RE: Newbie, so forgive me
I'm going to go against the grain here and say, I agree with you stopping using CPAP. This is coming from my experience as an RN. Obviously untreated apnea has negative effects health wise, but what you've got going on with your ears is a big deal.
While I agree that you likely do need CPAP to deal with the apnea (and CPAP is hands-down the most effective method of treating apnea), clearly it is making your sinus/ear/infective issues much worse. Losing hearing is huge and the risks of serious infection are no joke either.
If I were you, I would not restart CPAP treatment until the sinus issues are sorted out. It sounds like you've got a long-standing, chronic infective process going on. (just curious, have they done swabs of the discharge?)
I would try the appliance in the mean time and do all the non-invasive things to help sleep positioning. Admittedly these are not nearly as effective or beneficial as CPAP, but in your case I think the risk-benefit ratio tips in favour of conservative treatment for now. Hopefully down the road you'll be able to try CPAP again and find the machine and equipment that works for you.
Hopefully you'll stick around. I'm very curious as to how things go with both your ears and apnea. Best of luck to you!
While I agree that you likely do need CPAP to deal with the apnea (and CPAP is hands-down the most effective method of treating apnea), clearly it is making your sinus/ear/infective issues much worse. Losing hearing is huge and the risks of serious infection are no joke either.
If I were you, I would not restart CPAP treatment until the sinus issues are sorted out. It sounds like you've got a long-standing, chronic infective process going on. (just curious, have they done swabs of the discharge?)
I would try the appliance in the mean time and do all the non-invasive things to help sleep positioning. Admittedly these are not nearly as effective or beneficial as CPAP, but in your case I think the risk-benefit ratio tips in favour of conservative treatment for now. Hopefully down the road you'll be able to try CPAP again and find the machine and equipment that works for you.
Hopefully you'll stick around. I'm very curious as to how things go with both your ears and apnea. Best of luck to you!