Before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, I was nodding off at work, when driving, and when riding with someone else.  I always wondered why I would run out of energy early in the day.  I figured my problems were weight related.  
Well, one day at my doctors office while I was waiting to see him in a room, I nodded off and was sawing logs.  When I woke up my doc, other doctors and nurses were in my room and I had a pulseoximeter on my finger.  Being very familular with sleep apnea he was checking my blood oxygen level.  He told me I should get tested for sleep apnea, and explained it to me.  I was all for it, anything that would help me feel better.  I was tired of being tired.  
After about 4 hours the technician came into my room and said I had it bad and she put me on a bi pap first, but then cpap.  I got about 2 hours and good sleep and noticed a little difference.  
Once I got the machine I struggled for a while with sinus issues.  I tried humidity but could tolerate it.  I struggle for several months.  I tried ff mask for a while and then got to where I could use humidity with it.  And that was working for a while.   Then I got the idea of trying my nasal mask again with the humidifier, and I have had alot a success with it, and I thank god for it.  I have more energy than i have felt in a long time.   I couldn't imagine not having my cpap.  
Thanks Rich

These guys are great, they have over 30 years experience and it shows. Mike and Neil were very helpful throughout the whole process and I now have a great fitting mask and I love my S8 Elite. I was able to talk to Mike who is a certified sleep therapist before I ever bought anything and it was free of charge. I know that they were doing it to earn me as a customer and well,  it worked. Their prices were right there with everybody else’s and definitely recommend them to anyone who is looking for a cpap, mask, or supplies; they have earned my business for life. Check them out, pretty nice website with a lot of info and a nifty quiz... <commercial link deleted> per posting guidelines

This might be totally silly, but I just want to share what I have discovered “in case” it makes sense to anyone who is trying to get used to equipment, overall.  This might also be stated hundred of times elsewhere in the Sleep Apnea Forum – there is just so much information on the site, I have not been able to look at it all (and who has? – who has the time to invest?).  It’s is the most valuable/informative site I’ve ever seen!!!

The initial idea that air rushing into, being forced into my nose was “too much” or seemed “just wrong”.  The fact that it was the “fix” to sleep disorder(s) made me accept the notion.  Initially, I did not approve of the idea, but I had to accept that it was the “fix”.  Big difference between accept and approve.  One does not have to enjoy or like something to accept it?!

Trying to use the mask and machine was definitely awkward at first.  I wanted to just reject the whole thing – put it on a shelf or refuse it.  Why, I thought, should I have to struggle with a seemingly normal regular thing like “good sleep”!?  I knew the answer was “because I do not experience normal regular “good sleep”!).  

So, I tried.  And I tried.  I researched the Internet.  I found the SAF (Sleep Apnea Forum).  I learned that it is common to have difficulty in the beginning.  Okay, that fact made me feel “normal”. Misery loves company.  

To keep this post short, I had to “vent” about it, it seemed.  So I did “vent”.  I let the frustration and anger flow out of me (I did not approve of it, but it was real).  I heard from people and saw where people struggle for a long time with the mask and machines (equipment)….and here I was disappointed that it had been “x” number of days for me – some people have been dealing with the “trying” for months and months!!!  So, I guess feeling humbled, I gave in and obviously relaxed somewhat.  I did not realize that “giving in to the idea” mentally would also allow me to “give in” to it (relax) physically as well!

With my insulin pump (Nov. 06), I “named” it to bond with it – become friends with this $8,000 piece of equipment attached to me 24 X 7 (except for showers).  I tried to name it “Hal” (from Space Odyssey?) but the name jumped into my head – “Sylvia”.  Thus –she is Sylvia and has been for all this time now.  She is my best friend and boy, oh boy, what an improvement she has been in the control of my Type 1 diabetes!!!!  Thank you Sylvia!  

I named my CPAP machine…”Daddy” (from Cesar Milan’s pit bull, such a cool calm and collected canine – one of Cesar’s all-time favorite dogs/friend).  Also ChronieToo helped me come up with that name.  [Thanks much]  My equipment has a name and it is now my friend and I accept that it will help me sleep better and better over time.

It worked!  It works!  It was not magic, or I don’t believe it was (is there magic?).  I have not been using Daddy for long (14 days now) but I guess I relaxed enough that I  use it when/if I nap.  My husband called me during the nap and I kept Daddy on, all hooked up and running and I had a conversation with hubby.  He could barely tell I was wearing Daddy!  I, somehow, managed to close off the back of my throat to speak clearly with him!  (or clearly enough)  Now, I sometimes check to see if Daddy is still turned on and running!  There is no struggle to breathe (so I wonder if Daddy turned himself “off”!),  

I might add that I changed (exchanged) my mask 3 days ago – a huge help for me!  I guess I decided that “Daddy” and I were going to “work together” on this.  It was not going to be me against a machine/equipment.   Maybe I gave in to the whole idea?  

It’s something to ponder?....


_________________
Regalad,

OSA/EDS 9/9/08
F; 58 yrs; Resmed S8 Auto II;
Humidaire 3i; ResMed Mirago Micro mask

My success story is here http://koifishcommunications.com/blog/?p=73



Last edited by KoiFish on Sat Feb 28, 2009 4:09 pm; edited 2 times in total

Hi All, New to the forum here. Just glad to say I am finally using a CPAP! The following is a little long, but I feel better after writing it! -bg-

I've had my Respironics Remstar Plus LX for probably 8 years and have had multiple failed attempts trying to use it. I tried different masks, tried using the "ramp" option, talked with the Doctor. Seems like my regular Internal Med Doctor was next to useless back then when it comes to Sleep Apnea! He had very few suggestions for overcoming my problems with the machine except to try the "Other" mask. I must give him credit though, at least he wrote the referral for a sleep study.

Bottom line I could not sleep with the dang thing turned on. With the ramp option I laid awake just waiting for the pressure to increase, then when it did my entire head felt like one of those allergy commercials where the suffers head blow up like a balloon! Extremely uncomfortable to say the least.

I logged a whole 42 hours on the machine in these attempts and finally gave up and put it away several years ago as I was not sleeping at all with the CPAP machine. The cure just seemed worse than the disease at that time...

Fast Forward several years...

I have had 2 years of PIA (Pain in the A...) health problems recently, Blood Sugar out of control, Cholesterol way too high, Blood Pressure climbing along with my weight and to round thing off nicely I fell down some brick stairs at a hotel pool area and blew out both my knees (torn meniscus in both knees added to already painful arthritis in the knees) making it less than easy to stand up let alone walk. Even my favorite thing in life to do, cross Country Motorcycle riding was being effected as I would be fighting falling asleep at 2:00pm when I was out riding. I was diagnosed with diastolic heart failure two months ago, shortly after a round trip to Texas! I had begun a small workout program just prior to the heart failure diagnosis as I knew I was physically out of shape...

I haven't taken it laying down. Got myself a Stationary recumbent bicycle and have built up to 30 minutes a day (Monday-Friday) at Level 9 (going to level 10 next week), Added a 30 minute weight lifting routine M-W-F using a set of Dumbbells and my Bowflex (That had been mostly sitting collecting dust for 2 years).

I have been watching my diet a lot closer and now all my Lab test have come back in what the Doctor refers to as "Well Controlled" after several months of effort, it was not easy but I got there! I'm still working on my weight. BUT, I was still feeling tired all the time and having a very difficult time staying awake in the afternoon at work now, not just when I was out riding or driving across the Country.

Roll forward to about 1 week ago!

I had had enough, so much so that I was tired of being tired all the time to the point of almost being angry. My new doctor suggested giving the CPAP one more try and gave me the number of the Sleep Clinic we use here at Kaiser as I probably should be retested/reevaluated at this point. He was pleased with my other progress and felt Sleep Apnea was the one hurtle I still needed to cross.

I pulled my 8 year old "Respironics Remstar Plus LX" out of the closet. Checked that everything was clean and still in good working order. Connected a new humidifier to it (8 years old but had never been opened). Checked the clock on the Remstar, it still had a whole 42.2 hours logged on it.

Went to bed using the standard nasal mask. Tried the ramp feature, that just made feel like I was starving for air so I switched it back to full power and sleep pretty well for 4 hours or so. When I woke up I could not get comfortable and sleep the rest of the night without the CPAP. I tried again the next night using the alternate Nose Pillow Mask I had and was pretty successful, slept all night about 7 hours, didn't feel great in the morning, but didn't feel bad either, my nose was a little sore! I figured I had at least won a battle! But I still have the War to win...

Night 3, went with the Pillow mask again and same results as Night 2, nose was sore in the morning but I sleep all night (just over 7 hours again, wife said I did not move all night long). I got up to use the bathroom and returned to bed and could not put the mask back on as my nose was really sore, (Reminded me of putting new rubber bands on my braces kind of sore when I was a kid...) So I just got up for the day.

Night 4, switched back to the standard Nasal mask, turned the CPAP on (Did not use the "Ramp" feature again) and just went to sleep. This was Friday night and I ended up sleeping 10 hours straight!!

I haven't done that in over a decade! The last two nights have been the same, but with just a "normal" 8 hours of sleep. I thought I would never say that again.

This morning is the first morning I am beginning to feel "normal" again, still not sure what "normal" is but I think I like where I am headed.

Let see how I do this afternoon at work!! I actually have been looking forward to going to bed the past couple of nights.

I found this forum and a few others over the weekend and see there have been some huge improvements in the hardware over what I have currently. I am looking forward to talking with the Sleep people here at Kaiser and probably upgrading my equipment to something smaller, quieter, and having the many improved features that are available now!

Not feeling 100% yet, but I think I am on the way to finding out what that feels like!

I checked the run time clock on my CPAP and it is now just over 100 hours, That means I have sleep nearly 60 hours in the past week! (minus a few hours when I was checking out the machine when I first set it up again last week).

I am looking forward to keeping up to date on this message Board, any suggestions on the care and feeding of my equipment is greatly appreciated as is any suggestions on taming this disorder.

Sleep Well,
Paul

Well, what can I say? After 3 years of machine not working, I finally got my BiPAP up and running with my O2 machine.  During my sleep test 3 years ago, I stopped breathing 127 times in an hour and my O2 level dropped and stayed at 70%.  They woke me up for fear I may have a heart attack or stroke. This was all new to me.  I got my machine but didn't knew how to make it work and on top of that, I had lost my insurance and had no idea that "some" insurance company had picked me up and was paying for it all along.  Anyway, I finally got things worked out and after a few restless nights getting used to have a mask crushing my face (LOL) I fell alseep.  Wow, I dreamed (or at least remembered dreaming) my bald headed Dad was black headed with a flat top hair cut and beard.  He has never worn a beard.  I can't wait to get back to that comedy.  Everyone has a story, I'm sure, but I thought I'd share mine.  It's great to dream again and be able to reach the REM stage.

My brother was the first to tell me that I had a snoring problem.My wife was long gone into the guest room, so she  would not be bother by my tossing and turning and loud snoring. I was always tire, taking afternoon power naps and still feeling bad. I took my brothers advice and sought out a Doctor for the problem. The long and short of it was that during the sleep study, the nurse informed me that she could not tell me if I had sleep apnea, that would be the Doctor's job. So off to sleep I went and at about 1 am the nurse came in and said I should put the mask on for the cpap machine. I joked to her,"I guess I must have apnea?" Before putting the mask on she said to me," You got it real bad!" I slept great the rest of the night. When I saw my doctor he informed that I had severe case of sleep apnea and put me on the cpap machine.It took a while to get use to the mask, but my thinking was better to get use to the mask, than to be sleeping for eternity.

 I was placed on the machine in March of 2005, the doctor told me in about three months I would start feeling the difference. My weight in March of '05 was 420 lbs, my diet was the worst, no exercise, no movement, depression, no zest for life. It's now Nov. '08 I weigh 350lb and still losing about 2lbs a month( Want to get to my birth weigh:), have joined the YMCA, have volunteer to coach youth baseball,have change my diet, have made movement a part of my life, I started to write again, I have seen that life is big, is messy, is hard, is fun, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

My wife has moved back into the bedroom and at first she was a little anxious, because when I went to sleep, I went to a deep sleep. She has found that I am in a better mood and that problems don't seem to overwhelm me as much.

More work has to be done, but with this apnea problem under control, who knows what I can do. Thanks and God Bless.

Before I was on CPAP I had a lot of body aches. They are gone. I move more easily and that feels great!


_________________
"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." AA Milne

I was diagnosed last year and went through a long process of treatment. I can finally post my success story. You can read my initial post here: http://apneasupport.org/about17259.html&postdays=0&postorder=asc

After receiving my BiPap, I felt a noticeable improvement, but it was inconsistent, and on many days I still felt tired. We did another study, during which they saw that I no longer had complex apnea, and switched me to CPAP, under which I only had 1 or no episodes at all, which was normal. That felt better, but still there was the tiredness, and we were out of options. We decided to review my other medications.

I originally tested for sleep apnea after being diagnosed for depression. I was taking Citalopram and later added Wellbutrin. The sleep doctor and the psychiatrist decided to try to lower my Citalopram dosage, which is known to cause drowsiness. After about 3 weeks I started experiencing an enormous improvement. There are no words to describe.

After years of misery I was waking up feeling rested, not even yawning, I was getting to work focused and energetic and I literally saved my career at the last moment. I didn't believe it was happening at first, but days came and went by and I just felt great. This has really changed my perspective on life after years of misery I took for granted. I now also exercise daily, I'm losing weight and feeling great exercising.

It's going to take more work, but I'm hoping that if I manage to lose 15-20% body weight, there is a chance of losing the sleep apnea. I certainly hope to be off medications by the end of this year.

I want to say to all the new members who are reading this, that it is a complex condition that interplays with many aspects of your health and lifestyle. In my case, the apnea and the depression made it hard to nail down the right treatment but in the end it worked. Keep this in mind and don't lose hope. Best of luck!

Wow, I'm about 20 days into treatment and instead of saying I am feeling a little better every day... I can now say I have been able to stay awake all day for several days straight and not have to expend every ounce of my energy to do it!  I feel good.  I am a lot less grouchy, can focus on my work, and I have actually looked at the treadmill with hope of starting to use it daily very soon.  We'll see what happens in the next 30 days.


_________________
ResMed Auto Set II w/hi4 Pressure 9 - 20 EPR at 3 SleepWeaver, Mirage Micro, Liberty, FitLlife
Orig AHI 30.4 RDI 36 & RLS/PLMB

Hello,

My name is Steve.  I used to suffer from sleep apnea.  For years, I endured my life -- just wishing I could have some relief --
and, for once, simply get a normal, good night's sleep.  But it always seemed unceasingly beyond my grasp.  One night, while lying in bed thinking and pondering, I finally figured out the mechanics behind my problem and set out to fix it.  After years of research, I turned to mother nature for relief, and she
delivered -- Big Time!  I found an all-natural pill that fixed my problem.  I am not here for any other reason than to educate my fellow sufferers.  I hope you find the same peace that I have found.  Good luck and peaceful dreams.

how long does it take to be able to sleep with the mask/machine on?  I've been recently diagnosed with OSA, 17 incidents average per minute; told this was moderate.  have nasal mask and machine from resmed S8, first experience with this.  I'm 67 and overweight, but find it difficult to go to sleep.  is there anything I can do to fix this?  I have started exercising (a plus from discovering this problem) and feel great after exercising (aquasize).  I have asthma and thought my asthma was the problem.  my level on CPAP is 10 (moderate??).

Astorey---

It takes time to get used to it.  I've been on a BiPap (set to 9/6) & a full-face mask since December.  At first, it was no more than 1-2 hours a night, and I had learned the annoying trick of taking the mask off in my sleep.  But I stayed persistent, and now I'm up to 4-5 hours a night.  So I still have a ways to go, but there's a big difference in my energy level with the increased time on the mask.

A HUGE breakthrough, seemingly small, was learning how to snap the mask ON without fumbling, 'cause I'd wait until I was almost asleep, then put the mask on.  If it took me 60 seconds trying to get those snaps in place, I was awake again.  Now I can do it quickly & be back in sleeping position in a few seconds.  That helps a lot.

Finally, I believe the mind has to be conditioned, over time, to say "yes, it's all right to sleep with this contraption on.  You will not suffocate, I assure you."  That has taken months.  Maybe I'm in the minority here, but so much of the comfortability factor is in the head.

HI everyone!!  I just HAD to register in order to post so I can share my story.  I have a host of medical conditions, any of which can cause extreme fatigue and sleepiness.  Back in 1996 I started my medical journey by being diagnosed with Hpothyriodism.  I was relieved and had no idea I'd have many years of more illnesses that had yet to be uncovered.   To date, I have Hypothyriodism, Diabetes, Fibromyalgia, Anemia, Systemic Arthritis, Essential Thrombocythemia(too many blood platelets), Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Hypertension and several allergies!!!!!  You can imagine what my medication list looks like!!!

     After my struggle to get help and get myself back on track, I always knew there was still yet another undiagnosed medical issue.  Back '97-'98 I did have a sleep study and sleep apnea was ruled out.  I have had my hands full over the years managing my illnesses, working two jobs and just trying to stay awake!!  I recently decided to have gastric bypass surgery in an attempt to lessen  many disorders as I can.  Part of the surgery protocol is to have a sleep study to rule out Sleep Apnea.  I suspected recently I had developed OSA sometime after my original study.  I often sleep as much as I could because I NEVER felt rested.  I have problems with acid reflux, choking and gagging while trying to sleep.  I have even thrown up many a night because of those issues.  I had to keep HALLS lozenges handy just to get thru the night.  About 3-4 months ago I REALLY started to get frustrated because I was SOOOOO exhausted.  MY friends and co-workers all noticed how forgetful I was becoming and said I always looked tired and was irritable.  I just getting to the point I did'nt feel comfortable driving or doing things that required being alert.  My personal life has suffered because restful sleep has been such a mystery to me.  

     Last month I went for my sleep study confident I would be somehow freed from my never-ending search for "nite-time".  YES!!!!  Two hours into my study I was awakened by the tech so he could place me on nasal CPAP.  He stated I was "having respiratory difficulties".  I was both dejected and very relieved.  It all makes so much sense now.  I must have been suffering from OSA for years!!!  Last Wednesday I received My ResMED Pro with C-flex and humidifier by Respironics.  My pressure # is 13 (out of 20) so my apnea is severe.  THANK THE HEAVENS FOR CPAP THERAPY!!!  For the first few day I used my ramp feature to go to sleep but now I can just start on 13 and feel fine.  I find if I lay down when my setting is low during the ramp feature, I feel like I ca'nt breathe.  I did increase the ramp starting # so that did help.  The first nite I slept "like a baby" for several hours straight!!!  I only got up to go to the bathroom once as opposed to 5-6 times.  I no longer snore and move around in my sleep.  I dream better, clearer.  The restful sleep has done wonders for my Fibromyalgia!!   I am anxious to see how restful sleep will impact my Diabetes, High Blood Pressure etc.  Will they go away? Only time will tell.  Now,I can not wait to run home and go to sleep!!! REALLY SLEEP!!!

Sorry guys.  I need to make a correction to my first post.  My machine is the REMStar Pro-M series with humidifier with the comfort gel nasal mask.  It works great and I know I will be successful with my compliance.