Hello Guest, Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.

or Create an Account


New Posts   Today's Posts

Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
As a CPAP user since 1992 I am a it late to this board. Over the years I started with a large brick and have migrated to my current machine slowly. Switched to the current mask only in January since I saw the AirSense Mini required one of a couple of specific masks and I had to have one for planned air travel.  Like so many others i started out ripping off my mask and hurling it to the extent the hose would permit after anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. Eventually I adjusted to the machine and the mask (not sure what it was, but it covered my nose and left marks on the bridge of my nose). After several years I heard about nasal pillows and intrigued I got one online. In the mean time I lost a lot of weight and decided I didn't need the CPAP Oh-jeez . I got away with that for a year or two until my wife resumed complaining about my snoring. Went back on the machine, probably sometime in 1995 or 6 and never looked back.

I sleep much better with it and so does my wife (with ME on the machine). We planned a trip to Africa and I knew there was no way to use the CPAP for much of the trip - no electricity and not about to carry batteries. I spoke to my dentist and he made up a custom dental appliance which is sort of comfortable and mostly works, it is better than nothing bu nowhere near as good as a CPAP machine. I documented that with a home study, the first after 25 years!!! I picked up the machine on a Friday and had it over the weekend. I used it with no CPAP machine - what a lousy night of sleep that was - and then with the dental appliance - better night, but not great. With relief I resumed sleeping with the APAP. 

I cannot describe the improvement I have had from the start of CPAP therapy beside the lack of thumping from my wife. Or the nasty dreams of suffocating that have not troubled me in 26 years. I sleep about 7 hours a night and wake up rested and ready to face the day. Of course as a retiree living in a 55+ RV community I do not face the day-to-day stresses of work, but with family and community there are still plenty of stressors that could pile on if I were not sleeping well.  Sleep-well
Post Reply Post Reply
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
Before CPAP:
Irresistable urge to eat
Sleepy, tired
Brain fog
Anxiety
Not rested in the morning
Lots of snoring

After CPAP:
No desire to eat except when hungry
Awake all day, lots of energy
Feel sharper
Feeling of calm
Rested when waking up
No snoring

Other problems that went away the first night:
No more dry mouth
Don't have to pee all night
Less unfocused days
Post Reply Post Reply
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
I stayed awake in a movie for the first time that I can remember.  Also I can read books without falling asleep.
Post Reply Post Reply
Loving my CPAP therapy
I was diagnosed with OSA back in July 2012. I don’t remember how long I had symptoms before being diagnosed. All I remember is that for me, waking up with splitting headaches and feeling rundown and worn out before noontime every day was normal for me. I was constantly depressed, and was pretty much always distracted while driving because I couldn’t concentrate. At work I usually lagged behind everyone else’s work because my mind was constantly wandering.

I got laid off from my job just months before they closed the office I was working in and bebopped from one job to the next befor going on disability due to my severe depression in 2009. Th depression still lingers but something positive did come out of it. 

I could only stay on straight Medicaid for two years before being forced onto Medicare in early 2011, As a result I had to change to a new doctor who would accept my new insurance since the doctor I had been seeing could not take Medicare. After seeing this new doctor for over a year I went to him about the constant headaches and drowsiness I had been feeling thinking he would just prescribe vitamins or some such thing. 

T my surprise he askme if I had ever had a sleep study done. His office made me an appointment to see a sleep and he scheduled me for a sleep study. I was diagnosed with moderate OSA and August 10, 2012 I received my RsMed S9 with humidifier and Swift FX mas ClimateLine heated tubing. All this gear made me look like a spaceman. 

My first night using I didn’t sleep a wink. It leaked constantly throughout the night and kept me awake. The next migh wasn’t any better. In fact, my first week of therapy was a disaster. I went online to see if I could get any information about it because the medical supply company was closed and I didn’t want to waste another night due to a leaky mask. 

I found some videos on YouTube by ResMed and they suggested ways to adjust the mask correctly and also suggested trying different size pillows. So, I started experimenting with the headgear and pillow size and found a combination I thought might work. That night I went to bed determined. There was still some leaking but not as bad as it had been the previous nights. I played with it some more over the next week and got it to where I thought it was tolerable. Finally about 2 1/2 weeks after starting therapy I slept more than six hours. Over the next several weeks I gradually increased the amount of time I slept each night until finally approximately six weeks into my therapy I slept through the entire night.

Somewhere around January of 2017 my sleep doctor prescribed the ResMed Airfit P10 mask for me and the number of mask leaks dropped to almost nothing at night. I had to change doctors in April 2017 because of another insurance change and abot 3 1/2 months ago my S9 died and I had to get a new CPAP that I have been using since April 12 of this year.

I am no longer sleepy during the day. I don’t wake up with headaches anymore. Since I sleep all night I no longer get up two or three times to use the bathroom. And I am much happier. I just wish I could find a depression medicine that completely eliminated mood swing and suicidal thoughts. I could return to work and then.
Post Reply Post Reply
Cool 
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
like Sleep-well Like you when I went in for my sleep study, despite the fact that I was completely wired up I slept almost not at all the first half of the night. But let me tell you, after they hooked me up to the CPAP I slept like a baby for the first time in recent memory. Like you I couldn't wait to get my CPAP. However, it took my sleep doctor two weeks to get around to evaluating my sleep study data and two weeks after that to get my CPAP. I sure sleep a whole lot better now than I did before my diagnosis in July 2012.
Post Reply Post Reply
RE: Loving my CPAP therapy
(04-23-2018, 01:37 AM)Barron1961 Wrote: I just wish I could find a depression medicine that completely eliminated mood swing and suicidal thoughts. I could return to work and then.

Try seeing a medical professional who can help. I was in the same situation and after starting CPAP therapy I was able to get off all headache and depression meds. It wasn't easy and it requires the right meds during the transition. I now take 0.5 mg of Klonopin as needed, which is sometimes one a day, but most days I don't need any. Psychotherapy also helped a lot.

But by far the biggest help of all was and is getting a good night's sleep. Or if not good, at least not bad. And the only way for me to accomplish that is with CPAP therapy.
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.
Post Reply Post Reply
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
I thought I would add a testimonial to this thread, for the possible benefit of newbies who need some encouragement, even though I have babbled about this elsewhere.

CPAP therapy works great!  It can get rid of your constant fatigue!  (I'm not being paid to say this.)  But seriously, folks, you have to stick with it for some number of consecutive days, maybe weeks, to see the changes happen.  After that, it's likely that you will be a convert and you'll be writing your own testimonial.  The usual compliance time required by insurance providers (so that you get to keep your machine) is four hours per night and 70% of nights, but let me tell you, that minimum is lame & ineffective and you can do much better than that if you try.

About CPAP's good effects, an analogy that occurred to me is that the situation is somewhat like having been stuck for some number of months or years in a tedious & stressful office job that you hate, with people you don't enjoy working with, so that you just want to chuck the whole thing, but you're stuck there for all the usual reasons.  That's what sleep apnea is sort of like.  You have your head down and are oblivious most days, just putting in your time ... but then eventually a miracle occurs and one day you realize that you've just hit official retirement age and you are suddenly able to chuck the whole thing and say "Good riddance" and relax and take it easy and be free, for a change.  That's CPAP therapy.  It gives you back the energy you were lacking all that time, and it clears your head and makes you alert again.  You don't fall asleep during the day, don't need to take a nap after lunch, and are able to function OK during the usual everyday activities, which wasn't the case before.

My personal back-story is just normal & average, so I'm sure it echos many others out there.  My life in late middle age was proceeding at its usual leisurely pace, which was about one day per day, sometimes slightly less.  But gradually I noticed some sinister changes in my habits: wanting to sleep later in the morning but waking up feeling tired, etc.  All the usual stuff.  I was so oblivious that the possibility of sleep apnea (which I knew next to nothing about anyway!) didn't even occur to me until a routine visit to my GP, who quizzed me about a few symptoms and said "Sleep apnea, most likely" and suggested a referral to a sleep clinic for a study.  I shrugged and said "OK", and the rest is history.  But of course it took a long time, as these things unfortunately tend to do: months for my appointment to come up, a few weeks between the two parts of the study, many more weeks until the earliest available follow-up appointment to go over the results.  Foo!

But then, after the follow-up appointment, I had the prescription.  I was assuming that things would move more quickly, but they didn't do that yet through the official channels, which again is sadly typical.  So, being both impatient and very temporarily & unusually semi-rich, on my own I bought a relatively inexpensive machine and a mask, and started using them.  That was a good move if I do say so myself (and it was made possible by all the excellent information available on this web site), and I recommend that as a useful tactic for a new sleep-apnea patient who can afford it and whose clinic or insurance provider or DME is stonewalling for any reason.  It takes the heat off, so that you can then afford to take your time with the DME negotiation and do it right.  (ObWikiLinks: "Dealing with a DME" and "Machine choices", very useful!)

I can't even remember how many days on CPAP it took for me to notice a big difference, but eventually I did.  The "eventually" is mainly because I wasn't able to magically adjust to wearing a mask in one or two nights; my semi-compliance at first was somewhere around four or five hours per night, five nights out of seven.  But, helped by a couple of mask changes along the way (that was an important educational experience in my case, as it is in many others!), within a few weeks I got used to it and was doing 8 hours/night, 7 nights/week, which is where I've stayed since.

And I call that success.  I have been lucky in not experiencing any major problems: no anxiety, no skin disorder from the masks, thankfully no aerophagia, and so on.  So in that regard I'm a little bit privileged, just by chance.  However, I think that's also a fairly typical story for a newbie who tells himself or herself "Self, just hang in there, and eventually it'll all work out."  Which it did.

Thank you, and good evening.  Copies of my autobiography are on sale in the lobby.
Post Reply Post Reply
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
WOW!!! I feel like I am starting over after almost six years of CPAP use. I guess in a way I am because I am having to go from wearing a nasal pillows mask all that time to wearing a FFM which is totally, completely different. I am starting my third night using it and so far it hasn’t been a happy experience. Last night my mask fell apart in the middle of the night and I couldn’t get to sleep at all. Here is to a better night tonight. Wish me luck!!!
RedBarron

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first for the Jew, and also for the Greek [Gentile]." Romans 1:16 CSB
Post Reply Post Reply
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
(05-20-2018, 01:10 AM)Barron1961 Wrote: WOW!!! I feel like I am starting over after almost six years of CPAP use. I guess in a way I am because I am having to go from wearing a nasal pillows mask all that time to wearing a FFM which is totally, completely different. I am starting my third night using it and so far it hasn’t been a happy experience. Last night my mask fell apart in the middle of the night and I couldn’t get to sleep at all. Here is to a better night tonight. Wish me luck!!!

If you have an oxygen monitor, I would suggest using it to make sure. I noticed that when I changed from nasal pillow to full mask my oxygen dropped off 5 points (with no leaks). I don't know why, but I went back to the nasal pillow and I'm doing fine now. But good luck to you.
sm
There is no one more concerned about your health than you.
 Banana
Post Reply Post Reply
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
My Story,

I'm 57 y/o male. My wife has complained about my snoring and breathing stoppage for 15 plus years.  I have felt like I was in a fog for at least that long. About a year and half ago I decided to stop all alcohol intake for a couple months to see how I felt. I was very disappointed. I was still in a fog! Now what?? 

Fast forward to Feb this year. I finally pushed my doctor to send me for a sleep test and the results were not good. Although I had know idea what the numbers actually meant he said that I was the "poster child for severe sleep Apnea"

POLYSOMNOGRAM REPORT INTERPRETATION 
Brief summary of polysomnogram performed on 2/27/2018.

Diagnostic Portion
Total Recording Time: 03 hrs:42 min
Total Sleep Time: 02 hrs:49 min
Sleep Efficiency: 76.0%
Sleep Latency: 00:07
REM Latency: 01:29
REM Periods: 1
     
N1: 18.3%
N2: 75.4%
N3: 0.0%
REM: 6.2%
    
Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI): 95.1
Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI): 99.1
Mean Sleep Oxygen Saturation: 87%
Minimum Sleep Oxygen Saturation: 51%
Transcutaneous CO2 Mean wake TC CO2: 42.0 mm Hg 
Maximum NREM Tc CO2: 47 mm Hg Maximum REM Tc CO2: 48 mm Hg

I received my CPAP machine a few weeks later along with a FF mask. It was a struggle from day one. The mask was leaking, my nose was itching, I got rained on, I had dry mouth. the bridge of my nose was dented and sore and I could never get comfortable. The mask ended up thrown on the floor every single night! 

About a month in I met with my sleep adviser and went over all the issues. I left her office with a heated hose and 2 new masks to try out. One of them was the Philipps Dreamwear FF mask and this was a game changer. The first night I had my best sleep yet and I super motivated, so motivated, in fact, that I decided to cut out the alcohol again.  I have to say that I am beyond pleased. I feel like a new person and the fog that I felt when I stopped drinking previously has finally lifted. I can see (and think) clearly now for the first time in a very long time.

Here is the summary of last nights Sleephead data.

AHIApnea Hypopnea Index   0.40
ResMed AirSense 10
AutoSetModel 37028 - 23172748457
PAP Mode: APAP
Min 13 Max 18 (cmH2O)
Date Sleep Wake Hours
5/28/2018 23:14:36 06:42:37 07:28:01
Large Leak 0.00%
Clear Airway 0.27
Obstructive 0.00
Unclassified Apnea 0.00
Hypopnea 0.13
RERA 0.00

As Micky Dolenz once said "I'm a believer"
Post Reply Post Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  [CPAP] First Post - Can't stay asleep with CPAP DKane 9 150 3 hours ago
Last Post: SarcasticDave94
  Help - 1 year CPAP - not success - help very welcome! leono85 41 2,620 03-25-2024, 09:32 AM
Last Post: Macka
Question [Diagnosis] First post-CPAP visit to Sleep Doc - What to talk about? FlyAU98 6 187 03-23-2024, 09:08 AM
Last Post: HalfAsleep
  r4robin - Therapy Thread (Help with BiLevel settings-post #5) r4robin 42 1,828 03-11-2024, 01:26 PM
Last Post: bertchintus
  First Post - Help with Settings Ideas jrudicel 3 171 03-10-2024, 12:10 PM
Last Post: jrudicel
  Has anyone had success with ONLY a soft cervical collar? ranvanman 7 547 02-26-2024, 09:49 AM
Last Post: ranvanman
  Long story short chronic 5 384 02-18-2024, 03:43 PM
Last Post: chronic


New Posts   Today's Posts


About Apnea Board

Apnea Board is an educational web site designed to empower Sleep Apnea patients.