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My new girlfriend saw people with sleep apnea before (years ago) and she saw the kind of mask and machine they were using. Despite she likes the Siths when watching / playing Star Wars, she did not want to turn to Darth Vader herself with such a piece of equipment.
But her sleep apnea is so severe... The doc himself did not believed her terrible condition could be caused "just" by sleep apnea. She had water retention at a scale you won't believe! When pressing on her foot with a thumb and holding pressure for a moment before releasing, it left a crater at least a quater inch deep for minutes. Her movements were restricted, none of her clothing would fit her anymore, she was terrible... Add the chronic fatigue to that, she was plain miserable.
When we got her machine, we had to adjust her therapy settings and found the proper mask. She is one of kind in many ways, including how she appreciate her therapy. She is allergic to EPR, she enjoys a maximum pressure from the instant she puts her mask On and no way for her to use a nasal / pillow mask instead of her full face. She does not care what others think about that : it is her therapy and that is all matter for her.
Overall, it took us about 1 month to get it up to a reasonable level. She still need to get more used to the therapy and do full nights with it but she is making progress. Still, even if we are not full speed yet with her therapy, what a result!
She dropped 4 inches on her clothing, her feet are back to normal, even one night she had to re-adjust her mask because the day before, she lost so much water that even her face was slimmer.
When she manage to get over 6 hours of therapy in a night, she recover her energy, joy of life and more.
To others, do not worry if the miracle is not instant. Here, it was about 1 month before we got enough from the therapy for us to appreciate it. Now, we too are convinced that her therapy is essential and we will keep working whatever bump we may encounter. We know that once they are cleared, her entire life will be much better.
I have been reading this board for a couple of years.
My wife had severe snoring and I was able to get her setup with Resmed 10 autoset.
She had big problems with breathing because of a severe deviated septum. But the Resmed F20 airtouch worked great. She started having severe nose bleeds and worried about bleeding out in her sleep. The doctor who fixed her deviated septum is a good friend of hers and the office staff stopped everything to help her. The doctor came in on his day off to take care of her. He called to check on her all weekend.
She now has scores around .3 instead of being 5 to 20.
Back when I was in first grade I had a sleep study because I was always falling asleep.
I purchased a used Resmed 10 autoset with airtouch mask. Flow limits pushed pressure up pretty high.
I then purchased an Aircurve 10. Better but 3.2 was as high as a raise it before CA would rise.
Tried other masks. Now using Resmed F30. Very loose but still seals great.
Now using Resmed S9 adept. Perfect using recommended settings.
Scores around 1, low pressures.
If I control allergies I get around seven hours of sleep.
I suspected I had apnea for most of my adult life but didn't actually think about doing anything about it until early last year - one day my wife was telling me that my snoring was especially loud the previous night and that it sounded like I was gasping for air, so I finally made an appointment with a sleep doctor. The initial home testing pretty much confirmed I had one of the more severe cases of obstructive apnea the doctor had seen - 90+ events per hour, with an O2 sat that dropped into the 70s at times. As a result, I ended up getting a ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset (set to a range of 5-15, later to 5-18). I had no issues taking to it right away - I was a bit concerned since my dad had a CPAP that he stopped using after the first night (though it was a fixed pressure CPAP - this was a number of years ago).
It's been roughly 16 months since I started using it - I've used it for a full night every single night and have seen amazing results. I've only taken one nap in the last year, I don't get tired while driving anymore, and I'm far more attentive in general - and my event count has dropped from 90 per hour down to ~0.5 per hour. My wife doesn't even need earplugs anymore since I make zero noise when I sleep. My fitness watch is also showing significant improvements in sleep quality - from less than 10 minutes of deep sleep a night to over an hour. I never felt fully rested before, but I feel more rested on 7-8 hours of sleep per night than I ever did on any amount pre-CPAP.
But long story short, i battled with my Philips Dreamstation for 2 years and had that thing dialled in. There was nothing more i could do and i was still not sleeping. So after all the BS with Philips and much reading on here and recommendations from mods and users, about 4 or 5 months ago i went and bought a Resmed Airsense 10 auto outright. The difference was night and day. Unbelievable how much better this machine is. I now sleep. I have pretty much no events on a good night, and minimal on a bad night. I've changed many things about my life too, but the machine plays a huge part.
I'm not jumping out of bed yet with crazy energy or running a marathon. But the constant headaches have gone, the constant wired but tired feeling and aching legs and brain have gone. I'd also regularly feel nauseated from how tired i was, that was the worst, that has pretty much gone. My anxiety and depression are way better. The only odd thing remaining, is when i open my eyes in the morning and think "ok how bad am i going to feel today?" . That's still there. But most of the time i've slept well and just enjoy a good doze and hitting the snooze button a few times
So hopefully this continues. Thankyou so much to everyone on here for all your help. There is no way i'd have gotten to this point without you all. Seriously really appreciate it.
Hugs!
PS I won't list all the things i've changed in my life - it's too long. But if anyone is interested, hit me up
Guilty! I continue to point to people with variable breathing being unable to tolerate or obtain good results on Philips machines. I even wrote the Variable Breathing wiki based on your problems and noted it causes the Dreamstation Auto algorithm to seize. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php..._Breathing Thanks for the follow-up and success story!
(02-16-2022, 07:12 PM)Sleeprider Wrote: As far as your results, the Philips flag the variable breathing, which is different form periodic breathing, and there is some hypopnea in there. Your machine does not specialize in flow limitation, and that is what we would address with a Resmed. It's like your weather. No point in complaining about it if you can 't change it. Get a machine with EPR and call me in the morning.
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.
(11-28-2022, 10:34 PM)Sleeprider Wrote: Guilty! I continue to point to people with variable breathing being unable to tolerate or obtain good results on Philips machines. I even wrote the Variable Breathing wiki based on your problems and noted it causes the Dreamstation Auto algorithm to seize. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php..._Breathing Thanks for the follow-up and success story!
Oh really!? That's great. I'm glad my two years of wacking my head against a brick wall helped somehow... No I jest, thanks mate I owe you a beer or three. Legend
I am six weeks into treatment for sleep apnea. My sleep study resulted in a AHI of 35. I appreciate the encouraging posts in this thread.
I have a long way to go but I think I passed a significant hurdle: mask wearing. The second hurdle that I have crossed is the downloading of Oscar to my Chromebook so now I can analyze my data. My computer skills are modest so it took me a few tries.
At first, I started with a full face mask and it was a disaster. Lots of discomfort and a huge number of leaks. Air rushing into my mouth and into my eyes. I was ready to quit after the first week. The biggest problem is that I’m a side sleeper and my movements would dislodge the mask. Fortunately, I have a good DME and I was able to try a variety of masks. The Dreamwear full face turned out to work for me and now my leak rates are low.
My main point for writing is that mask wearing is difficult for most of us but finding the right one for you may take multiple attempts. My AHI is less than 5 now and I feel much more alert during the daytime. Next step is optimizing my Oscar scores. Good luck to all in navigating this treatment journey.
I'm one of the lucky ones who took easily to CPAP therapy and saw immediate benefits.
After 4 years of depression and arranging my life around my daily naps, I am so happy with my progress so far.
I'm a 54 year old male from Toronto with celiac disease (controlled via diet), chronic back pain, but otherwise healthy. I started CPAP in Nov 2022 after being diagnosed back in March with moderate OSA. We unfortunately have long wait times for appointments and machines here.
I feel my lungs have expanded somehow. It's like a weight has been lifted and it's easier to breathe deeply now.
At first I used the under the nose mask on my dreamwear, but I found leaks dried out my eyes. This was much reduced after switching to nasal pillows. I stopped using a chin strap - maybe I trained myself to no longer need it? At first my face felt all puffy in the mornings, but this has gone away. My mask now feels almost like it's not there.
I experienced a high amount of CA's with Autoset pressure 6-10, and eventually settled on fixed CPAP of 6 with no ramp and EPR on. My AHI is usually under 2 with these settings. This is all thanks to reading this board, as my Dr. wasn't interested in optimizing my results below 5. He doesn't look at Oscar data.
Overall Results:
Back pain - faster recovery after relapses
GERD - completely gone
Arthritic toe - much reduced pain
Daily nap - rare
Weight training - I can train again without feeling exhausted
Apple Watch sleep and respiratory data - deep sleep much improved and resp rate over 12 (from 11)
Depression - resolved
I've been using a cpap machine for a bit over a year now.. always had leakage issues that would wake me up at night .. I'm a mouth breather and quickly found out that I needed a full face mask to survive... now, a year later, I've discovered that I can once again use a nasal mask, but with a chin strap & cervical collar. I still had leakage issues with the nasal pillows and nasal cushions.. the leaks either tickle or itch and wake me up ... finally found a mask that works for me .. the resmed n20 foam cushion .. last night I had zero leaks. Hopefully this will continue in the future..
Resmed Airsense 11/Resmed N20 memory foam mask,cervical collar, MyAir software, OSCAR for data analysis
