[CPAP] Is My Central Apnea Hopeless?

[ZacMirror]

I have read your thread with great interest as I am in a very similar situation as you and was feeling exactly the same as the title in your thread. Your journey has helped me understand that there is a pathway to regaining my life again and all is not hopeless. 
Could you add some detail about how you adjusted to ASV therapy, particularly if the ‘forced breaths’ woke you up or overwhelmed you by getting a blast of pressure. How many days/weeks did you take to become comfortable and get in sync with the machine?
Congratulations again on your successful treatment and thanks to the contributing experts on this Board for their knowledgeable guidance. 
I expect to be seeking the same advice as you did in the near future.

[CasperTBird]

Gideon, thanks for the input. Soap and water is a lot cheaper and seems to be just as effective now that I have looked into it further, so I'll just stick with that.

ZacMirror, I initially came here after my assigned telehealth (over the phone) respiratory therapist kept bumping up my pressures again and again, insisting that eventually my hypopnea events would get under control. Eventually it was so high that it felt like I was blowing up a balloon every time I exhaled, and it wasn't working. So I came here, and luckily found the right pathway to an ASV.

Maybe it was the training from the BiPAP that had me used to it already, but I had no trouble getting used to the ASV. I never felt like my breaths were forced, and it was actually much more comfortable than my BiPAP. I think this should be the case - the ASV adapts to your breathing rate, so the forced air is happening at just the right times to not feel overwhelming. The big hurdle for me wasn't the ASV - it was the full face mask. After my initial diagnosis and prescription, the sales team told me I would need a full face mask since I breathe through my mouth while sleeping, and I just asumed that was correct. After some encouragement here, I carefully read the mask primer here:

https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/Mask_Primer

Based on that, I tried nasal pillows just to see if they could work. It only took a few nights for me to get used to closing my mouth during sleep, and I've been sleeping with it ever since. I've only had to go back to the full face mask a couple of times when I got sick and was too congested to breathe through my nose.

So my biggest suggestion is to heed the advice of the experts here on the board. They have proven to be more knowledgeable than my respiratory therapist and my pulmonologist in terms of machines, masks, and settings. The only other suggestion I have for you is to get the medical side of things started as soon as possible. I don't know how things are down under, but here in the U.S. it's a very slow process. COVID has taken up the same resources apnea patients need as well, so that's made things even slower.