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Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
Welcome boilergonzo, you seem to be doing well, well done, it does take time to feel more alert, rested and a better memory, for me it too between 3-6 months to really start to feel the effects. The way I look at it is my body and brain were so sleep and oxgen deprived for so many years, my body needs to heal and re generate if you like and that takes time. That is one thing we now have plenty of, time. Be patient and it will come, good luck.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
I just posted this on another thread, but it seemed like a good introduction!

I suddenly gained an enormous amount of weight several years ago, and began suffering from a host of medical problems: untreatable high blood pressure (unresponsive to meds), day-long tiredness, depression, inability to lose weight (despite working out 5 days a week at the Y), falling asleep at inappropriate times (like during movies, meetings at work, and driving), impaired kidney function, waking to go to the bathroom 3 times a night, restless leg syndrome, and erectile dysfunction. My weight ballooned to 355 pounds. Unfortunately, my doctor took a "micro" approach and treated each problem separately and I was taking 6 different pills until my wife finally told me that she was tired of my snoring/gasping at night. When I started to investigate sleep apnea and its treatment - I put all the puzzle pieces together! I'm sure you can all guess why I had these problems! I called a sleep specialist in my area and asked for the fastest appointment possible. I went for my overnight study, got my CPAP and I feel like I am on my way to recovery. I've only been on my CPAP for two weeks, but I already feel better - I'm sleeping through the night, my bp is going down (and "other" things are going UP in the morning!!). I'm still tired through the day, but I do notice a slight improvement. Most people say it is a long journey, but I am grateful that I found this information before my next disorder was a heart attack or stroke.

I'm still working out some adjustment issues, but on the whole, I love my CPAP and I'm so grateful that I have a wife who is supportive and doesn't mind it at all. Thanks for all of your posts and supportive community here!
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
That's a great story Chezdan. Everyone experiences improvements at their own pace, I'm glad things are working out 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
To start this I was in a bad way, my girl friend said the snoring wasn't the problem I was jerking awake. I recorded myself sleeping and would gag awake every 30 seconds. I was falling asleep at the wheel and anytime I had a few minutes that I wasn't pushing to stay awake. My first sleep test was set up for a month later(boo) and I had a bad cold so had to reschedule for another month later (big boo). All this time I knew I was a mess and an accident waiting to happen. Long and short was I was diagnosed with 120 episodes each hour (as I knew) and prescribed a auto cpap machine. I was sent to the local Home Health Provider to get a 3B medical A9000 machine. I had the full face mask from the study so I got a nasal mask with the machine. The full size would crease my high bridged nose but I wanted it to work so I wore it for 90 days like it or not all night every night. One night I thought I could breath through my nose so I tried the nasal mask and it was much better on my face. Then went on line and bought a nasal pillow set up and found it to be 10 times more comfortable then any mask. I have used my machine an average of 7 hours a night since I got it (220 days), do not get tired during the day or driving. I found this web site after 6 months finding out how much insurance may not pay and after finding out how bad I got screwed by the company that sold me this set up. I will buy all my equipment on line and wish bad things on those other fools. Looking forward to this site and seeing other people in the same boat as I working toward a common goal, SLEEP

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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
A little background of my journey to CPAP. I have had PVC,s for over thirty years. My first stress test was in 1984. The PVC's became gradually more frequent over the years. My wife moved into another bedroom about 15 years ago. She said I jerked and I snored. I visited a cardiologist in Jan 2008. He thought I might have sleep apnea so he prescribed an oximeter overnight and from the results he said I definitely did have apnea. I told him I did not want CPAP because my son had a machine and he had quit using it. He then had me use an oxygen concentrator just at night but I could not see that it did anything to help me. I used the oxygen for five years and the PVC's just kept getting worse. In 2008 I had a holter monitor and an echocardiogram. The holter showed that I had 10,000 PVC's in 24 hours and the echogram showed a slightly enlarged heart but still within normal size. Four years later in 2012 the holter showed 15,000 PVC's and the echogram showed my heart was in the enlarged range. My PVC's or skipped beats as I call them would at times skip every other beat for over a minute. This would put you heart rate at 32 beats a minute. When I would stand up after sitting a while some times I would very nearly pass out and I just did not feel well a lot of days. I finally decided to take a sleep test. The sleep tech said I had very disruptive sleep. She said I was not her worst patient but it was bad. I got the Resmed S9 elite and it is set on 13. I started CPAP in April of 2013 and I have used it every night since, except one night our electricity was off. I don't like the mask but I would not consider sleeping without it now. I still go to sleep once in a while when I watch tv in my recliner but I have only got sleepy once driving since then. I still wake up several times a night and change positions but I believe I feel more rested. The thing I am really excited about is about 4 months after I stared CPAP I thought my PVC's were less frequent and I was not getting light headed like before. I have been checking them and now 8 months after starting CPAP I can go over a minute at times before I have a PVC and I do not get light headed when I stand up. I had an echogram this month and he told me my heart had not enlarged any more since the last echogram and told my to keep doing everything I am doing now. The bottom line. I wish I had started CPAP 6 years ago instead wasting all that time with the oxygen which I do not need now.

John
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
congrats tmk
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about 3 years ago although I wonder if I did not have it 40 years ago. I went through a period of my life where, even if I was “well rested”, as soon as I began driving on an interstate, I would be fighting to stay awake. I was OK if I was on a 2 lane road or streets in town. That was the only possible symptom that I can remember. After about seven years the problem went away.

About 8 years ago, I had a 30 mile commute each way to work, and about 5 years ago I started having to fight to stay awake during my commute and I was waking up 2-3 times nightly to go to the bathroom. About 3 years ago, I was hospitalized with atrial fibrillation. My cardiologist ran a number of tests to determine the cause of the atrial fibrillation and found no organic cause but apparently did witness an apnea event. He recommended that I be tested for sleep apnea. My primary care doctor set up the testing at a sleep testing center.

The results were that I had sleep apnea but I do not remember any of the actual results. My doctor set up the VPAP with the DME that his medical group uses. I received a ResMed VPAP Auto 25 with a Fisher & Paykel Zest nasal mask. The VPAP was set by the DME for the PAP that resulted from the titration. It was set for 20 cmH2O IPAP and 16 cmH2O EPAP. The respiratory therapist at the DME told me that was very high.

The first 2 nights that I used it, I woke up in the morning and my mouth was so dry that it hurt. I called the DME and reported my results and they said that I needed a full face mask and sent one out from the same manufacturer. I used it for 2 hours the first night and progressively added more time. I was fighting leakage the whole time and the leak was always at the nose and directed at one of my eyes. As a result the leakage would always wake me up.

After about 6 months of trying anything that I could think of to stop the leaks, I did a little analytical testing of my own and found that at the pressure that was prescribed there was no way the FF mask would seal reliably. I went back to the nasal mask and had less leakage problems and started getting a full night's sleep and feeling more refreshed.

One of the problems was that the DME has respiratory therapists that are supposed to help with equipment problems. My first problem with the respiratory therapists was that they were NEVER available when I called and I would leave messages that were seldom if ever responded to. When I finally complained it appeared that I was assigned a particular respiratory therapist who gave me his direct dial phone number. He tried to be helpful but really did not know very much about PAP machines and their use.

Thank goodness that I have finally found the apnea board. All of you folks are great!!

PaytonA

Admin Note:
PaytonA passed away in September 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
(01-01-2014, 12:37 AM)PaytonA Wrote: I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about 3 years ago...
................. ... .............
Thank goodness that I have finally found the apnea board. All of you folks are great!!
Payton
Welcome aboard Payton... you have come to the right place!,
Ditto most of your story relating to the poor "DME" Medical Care resources we too often face... and more & more I would even expand the "poor" service rating to include many/most of the MD(s) [especially those without a full
" Sleep Medicine "
certification here in the U.S. system]... those who probably are motivated to enter this field Part Time "as a great way to supplement" their income!
Yes, Sleep Medicine has been and continues to see/go through many changes... some good, some not so good.
I wonder what impact Obama-Care will have on this field of medicine??
P.S. - Watch closely as the first "Oral Pressure Therapy" (OPT) device hits the market... under the name of "Winx" via http://ApniCure.com !
I have watched this for several years from my close vantage point here in the S.F. Bay Area... and hope to try one of these soon as they go onto the market!
Best Regards,
Sam Ross... aka MrSafety... aka / MrSafety44@Comcast.Net
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
well there I was two years ago laying in a hospital bed being wired up for a sleep study which came on the heels of an incident one week earlier where i fell asleep at a stop light. I work in Emergency Medical Services and thought this line of work and getting up during the night is what was messing up my sleep patterns.....boy was I wrong.

Long story short, diagnosed with obstructive apnea with periods of central apnea.

Once I got past the one month mark of getting used to my machine and after two mask changes, I sleep like a baby....literally.

Two months after getting full nights of sleep I realized how much of life i was missing out on because of being too tired to do things.

I continue to stay compliant with the therapy as I never want to go back to feeling like the walking dead again.
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RE: Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here
(01-01-2014, 10:48 AM)MrSafety Wrote:
(01-01-2014, 12:37 AM)PaytonA Wrote: I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about 3 years ago...
................. ... .............
Thank goodness that I have finally found the apnea board. All of you folks are great!!
Payton
Welcome aboard Payton... you have come to the right place!,
Ditto most of your story relating to the poor "DME" Medical Care resources we too often face... and more & more I would even expand the "poor" service rating to include many/most of the MD(s) [especially those without a full
" Sleep Medicine "
certification here in the U.S. system]... those who probably are motivated to enter this field Part Time "as a great way to supplement" their income!
Yes, Sleep Medicine has been and continues to see/go through many changes... some good, some not so good.
I wonder what impact Obama-Care will have on this field of medicine??
P.S. - Watch closely as the first "Oral Pressure Therapy" (OPT) device hits the market... under the name of "Winx" via http://ApniCure.com !
I have watched this for several years from my close vantage point here in the S.F. Bay Area... and hope to try one of these soon as they go onto the market!
Best Regards,
Sam Ross... aka MrSafety... aka / MrSafety44@Comcast.Net

I wonder what the hold up is on those units.
At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
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