bedroom. Treating the cat for ticks has not proven too effective, but spraying the carpet in a place where I take off my clothes and place them on that part of the carpet seems to be effective although I also spray all around the bed If the ticks are on the clothing and hop off and walk across the carpet to get to the bed they would get into the insecticide.

Some folks around here recommend treating their clothing with livestoc strength liquid permethrin and claim it to be very effective. Also garden strength permethrin dust is considered suitable for direct application to animals and I have considered if using on myuself would be a good idea. The ticks are rather finnicky around here, if they get on a person and have a chance they will wander around and sample in various places to see where they prefer one's flavor. The problem is they seem to spit in every hole they make, thus getting a single tick can result in 4 separate bites all of which itch intensely and then (in my case anyway) stand a good chance of ulcerating and taking weeks to heal and even then leave a discolored spot on the skin for a month or more.

I suspect that the cat is the vector at least half the time, but the wife is quite partial to that cat and the ticks do not produce as severe a reaction on my wife as on me. I see that there is a 12 week pill that can be used on some pets but is only available from the vet, but if it would cut down on my ulcerating tick bites, it might well be worth it. Until then my most effective protection seems to be thoroughly spraying the carpet with Lambda or Gamma cyhalothrin and having the wife give me frequent tick checks especially after coming in from the woods, and then getting her to pick off the ones I cannot reach. I have modified a set of tweezers to make a special tick tweezer that can grab close to the skin, but I have to constantly remind the wife how and where to grip the ticks otherwise until I get her through a refresher course she tends to grab the tick's body which can squeez them like a tiny tooth paste tuve and make the bite worse by squeeaing some of their content into the bite.

left click for higher resolution.

The extra thin tips allow for slipping under the tick and grabbing it by the head.

[Englishman]

Maverick, you are quite right; it was a 'Honey, do...' It also comes from the people who own the villa we rent here. I must say though, the slats do look better now. Hey ho!

[New_Adventurer]

Putting oil on the slats seems like a way to hold onto dust, thus forcing you to wipe it off with a cloth. I would tend towards keeping the slats dry and allowing them to shed dust too.

[jjsledge]

It seems that oiling the slats treats the wood and extends the life of the shutters. The same thing is done to wooden handles on shovels and rakes.

[Englishman]

Probably way off topic by now but the slats are painted metal. Just to stay on topic, I have been baking bread & doing other domestic stuff naked Maybe there should a separate strip for odd maintenance tasks?