Again today, I’m joining hosts  Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge for their annual #AMonthofFaves blog event – “a fun way to recap the year that was” with “every day of the event (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) planned out” and  a link-up on all their blogs. Today’s topic is 
 “Routines, Habits and Changes. What Worked this Year and/or What Didn’t,” with the prompt: “What habits, routines or rituals worked for you this year – either something you kept doing – or something new that you started. What did you try that didn’t work … or what did you used to do that no longer works for you.”

Something I kept doing

I am a creature of habit and routine. For example, Friday night is burger night for me and my wife…almost always. The other thing that is routine is when I wake up and before I go to bed, I listen to music and play Solitaire on my phone. It relaxes me before I start my day and winds me down before I end my day. I listen mostly to chill, electronic music, such as what I’m listening to now as I type this:

Or this:

Something new I started

My wife was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation last August and as part of her treatment, she was put on a CPAP machine which has helped her immensely. Since then, she had kept telling me that I have sleep apnea and that I should be on a CPAP.  In late October, I had a home sleep study and an overnight sleep study that determined I had severe sleep apnea. I started using a CPAP machine almost immediately.

Only days later, my numbers had drastically improved from almost 90 events per hour (meaning I was stopping breathing that many times each hour!) to under TWO per hour. That is what the number has pretty much stayed, never going above FIVE in this first month and a half. Unlike others whom I have heard stop using a machine after only a few days because the mask was uncomfortable, I have adapted to using the machine and mask relatively easily.

Why? Because the way I look at it is that…um…breathing is better than NOT BREATHING AT ALL! That is what could happen if I don’t use the mask when I sleep. I could have a heart attack and die in my sleep, and with my wife on midnight shift four days out of the week, I cannot risk it. So even when I take a nap, I strap on the mask and the machine starts up. I’m not going to risk my life just because it might feel uncomfortable. Now it doesn’t feel uncomfortable to me and also if a mask is uncomfortable, it can be changed to another mask which might be more comfortable than the first one.

So now I throw the questions to you: What habits, routines or rituals worked for you this year – either something you kept doing – or something new that you started? What did you try that didn’t work…or what did you used to do that no longer works for you?