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+--- Thread: I had a good night's sleep (/Thread-I-had-a-good-night-s-sleep)
I had a good night's sleep - Big Guy - 08-21-2019
We went to bed at 10:30 last night. Geared up as usual and turned out the lights. During the night, between my nose itching, my mask (AirFit F20) moving around creating air leaks, and a small irritated spot on the side of my nose, that was enough to make me take my mask off.
I got up to use the bathroom and left my mask on the bathroom vanity. That was at 4:30. I went back to bed and fell right back to sleep. It's been quite a while since the last time I slept w/o my gear on.
I have a follow-up appt. with my sleep doc on the 28th of this month. He's going to ask me how I'm doing and feeling. He always does. I'll then tell him I'm doing fine but still feeling tired. That will be about two weeks short of being on SA Therapy for one year.
I really do try not to sleep (except naps) w/o my gear on. But, when I do, it's so great. It's really a treat. It's tough at times, as some on here realize, to remain positive and remain dedicated in regards to SA Therapy. There are times when I do ask myself, is this really working for me and is all the effort really worth it?
The vast majority of the time, I don't feel so negative about all of it. It's something that I need to do and I just do it. But, there are times like this, when I do wonder.
My sleep doc and I will discuss all this in more depth obviously. He's good and I do have faith in him. I suppose that I just wanted to get some of this off my chest and vent a bit.
If any of you have any words of inspiration and encouragement, I'm all ears.
RE: I had a good night's sleep - OpalRose - 08-21-2019
I’m always amazed at folk that can go back to sleep without their mask and say that they slept well.
I have to wonder why we are all so different in that respect.
I did that a couple times and felt like I was run over by a truck! I have taken a few naps without my mask (not on purpose), but just fell asleep without it. I could always count on being jolted awake and gasping for air almost every few minutes. This would happen even partially sitting up and falling asleep.
I know that I can never go without and feel rested, not to mention the stress on my heart from being jolted awake like that.
Sorry, I’m not encouraging you much,
but I am glad that you can do that and not suffer for it.I wish I could.
RE: I had a good night's sleep - sheepless - 08-21-2019
Big Guy, I think your attitude is a good one. you take an active interest, seek information and advice, try things and assess their effectiveness, seem to be flexible, and can enjoy the occasional night or partial night off (I'm envious).
I can't imagine anyone really liking this treatment unless they felt at least somewhat better, but there are reasons to stick with it. I'm almost 3 years in and while I've recently been noticing improvements, they've been a long time coming. still, I know this treatment is beneficial for me, even if I'm still not up to par. when my first machine, an apap, brought my ahi down from over 72 to 5 or 6, I still felt awful but I knew 6 must be far less damaging than 72. bottom line: that's enough to keep me interested and hopeful.
however, even though I still felt awful, it wasn't as bad as without treatment and that's really what keeps me going. in my case moving to a different machine modality helped. every day gets a tiny bit better. it's not noticeable on a daily basis but if I think about how it used to be, I know it's better than it was.
while for many of us this isn't a set and forget proposition, requiring instead a lot of monitoring and adjusting, I look forward to the day(s) I feel so energetic I forget to think about oscar results and how I feel.
don't forget that there are many other things besides apnea and cpap that affect sleep and how we feel as a result. if well optimized cpap doesn't produce the levels of well being we hope for, we need to consider other factors.
I hope your doc visit is productive and you eventually feel as good as you expect.
RE: I had a good night's sleep - mesenteria - 08-21-2019
I have tried naps exactly twice without using my equipment over the nearly 22 months I have been on PAP. Both times I was sliding blissfully into a great sleep, but was dragged quickly out of sleep as I began to snore....ALL OVER AGAIN!!! Wear mask = no snoring. Don't wear mask = snoring. I don't imagine your apnea stays away either.
That's probably the discouraging part. Sorry.
For encouragement, trust the numbers if they are a lot better than what your original diagnosis numbers were. If the machine is apparently treating you, great! It could be that you can tweak the settings a bit still and find that you feel better, but I have no idea how to do that without more information.
RE: I had a good night's sleep - alexp - 08-22-2019
Based on what you wrote I suppose your AH events are under control, but did you check that you have no remaining RERA as well? It can make a pretty big difference in the way you feel.
RE: I had a good night's sleep - StevesSp - 08-22-2019
(08-21-2019, 12:35 PM)Big Guy Wrote: ... I have a follow-up appt. with my sleep doc on the 28th of this month. He's going to ask me how I'm doing and feeling. He always does. I'll then tell him I'm doing fine but still feeling tired. That will be about two weeks short of being on SA Therapy for one year ...
If your experience is anything like mine, all you will get is a furrowed brow, a faked look of concern, then you move on to talking about other stuff.
"Well apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?"
RE: I had a good night's sleep - SarcasticDave94 - 08-23-2019
Believe it or not but my current pulmonary doc isn't quite a Duck...that's good BTW. My yearly visit is not too big of an ordeal. I see him yearly secondarily for apnea, primarily now is COPD. ASV keeps doc away. He doesn't get in areas where he's not experienced, and just asks me how therapy is going and do I need scripts. He then sets up the next pulmonary function test, follow-up on results and then next year's visit.
