Are You in Couple's CPAP Therapy?

[Sheepish]

What I had been suspecting for quite some time has come to be. Just as she had discerned the snoring and disturbed sleep that eventually led to my being diagnosed with OSA, I have returned the favor for my wife.

After the many months it takes here to go through the process of getting an appointment with a GP, to get a referral to a respirologist, to getting the appointment, to first being sent for a home sleep study which at the follow-up appointment revealed itself to be inconclusive with and AHI of 8, followed by a referral for a proper overnight hospital polysomnography, the result was revealed another month later by said respirologist to be 35.2, which led to a prescription of 7-15 cmH2O.

Luckily, I had purchased an identical back-up machine for US$383 late last autumn from Amazon before the industry put the kibosh on that, so I pulled it out of the closet and set everything up via the open sesame clinician's settings, originally obtained through the good auspices of this board. I set her up for starters with a Respironics Nuance Pro nasal pillow mask I had tried last year for about a week before moving on to other masks, but for her I unsealed an unused set of small size pillows that it had come with.  

Last night, she was finally set to sail for her maiden voyage on the sea of CPAP.

The new profile i created for her this morning in Sleepyhead gave her an AHI of .85. Big difference.


So, anyone else in a similar situation, whereby you have his and her CPAP machines, or suspect it might be on the horizon?

Vote in the poll.  

[sheepless]

what interests / concerns me is the huge difference between the home study and psg. I guess it doesn't matter as long as titrated properly but it's pretty clear to me that I wasn't. so aside from confirming what I already knew from 5 previous sleep studies and would eventually learn from my data-capable machine and from this forum, both my most recent home test and in lab titration were a waste of time and money.

edit: I should add that my wife has become a likely candidate in the last 2 years. if I can talk her into it, I expect to trial her on my unused autoset.

[greatunclebill]

I was on cpap a long time before my wife. she went in for a cardiac procedure. when it was done the cardiologist advised her to see a sleep doctor based on apnea events during her procedure. long story short, she had the study, got the machine and now we have dueling identical twin S10 autosets.

[chuff2]

My wife and I both have had cpap for some time. My wife received her Dx of Osa first as for many years she would stop breathing. I stumbled into my Dx as I have been a life long snorer and asked my dentist for a mouth guard to help with snoring. He wanted me evaluated first leading me to a sleep clinic. Most of my osa is related to the obstruction that caused my snoring. We have both found our way through the different option in the last few years with the guidance I found here.

[upsman]

I have been on CPAP therapy for the past 5 years and with great success. I'm so thankful that I finally found the answer to my daytime sleepiness and brain fog. 

For many years, I had noticed my wife's snoring and thought nothing of it. Seems everybody snores....right? After I started my CPAP treatment, I began to realize that not only was she snoring, but she was clearly having obstructive breathing events that scared the hell out of me. Mostly to the point of it disturbing MY sleep. I would lay awake listening for her to stop breathing and give her a nudge to bring her out of it. This could go on for hours until I finally fell asleep. 

She started to have serious periods of falling asleep during the day while in the middle of a conversation or other inappropriate times. My Mom had narcolepsy and this was a common occurrence for her as well. I finally got my wife to realize how dangerous her situation was getting and got her to a sleep clinic. She was diagnosed with fairly severe OSA and prescribed a machine and therapy.

It's been a tough road for her to adjust to CPAP therapy, but through my experience and the help of this forum, she's finally on the road to better sleep. The point is if you're sleeping next to someone every night, make sure they're breathing.