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Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
Congrats Khamier. I think the melatonin is helping, but it's the CPAP therapy that's really doing it for you.
Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
I'm fairly new to this site but are on a number of othersites and have been diagnosed for a bit over two years now, this is my story,
My earliest memory was, when I was a baby, my parents used to have to drive me around the block until I would go to sleep, then would carry me inside, put me in my bed and the slightest noise would wake me up and around the block we would go again.

When I was a little older, I used to sleep walk and bed wet, some nights I would walk out the front door, other times I would turn the stove on and boil a pot with no water in it and not even remember doing it.

When I went to school I hated it, I was bullied and never really slept well.

In 2008, when the GFC hit, I was under a lot of pressure, my job was not safe and I lost a lot of money in investments so was extremely stressed, my sleep got really bad then.
I was diagnosed with depression and put on meds and they kept upping them it I got to double the therapeutic dose.
I didn't sleep between Christmas and New Year’s 2010 and was hospitalised for my own sake.
While in there I learnt a lot about depression but even in hospital drugged up I couldn't sleep and when I did get an hour or two sleep, I would wake up not being able to breathe.
After seeing numerous different specialists and all of them said I had depression, I felt I was about a month away from dying literally.
It was luck that saved my life, I answered an advert for people than couldn’t sleep for research, I didn’t fit the criteria but when I spoke to the lady on the phone and told her I wouldn’t be around much longer, she said ‘get in here either with a referral or without and I will make sure you see Dr John Sweica the best Sleep Specialist around’.
As soon as I walked in his door, he diagnosed sleep apnea and after an urgent sleep study it was found I stop breathing 30 times an hour for more than 10 sec’s and was waking either consciously or subconsciously every two minutes.
He got me on my CPAP which I call ‘Silvie’ because she is silver.
Silvie is part of me, I treat her better than anything because she saves my life every night and keeps me alive.
Every time I visit Dr Sweica, I think to myself, ‘how do you thank someone that has saved your life’ then I shake his hand.

The good news is after a 18 months of CPAP I feel fantastic, I'm jogging 5 kilometres a day (last year at this time I couldn't walk I was so tired), off the antidepressants, love life and are making up for what I missed. I normally sleep 7-8 hours a night with treatment and strange things like the hairs on my legs have grown back.
A couple of weeks ago, for the first time, I actually woken up to an alarm clock, do you know how strange that feels and to everyone else it's normal.
I take some vitamins and take natural sleep aids to help me relax during my sleep.
I have learnt and changed a lot from this and it may sound strange but in some ways it may have been good for me.
I now spend my spare time talking to people encouraging, assisting and helping in any way I can with SA.

I get emotional about this and sleep.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
That's a great story, Tez62. I now wake up to the alarm clock going off more often than not. This has never been the case, ever in my life, that I can remember. I would almost always wake up before it went off. I've been on CPAP therapy for 17 months and it has changed my life, too.
Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
Thanks Sleepster, I still wake up occassionally but now have the confidence that I can go back to sleep without stopping breathing. Hope the weather is fine in Texas.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
In 1991 I had 3 accidents when I fell asleep at the wheel. As an on the road manufacturer's representative, I drove about 4-5 hours every day and racked up more than a million miles in my career. Obviously, going to sleep driving 70MPH is hazardous to your health. After the third wreck, my employer ordered me to get a complete physical and the Doctor recommended a sleep study. Back in 1991 most folks had never heard of sleep apnea but the study indeed proved I had it and I had it bad!

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, that study saved my life. I have been using a CPAP now for over twenty years and today cannot even take a nap without using the machine.
Smile
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
(02-20-2012, 11:20 PM)SuperSleeper Wrote: [note: parts of this thread were copied over from our old forum (thread started in March. 2011) For brevity, only posts of personal stories have been copied over here. Posts of greetings and comments and CPAP advice have not been copied to this thread.]


Thanks to one of our Master Members, this thread was created to encourage new CPAP users.

If you have a CPAP success story, please reply to this post and tell us:

1. How is CPAP therapy making a positive difference in your life? What impact has it made upon your health & happiness?

2. Have you had any problems with CPAP that you solved with a positive outcome? If so, what did you do to solve the problem?



Welcome to Apnea Board - let us know how CPAP has helped you!

Wave

I would like to share my experiences and trials and tribulations with this new bedroom partner we all have to deal with! I have done a lot of study on this subject, and as I am not lucky to be covered by health insurance, I had to make do with my own investigations. Here goes:
With tests on myself, I noticed that if I use a nasal pillow or nasal mask of whatever kind, I develop mouth breathing whenever the pressure goes above 6cm H₂O. This often causes a dry mouth which is a certain telltale. I was trying to establish why I did not feel as well as I expected, i.e. was not getting the full benefit of the CPAP when using a nasal pillow of some kind. I found that the natural resistance of my mouth tissues and lips having relaxed during sleep, can handle a delivery pressure of around 5cm H₂O before starting to leak, realizing that to exhale against a constant delivery pressure of 5cm H₂O coming into the lungs would require a return pressure of more than 7cm H₂O to push the delivery air back. Thus when these two anti-pressures totaling 12cm H₂O reach the back of my throat, it becomes natural to rather escape sideways through my mouth, if possible, than to continue along the inside of the nose to the outside of my nostrils. In my case, when I increase the delivery pressure to 6cm H₂O, the return pressure will probably have to increase to 8 or 9cm H₂O, totaling 14cm H₂O, and my natural resistance in my mouth is too low to resist and mouth breathing commences.

My guess is that most users may develop some kind of mouth breathing (leakage) depending on the pressure setting. ( Imagine if you had a delivery pressure of 10cm H₂O – with a return pressure of at least 12cm H₂O – a total of 22cm H₂O!). The CPAP machines, without exception, obviously only record a leakage (over and above the normal air escape through the mask vents) and it usually tends to be described as 'mask leakage'. This through-the-mouth escape of air into the surrounding atmosphere will cause a drop in the pressure in the airways, and all machines will respond with an increase in air volume delivery at a higher pressure to compensate – probably now exaggerating the air escape through the mouth! Not even mentioning that the higher air volume at a higher pressure is being forced through your nose – heaven forbid you have one nostril blocked! This differs markedly from a mask leakage, where the pressure in the airways remain relatively the same as the leakage is now still in the delivery system before it enters the body. To this mask leakage the machines will also respond the same, but the increased pressure and volume is not transferred to your airways but escapes through the mask leakage.

CPAP Auto, C-Flex technology and Bi-PAP machines address this high expiration pressure necessary to exhale by sensing the start of expiration and then dropping the delivery pressure by 20 – 30% so as to make exhaling (expiration) a little easier. They do succeed in making breathing easier, especially if you should need a high delivery pressure. But it becomes more difficult for these machines to predict the start of expiration when a major leak is present. No machine as yet has the capability to differentiate the position of an unintentional leak as opposed to the intentional leak provided by the vents in the mask. Therefore, even with these more expensive machines, the problem of mouth 'leaks' or mouth breathing is still present.

This drop in pressure and delivery during mouth breathing cancels most of the advantages of 'Continuous Positive Airway Pressure' (CPAP) and that appears to be the cause of my experience of not getting the expected benefits of the CPAP. The moment I switched to a full face mask or a Hybrid mask delivering positive air through my nose and covering my mouth, the problem disappeared and I have never felt better at waking in the morning. Mouth leakage now does not occur, as the pressure inside the airways, throat and mouth is the same as outside of the mouth inside the mask.

There is some discomfort and some skin side-effects as well as possible dangers ascribed to taping your mouth with paper tape or similar to prevent mouth breathing. Wearing a chin strap gives conflicting results, as most of them either slip off during sleep or may pull the lower jaw backwards, increasing the chances of apnee episodes. Various snoring devices to pull the lower jaw forward and/or seal the mouth and pull the tongue forward is not only uncomfortable, but has not been assessed as successful in preventing mouth breathing during CPAP usage.

I do realize and agree about the common reasons for not liking a full face mask, i.e. feeling hot, claustrophobic, condensation in the mask, pressure on the bridge of the nose, visible pressure marks the next morning, cannot speak to your partner, and the feeling of something big and heavy sealing you off from the outside world. But I imagine you have two choices if you want to make this CPAP experience really successful: get used to a full face mask (use a preferably bigger mask rather than smaller) – it takes easily a month, but the result is 1,000 times worth it, or try a hybrid mask where the mask does not cover the nose, no claustrophobia, and it uses nasal pillows combined with covering your mouth. It does feel a lot more comfortable with the same end result.

Therefore it appears that it is a fallacy to believe a technician or professional can really tell you how you actually feel in the morning when you wake – and he/she cannot give you a better idea of what works and what not than yourself. Trust your own feelings and intuition and take responsibility for improving your own wellbeing by responding and demanding from them the correct equipment needed as determined by your personal experience. You should also be able to adjust the delivery pressure of your machine yourself to control your own health care delivery if you so choose.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
I have got to tell you I am a believer!

I have been using my new CPAP machine for about a month, following all the usual sleep studies. My test results were horrible! My AHI was 59 and my oxygen saturation was in the high 50's.

The physician who debriefed the study to me painted a pretty grim picture and when I asked how serious this problem was said, and I quote, "Don't take this the wrong way, but if some came to me tomorrow and told me you passed away in your sleep last night, I would probably shrug and say, I'm not surprised." To which I replied, "You have my attention!"

I've now been on my new CPAP machine for about a month an although I don't particularly like it--who among us enjoys hurricane force winds blowing in your face all night--I have worn it religiously.

I can report that I sleep the entire night, I wake up rested, I don't fall asleep at my desk in the afternoon and at stop lights on my way home. Most importantly however...I breath at night! My wife is sleeping better not having to wake me up multiple times every night

I am convinced this is saving my life. For those who are struggling to get used to the machine--please hang in there and give a chance. This is too important to let go.

I'm not crazy about having to wear a mask the rest of my life, but it is a small price to pay considering the alternatives.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
Thanks for sharing your stories, matthew1943 and Ranger123!

Welcome to Apnea Board!

Hi
SuperSleeper
Apnea Board Administrator
www.ApneaBoard.com


INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.


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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
I've been on CPAP therapy for almost 18 months. Last night was the first night in years that I slept through the night without waking.

If you're new to CPAP therapy and you're reading this, don't be discouraged. I saw, and continue to see, lots of other benefits and improvements along the way.

I've been waiting a long time for this to happen.
Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
(04-29-2013, 07:05 PM)Sleepster Wrote: I've been on CPAP therapy for almost 18 months. Last night was the first night in years that I slept through the night without waking.

Wow, congrats, Sleepster. I didn't know you were still having that much trouble sleeping through the night.

Was there anything different you did that you think helped sleep all night with no wake-ups?
SuperSleeper
Apnea Board Administrator
www.ApneaBoard.com


INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.


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