Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here

[aquanaut20]

A week of 0.00 and today a yellow smiley face!

...  Philip

[chuff2]

Restful sleep through the night with my CPAP.

Using resources here was able to adjust my machine settings after several back and for meetings with my ARNP and DME. Also helped when I got my transend travel machine.

[DaveL]

Although I've used cpap for over 25 years I didn't know how to use it well until I found this forum.

My sleep doc prescribed machine, mask and pressure. Frankly I had limited choices, and treatment was not comfortable at all. CPAP affects two people. My lovely wife endured my complaints, a noisy machine, and strong gusts from the exhalation port on my mask. I woke often due to leaks pointed at my eye, and to check for mask fit and leakage. I was sleep deprived.

Other forums weren't tolerant of my naive questions. I live in Ontario Canada.  My sleep doc added stress to my life. 

What's changed?

Reading articles here I found out about machines that were better than mine. I bought a really good used machine that a friend chose not to use, declining treatment. I found a good DME by asking many people who they had as a sleep doctor, and where they got their masks. 

I read about masks here. I learned about SleepyHead here. I finally had a tool to use to check performance when I started to feel as if treatment wasn't working. In the past I would wait for my next appointment. I used to keep my masks a long time. I used my first cpap machine for almost 9 years. 

Recently I asked for help here. My concern was that treatment could be even better, and I wanted it to be as good as it could be.  I was introduced to the Clinician's Setup Manual. I never had that before. Now I know how to set pressure and turn on the machine's features.  

The dark side? I finally had a sleep study after 10 years....new sleep doc who I haven't met yet. Found him by referral from my family doctor. My family doc was about to retire, and I wasn't sure I would have a replacement to get a referral....

I'm very happy with my cpap machine. I'm happy with the mask I'm using. I'm fighting a battle with a sore just inside my right nostril that may be big C. I believe that the sore was caused by previous masks---Wisp first, due to fit; then a series of Dreamwear masks. Now I'm on my second ResMed N20. I'm being more careful with mask hygiene after reading posts here.

I have so much to learn. This is a wonderful environment for learning, with knowledgeable posters that really care.

Thank you!

[DaveL]

AHI=0.0 last night/7 hours sleep.

First follow up meeting with new sleep doc is still pending.

[SuperSleeper]

Nice.  

[Kosoku]

Just going to post this picture here. You can clearly see where I was and where I am now. I have come along way with help from this forum, the desire to change, and not being afraid to take control of my treatment and the patients to see it through. I went for so long on a fixed pressure with AHI never below 5 to a fairly consistent 1-2 even a new low of 0.23. WOW.

What this picture does not show, is the previous 10 years on CPAP. I have no data in the that time range but I can only assume that it started out ok and then as time, body, situations change, it ended up looking like the beginning of this chart.

I still plan on tweaking my treatment, playing with different masks, trying the newest fix, etc in search of that elusive 0.0 AHI. The cervical collar, wow. FFM , wow.

Anyways, for those new to CPAP/BIPAP or struggling with treatment, hang in there, it does get better if you can persevere. Don't be afraid to ask question, read read read, and try different settings other than what your DME sets the darn machine to. It can and will improve.

[Zainabpb]

Hi guys and girls

Its exactly 2 month since I'm on my Resmed Autosense 10. It's been a journey but I can jump for joy as I'm feeling the difference in my entire wellbeing. I feel like an entire new person. I can drive without feeling I'm going to fall asleep behind the wheel. I'm a nicer person at night when  i return home from work. I actually speak to my family at home now. I don't have lower  back pains anymore. No more waking up 3 times a night to go to the toilet.  My husband don't have to hear my horrendous snoring anymore?

So much have changed. I'm more productive at work and in general much calmer with less anxiety. I'm still shy about sleeping with the mask, to the point i don't want to turn around facing my husband during the night, scared he might get a fright- I do feel a bit less sexy...?

But with saying that I am more happy and did not skip a night since I have started 2 months back. I never want to feel that low in my life again. 

Thanks to all who contribute to this site, you all amazing. 

Zainab

[DaveL]

Hi guys and girls

Its exactly 2 month since I'm on my Resmed Autosense 10. It's been a journey but I can jump for joy as I'm feeling the difference in my entire wellbeing. I feel like an entire new person. I can drive without feeling I'm going to fall asleep behind the wheel. I'm a nicer person at night when  i return home from work. I actually speak to my family at home now. I don't have lower  back pains anymore. No more waking up 3 times a night to go to the toilet.  My husband don't have to hear my horrendous snoring anymore?

So much have changed. I'm more productive at work and in general much calmer with less anxiety. I'm still shy about sleeping with the mask, to the point i don't want to turn around facing my husband during the night, scared he might get a fright- I do feel a bit less sexy...?

But with saying that I am more happy and did not skip a night since I have started 2 months back. I never want to feel that low in my life again. 

Thanks to all who contribute to this site, you all amazing. 

Zainab

Beautiful post!
Remember how you feel right now. Remember those benefits. I"ve learned to listen to my body. If I don't feel so good, what has changed? (Usually its my mask...older, and not working so well.)
The participants at this forum have helped me so much. There are other forums; none have been as good as this one in my experience.
I've done this for a long time. Today I meet with my new sleep doc for the first time. I'm going to ask how cpap therapy can be improved. Last night I had a perfect score on my Resmed S9. 0.0 !   I don't want to change anything!

[Grieko S.]

  Sory for bad english.   I have now for over 7 years a cpap and later a bipap machine. I lofe them I need them.. It improves the quality of life with very big steps.

I know with a pressure 12 to 18 cm/wk it is sometimes hard to sleep with, but not to have is a real dissaster for me.

The fine tuning of the machine it is real important and make a big difference, it have to fit to your natural aspiration.

I love the machine from Resmed. The Philips is not to comare with the resmed and my natural aspiration.

[Fats Drywaller]

I posted in this thread some number of months ago, and nothing has changed in my CPAP therapy since then (it still works great), but I just thought I would mention how pleasant it is to be able to look forward to bedtime every evening, knowing that I'm going to get a full night's sleep and that it'll be deep and restful sleep, almost as if I were a kid again.  The only reason for that is CPAP, and I don't know of anything else that would do it.

At this season a year ago, I was a miserable wreck, no doubt about it, from chronic lack of sleep.  (And a wretched sinner, too!)  I hated going to bed every night, because sleeping, or trying to, was a strange kind of torture, and sometimes in the morning it would seem that I felt even worse and should have just stayed awake all night instead.  Went to a couple of doctors, got the sleep-apnea diagnosis last winter, got Rx and first CPAP machine in early April, and since then it has been a journey back to normality as far as my sleeping habits are concerned.  What a relief!

So, to anyone out there who is either just starting out with CPAP or in the early stages of diagnosis and sleep study, etc., I say "Go for it!"  Do whatever you need to do to get your machine & mask and get started, and don't give up.  The results of using CPAP consistently can be ab fab, after the initial phase of getting used to it.  You, too, can renounce your miserable past and be saved!  (Sign here.)

As long as I'm on the subject and raving about how great CPAP is, I should add that those patients who are just starting out and are having difficulties putting up with it might want to pause to count their blessings: CPAP doesn't involve any hazardous drugs or surgery, it's non-invasive (I don't think a nasal-pillows mask really counts there; at least it doesn't bother me at all), and it's relatively inexpensive.  As I think I've said before, it ain't quite like an iron lung or a dialysis machine, the big-ticket items.  And we can all be thankful for that.  I know I am.

Sank you, and goot ebening.