I would probably be dead without my CPAP machine. I suffer from sleep apnea, and from what my doctor tells me, my case is worse than most. That means my breathing pauses while I sleep. I never knew it happened, because I am asleep when it happens, until my wife pointed it out once. Apparently, I am at high risk for stopping breathing during sleep and not starting back up, which would of course kill me.

So now, I sleep every night with a CPAP machine. The acronym is a fancy way of shortening the phrase continuous positive airway pressure. It is a machine connected to a mask that I wear when sleeping, and it means that I keep breathing while I am unconscious.

At first I was happy to use it, because it meant sleep would not kill me. Then I started fretting about all the things I would never be able to do.