I love my CPAP!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

They make little keychains that say ‘I love my <insert dog breed here>’. I wish I had one for my CPAP.

I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea in August, after a brutal six-month wait for a sleep test. After another one-month wait, they scheduled me for a second test, calibrated a machine for me, and this past Friday, I finally got my machine.

Over the past year, my energy level has dropped to zero. Sometimes, below zero. I was consuming lots of extra sugar and carbs just to try to jumpstart my energy level (though I know this is really bad in the long term), and chugging coffee by the potful just to be able to function at work. Caffeine pills, herbal supplements, energy drinks, taking short walks and stretch breaks, dunking my head in cold water, hanging myself upside down, hyperventilating into paper bags – I tried everything.

Even with all that, I found myself falling asleep several times an hour at work and at home, no matter what I did. I could sleep for 12, 15, 24 hours and still feel as exhausted as when I went to bed.

After one night with the CPAP, it all completely stopped. I perked right up. My energy levels are creeping back up to the norm. I haven’t fallen asleep inappropriately even once at work.

According to my doctor’s analysis, before the CPAP I would stop breathing approximately every four minutes during sleep, and my blood oxygen levels dropped to 78%. My blood pressure was shooting up exponentially worse over the last six months, and I couldn’t lose any weight. Rather, I was gaining weight, no matter what I ate or how I exercised. I felt like I was 86, not 26. Memory problems, cognitive problems, and all that.

Now, I feel like a human being again, instead of a braindead zombie.

I’d like to kiss the person that invented that machine.

A totally mundane and pointless post, but at least it’s a positive one. :slight_smile:

2

Congrats!

I read your Coffee Rant, where you mentioned you were waiting for the machine. Glad it worked out so well for you :slight_smile:

And you signed up! So that the wonderfully colorful language in that thread won’t be the last we hear of you!! Yay!!! :smiley:

3

Just wanted to say I love my CPAP machine too! :smiley:

4

I’m very glad to hear that you’re having such a positive experience with your CPAP. Congrats!

5

I have recently suspected that I may have apnea. I do get very sleepy during the day. I’ve been reluctant to go and get tested because:

  1. I have enough other things wrong with me that it may not be apnea
  2. I worry that the machine is so uncomfortable that I’ll not be able to sleep with it anyway.

I don’t wake up exhausted though. I wake up refreshed, I just get tired quickly.

Oh well, it will be for the doc to sort out.

How were you able to adjust to the machine? I sleep on my stomach and side and I suspect that would just drive the mask into my face, making it difficult to sleep.

6

I read the OP as CRAP.

I’ll go now

7

Every 4 minutes??? wow! no matter you were tired.
Glad you are feeling better

Brian

8

I love my CPAP, too! It’s totally amazing how much it changes your life!

Khadaji, I sleep on my stomach, too. I get it adjusted so that I sort of hang my face off the edge of the pillow. Putting my mask on is like Pavlov’s dog - it puts me right out.

At my sleep study, they told me I had an apnea episode 59 times an hour. No wonder I was so tired all the time! My turning point was when I started falling asleep while driving.

I’ve had mine for about 4 years, now.

Congrats, Leah! And welcome to the board!

9

Happy for all you satisfied CPAPers.
A guy I golf with just started using one, and said he never used to dream, but since using the CPAP he has extremely vivid dreams nearly every night.
Any of you experience that little side benefit?

10

Yes, my dreaming returned with the use of a CPAP.

11

Khadaji:
Not offering medical advice, just sharing my experience here. I’m sure it’s a little different for everyone, also depending on the severity of your apnea if you have it. For me, it started out with me just getting tired a lot, and as it progressed, I always felt exhausted and I started falling asleep everywhere, all the time. At the worst of it, I would wake up with massive headaches, wake up short of breath, and just always feel like I had pulled a massive all-nighter. I knew something was wrong when I started sleeping 12+ hours a night, since I’ve always been the ‘I’m good on 4 hours’ person. I caught it early, because of this.

Getting checked for apnea is really easy, and if you suspect it, I’d honestly suggest setting up an appointment for a sleep test. It took them six months on a waiting list to get me in at all, and I was suffering horribly the whole time. Waiting was the worst part.

I used to sleep solely on my stomach, I suspect mostly because it was too hard to breathe on my back, and I just got used to it. It’s a little weird with the mask now, as I have the entire face mask, but I find that I fall asleep just fine and I get really good quality sleep, now, so I need less of it. Part of my problem, though, is also that I have an arthritic spine.

And thanks for the congrats from all the people who have offered it. :slight_smile:

12

:eek:

My dad didn’t get help for his apnea until he was falling asleep driving, too.

I started falling asleep while watching TV, typing, and even talking. I don’t drive, but even if I did, I would have refrained, because I would have been so scared of causing an accident.

13

Drats, you beat me. I’m at 54 times per hour, definitely well into the severe category. 4 times per hour sounds wonderful to me! Haha!

Unfortuantely, I never could adjust to CPAP. I have a deviated septum so I had the full-face mask. I hate, hate, HATED the CPAP. I have never been able to sleep with anything in near proximity to my face. As an example, a two man pup tent leaves me feeling claustrophobic and I cannot sleep in one without putting my head and shoulders outside the tent. The CPAP mask was just too much and I gave up on it as a solution.

Of course, the surgical options completely suck for OSA so I’m not sure what my next step is going to be.

MeanJoe

14

59 times an hour? 54 times an hour?

According to my report (which I just had to fax to my new supply provider here in NC) I had 102.5 events per hour of sleep. I’ve had surgery to correct a deviated septum, and I didn’t have any trouble adjusting to my nasal mask.

15

I was having them 60 times an hour. I was winning the thread until LurkMeister posted! shakes fist in impotent rage

Khadaji - When I went for my test, I had a panic attack when I woke up with the mask covering my mouth and nose. They told me that my apnea was too bad to ignore though, and surgery wasn’t an option. I went for another test and had another panic attack at 3 am from the same sort of mask. Then they tried me on one that just hooks beneath the nose. It did take me a few days to get used to it (I kept waking up to discover that I had removed it overnight), but no real problems since then. So there are definitely options if you need them.

16

I have a sleep test in a few weeks, and I’m glad to hear that so many people have had positive experiences with the mask. I’ve been a bit worried about having to sleep with the thing in case it comes to that.

17

It’s also a blessing to the ones who live with you, and especially sleep with you. No more loud snoring, gasping, or jerking awake.

(I have a nasal mask, FTR.)

18

One thing to keep in mind is that there are several different types of masks available for the CPAP. Mrs. Pete has one kind, which I don’t like at all, and I have another. So if you one doesn’t work for you, another might.

I’ve also experienced the Pavlovian thing. Slip that thing on my head and most nights it’s lights out.

19

I’ll join the praise-singing chorus. I had bad apnea in college, and it made me almost flunk out (not to mention the embarassment of falling asleep in class and snoring -quite- loudly). Once I got the mask, I could sleep, I could dream… It was just plain amazing. Yay CPAP!

Hrm… Is this a napping smiley? :o

20

Hmmm…I have mild apnea (only completely stopped breathing once) but I don’t have the numbers memorized. :wink: I got the CPAP and tried it for a few days over holiday break and haven’t been back to it. My blood pressure is higher than it used to be but I assumed that was because of my weight. I do have trouble waking up but am not crazy-sleepy during the day.

In short, you are inspiring me to give it another go!