ResMed shocked me

My ResMed air 10 shocked me in the wee hours this morning. I felt the current path from my left nostril down into my mouth. Not a follicle. Not a hyponogogic jerk. Not peripheral neuropathy. I’m familiar with how all those feel. 24V DC to a sensitive area seems about right for what drove me out of bed.

I use the DreamWear nasal cushion mask. It connects to a heated hose that’s more than 6 months old. Would need a short in the hose close to the mask connection and enough moisture in the mask itself to provide an electrical path to my nose. Seems far fetched, but it’s hard to argue with how it felt. The device is sitting amongst a bunch of cables, but only the bedside lamp and power strip are running 110V. The others are low voltage chargers for a phone and an e-reader. A split phase 120/240V supply cable is on the far side of an exterior wall across the room.

Kittens turned into cats and grew out of biting the hose, so I haven’t been replacing it as often. My DME supplier has lately gotten less pushy about supply reordering, so I have been slacking on that — using a cushion until it stops sealing well or looks distorted, etc. Ugh.

When I was a kid I had an electric blanket that shorted out and shocked the crap out of me in the middle of the night. (Found scorch marks around the short in the morning.) Then I could unplug the blanket and be assured it wouldn’t shock me again. Not so much the CPAP machine. I can take daytime naps without sleeping deeply enough to get apnea. Usually overnight the pressure ramp tells me the machine has been doing its job. Grrr.

It’ll be at least a week for my DME provider to get a supply order processed and shipped. Meanwhile …