I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in October of 2007. I’ve been a member of the HoseNose Brigade since then. I use the Nasal Pillows.
It works great. I sleep better and my snoring is eliminated, therefore SWMBO sleeps better as well. Her only objection is that sometimes I’ll turn at just the right angle and she claims it’s like sleeping with Darth Vader.
I was just diagnosed with nocturnal hypoxia and a sleep study scheduled. I’ll almost undoubtedly end up with CPAP, the results of the in-home hypoxia test were pretty conclusive. My cardiologist says that my insurance company authorizes the machine if your O2 saturation drops below 88% for more than five minutes in one night, and mine were below that for an hour and 23 minutes, one time dropping as low as 76%. That was on a night when I only slept for five and a half hours, so around 25% of the time I was hypoxic.
She immediately prescribed oxygen enrichment via a nasal cannula. She said it wasn’t as good as a positive pressure device for apnea as severe as mine, but would raise my baseline O2 sats, and keep me from dipping so low for so long. She’s getting me in for a sleep study as soon as possible, but she says these things sometimes take months to get on the schedule.
Had my sleep study on Thursday night. I don’t know if I selpt. No clocks in the room but they came in at 6 to “wake” me up (I was already kinda awake) I think I have Sleep Apnea or at least the woman I occasionally share a bed with thinks so.
I know I sleep better sitting up when I do lying down which is a sign. I’ll know ina few days the results.
I use a CPAP with nasal pillow mask; have never seen that over-the-head thing that must make you look like a tapir. Or a Clingon. Interesting concept though.
I had problems with condensation in the wintertime sometimes. Got some foam insulation (made for clamping over pipes or tubes) at Home Depot and put that over the hose. That seemed to mostly eliminate the problem.
Huh. I was told to cut open the toe ends of a pair of socks, and put them on the hose. Instead, I took some old shortstretch bandage wrappings and wrapped them around the hose, taping them in place. The bandages quickly lose most of their stretch after a couple of uses, but they are good for other purposes.
I bet the foam insulation works better, though. Maybe I’ll try it next winter.
I’m a hosenoser like your hubby. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea over a year ago and the CPAP has made a huge difference. My only objection is that now SWMBO claims she’s sleeping with Darth Vader.