Just diagnosed today

[teonchagi]

Hello everyone!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a particularly bad night sleeping. While awake and frustrated, I started looking around online and stumbled on sleep apnea. I stayed awake for a couple of hours doing research and suspected I may have it. I am always tired, no matter how much I sleep. I wake up frequently during the night and just never feel rested. I kept looking for a few days then decided to just go ahead and do a home test. I ordered the test on a Tuesday, received it Friday and did the test the same night. It went back into the mail the next day. One week after receiving the test, I got emailed my results.

Moderate Sleep Apnea, with 28.1 AHI and 32.2 RDI.

I didn't get to see the email until late tonight, so I haven't had a chance to call about the results, but I will hopefully be able to do that tomorrow and get my CPAP ordered. I'm nervous about the new addition to my life, but honestly excited to have a reason why I'm always so tired, and a way to treat it. 

I've been reading this forum a lot over the past couple of weeks and have learned so much, but now that I have an official diagnosis, I am really digging in more. The supplier I'm using sells Resmed products, and after all the research that's what I would choose anyway. I am just trying to decide between the regular version and For Her. The for her algorithm sounds like it's worth choosing over the regular, though aesthetically I prefer the regular one. That's not important really though. 

Here's to hopefully starting to sleep better soon!

[SarcasticDave94]

Welcome to Apnea Board. I think it's a pretty wise idea to consider either ResMed AutoSet, regular or the For Her. The extra setting may be useful or maybe it won't. It seems like a toss up. Get whichever of these you can as I think it'll give very good therapy, at least that's the feedback consensus of those that use it.

[jaswilliams]

I second what Dave is saying try and get a Resmed Autoset 10 for her is the best machine as a starting point for treatment of your sleep apnoea

[mesenteria]

We don't know what the outcome is yet, so it's best not to talk about specific machines.  Some will help, others won't.  

Patience, grasshopper.

[Dormeo]

Mesenteria is right that you don't yet know whether you'll need a specialized kind of machine, but if you don't, the recommendations for the ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset For Her are very good. The For Her has one additional option that the plain AS 10 Autoset doesn't have; if that option doesn't help you, the For Her also has all the options the plain version has, so you won't have lost anything.

Here's something to be thinking about: do you mostly breathe through your nose during the day? If so, you might want to consider a nasal mask or a nasal pillow mask. But if you do a fair amount of mouth breathing, you'll want a full-face mask. Ideally, you'll have a chance to try out several masks, since the one you want is the one that works for your specific facial contours and sleep habits.

You did an admirable job of figuring out what might be wrecking your sleep and then getting a diagnosis. In that same spirit, be ready to experiment once you've begun treatment. A few lucky souls take to the machine immediately and feel great right away; for the rest of us, it's a more gradual adaptation with more gradual progress.

Yes, I can see why you're a little nervous; it's a new experience. I certainly felt the same way, but now it's just a routine, kind of like wearing glasses. Keep us posted, would you? And stick with this thread so people can see the background.

[Big Guy]

If you do decide to choose the ResMed AutoSense 10 AutoSet for Her, you can always wrap it up in some camouflage duct tape. 

just sayin.................

[Dormeo]

Plus there are CPAP skins, which are stick-on, pull-off decoration for your machine. Try googling "cpap skins" using quotation marks.

[treehugger]

I agree with the above replies that Resmed is a great name, and the Autoset for Her is a great machine. That's what I started using 6 months ago. Get the For Her, and you can use the Her algorithm or the default auto-set algorithm. I found that the for her algorithm doesn't get the pressure as high as the default auto-set does, so I'm not using the Her setting for now. It's nice to have the option though.

CPAP has been vital in my journey to quality sleep (my study AHI was over 100; with CPAP it's usually around 5), but there are other factors I'm playing with for insomnia. It's a journey, not a destination.

Welcome, and best wishes

[SarcasticDave94]

That is correct, I think when running the For Her Mode, pressure is capped at 12-13 or near that.

[teonchagi]

Wow everyone thank you for all of the replies, advice, and welcome!

I ordered my new goodies today. I opted for the For Her version after researching the differences in the algorithms. It just made sense to have and not need it than not have it and wish I did. I did find a replacement faceplate for about $20 if I really hate flowers hahaha. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I’m just not a very girly girl.

I also chose the ResMed n30i mask to arrive with my machine, but pieced together a dreamwear for a very good price so I can see what I like best. I was able to get all three styles of cushions for the dreamwear. I am on multiple allergy meds that work very well for me so most of the time I can breathe fine through my nose. But with the dreamwear I can swap to the hybrid mask easily if I need to.

I’m paying for everything completely out of pocket as I have an $8,100 deductible. I’m not sure they’d even put the purchase towards my deductible if I tried, but I’d still never meet it in a million years.

I’m honestly feeling excited today and ready to get started.