How many hours in a day? How many days in a week? How many people do not understand what 24/7 means? Or, 24/7/365?
for twenty-four hours seven days a week
24 hours a day and seven days a week. Basically, all the time.
I wear my ventilator mask almost 23/7. Nearly 23 hours a day, seven days a week. For most of the day that’s how I breathe.
I do get a break here and there. Bathing: 10 minutes. Shaving and brushing teeth: 10 minutes. Eating about six times a day: 5 minutes each. TeleHealth calls or in-home health care visits: 30 minutes on average.
Do the math.
The benefit to wearing the mask is obvious. Breathing. Also sleeping. Over the past year the VA (Veteran’s Administration) has provided me with a dozen different masks. Most of them caused abrasions on my nose or elsewhere on my head or face. The last one did not. That’s the one I use day and night.
23/7.
What is interesting about the mask and ventilator is the love hate relationship. I love to breathe. Duh. There are times, usually in the morning, when I am warm and relaxed and don’t need to go to the bathroom (a different ordeal; more on that one at a later date), the air conditioner has filled the room with crispy cool air, I am relaxed despite the mask grasping my nose and lips.
There are other times, increasing in number, when the warmth and moisture build up in the mask causes mild nausea.
23/7 is near 24/7 and that is my line in the sand.