Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here

[spclark]

Will do Dormeo, thanks!

Being that I'm new to this forum I wanted to 'test the water' a bit before jumping in head first. And posting an image of the left data window from Oscar I'd considered, so look for that post soon!

[Charovni]

On the first place I wish to thank those who invented the CPAP. Never in the field of human sleep was so much been owed by so many to so few. Thank you, guys.

In short, I am 49, male, work in office, do little physical exercise. Blissfully unaware of anything related to sleep apnea. Then I felt something was not right. Increasing sleepiness, great irritability in office, conflicts, waking up at night short of breath. A nightmare. Hell. Still not knowing what was going on. The bed scared me. I started pills - wrong move. Now I know more. The summer before the pandemic we went to the seaside. I was driving on the highway. Fell asleep on the wheel. None of the other passengers suspected. Only the girl next to me noticed. She was watchful luckily. So I heard her voice in my sleep - You are veering off the road! Her comment saved us. I woke up. Thus my CPAP journey started. It took a lot of reading. I self-diagnosed and never went to doctor's office. It is not in the insurance. I spent a two month's salary on a ResMed Autoset but it was worth every cent. Now I have two of these. Just in case. My precious....

To all those how still doubt, who still have to make the leap of faith - make it. Make this step. Do not live in hell. You have a solution. I promise you two or three difficult nights while you get used, then it is fun. Every night I look forward to attaching myself to the hose. Good luck and may the sleep be with you! I am here to help if anyone needs advice. I did all settings myself and now have AHI 0.5 - 0.8 and good 7 hours sleep on average. You could be next.

[Dormeo]

What a wonderful story, Charovni! You are getting the treatment you need, and what is more, you did it yourself. Ideally we would all have great insurance and knowledgeable, caring physicians, but when we don't, you're a perfect model for the right approach. Congratulations!

[Big John]

Hello Apnea Board Forum !!!

I kind of find this unbelievable, that this is the first time I have googled the words apnoea and CPAP, and then boom... I found this site. 

why is that so astounding? 

I have had been using a CPAP machine for over 15 years.  In that time I have struggled through some issues with the devices. But I have always found the best way to deal with them myself. Ugur, if I had only found this forum sooner I could/would have had user help on tap.

that must be my big success story  ... I am here at last! ...

other successes I have had with the CPAP devices

1. I haven't nearly dozed off whilst driving on the motorway (it got so bad I now hate driving)
   
2. my wife does not shout "you're doing it again" when I fell asleep listening to her tell me about her day.
   
3. my kids look down from the school stage and see me smiling back up at them instead of seeing my chin rest upon my chest
   
4. my snoring does not happen when I use the CPAP. this has saved my marriage and quite possibly my life. (She does love me. (sometimes))
   
5. I believe that my risk of stroke has been greatly reduced.
   

Nearly twenty years ago my wife demanded that she take me to a doctor about my snoring and everything. (everything ???)  at this point, I had been sentenced to the couch to sleep because she couldn't take it anymore, my snoring and everything was affecting her health.  So, we went and seen my GP (General Practitioner) were the GP and I was informed about my snoring, the snoring choking noises I would make, the deep heavy but very loud snoring, honking the bloody pigs home snoring and the fact I could hold my breath for minutes whilst sleeping, in fact, this had gotten so bad that she would often punch or kick me to get me to start breathing snoring very very very heavily again. she was at her wit's end and very upset about this. 

I was astonished; I never knew I could honk the pig's home, not to mention I now had an explanation for the unexplained bruising on my arms and legs and that would also explain the tender spots on my back.

The GP sent me to the Department of Sleep Medicine at the Royal Infirmary (I had never heard of such a medical department before) after the initial assessment I was invited in one evening for bed and breakfast whilst being hooked up to one of their weird machines (all very Syfy) anyway it turns out I had obstructive sleep apnoea thingy-ma-bob, but don't worry they could treat it, great, all I had to do is sleep with a hoover for the rest of my life.

so from then on, I would get ready for bed (yippee I was back in the bedroom) pull on the face mask (big masks back then) press the on button on the CPAP machine and aim my head at the pillow. a few seconds later or so it feels I'm back up fresh a daisy ready to face whatever life has to throw at me. my good lady has complained about the noise the ResMed hoover makes, so one of the solutions was to cut some holes in the bedside cabinet and pop el hoover into the cabinet drawer where the noise level dropped by half (winner winner)

there have been one or two setbacks and upgrades over the years, but my anti-snoring CPAP machine has kept my wife quite happy, I am totally oblivious to it, I could sleep through a riot.

P.S. if you ever get a kitten. do not let it into the bedroom with a CPAP machine as they will automatically think that the hose is for climbing to your face. apart from the punctures in the hose, the nightmares I suffered over the following nights were bad. The little shitbag ball of fur just sits there purring away.

thanks for reading
Big John

[Dormeo]

Big John, I haven't had so much fun reading a post in I don't know when. Thank you so much for this wonderful tale! "Honking the pigs home" is now going into my permanent phrase bank.

And seriously, I'm so glad you're taking care of your health -- it's inspiring to me to hear from people who've been at it a good long time.

[RayBee]

Welcome to ApneaBoard Big John and thank you for the post.

I read your post to my wife. Between belly-laughs , she was rolling her eyes and saying "you did that" (on several occasions) and "why do you think I did that" (my tenderized ribs have now healed too).

I'm glad you are doing well... and still happily married. It's great us hose-heads can find humor in all this, and thanks again for the awesome post. Wishing you ongoing success my friend.

[Sleeprider]

Big John, sounds like things are going great. Your S9 Escape has no data capability, and a whole new world of possibilities awaits when you get your first Autoset. You're due.

[Sleepster]

Big John, I highly recommend that you upgrade to the ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset. It is a much quieter and better machine. Also, if you run one of those air filtering machines in your bedroom the white noise will mask the very slight noise from the machine.

[method115]

Started CPAP 10 days ago. Last night was my first night with almost no issue and I slept like a baby. Best night of sleep I had in a while. Was in my car signing at 530 am feeling great. I've adjusted to mask and I don't even feel it anymore. Followed lots of advice from here and on reddit on everything I need to do and try.

[Dormeo]

Method 115, congratulations on this wonderful success, and thank you for sharing your story!