Questions for newly diagnosed

[Schernenk]

The lab is better, but it's a bit of an ordeal.  I went to the lab, where they put me in a gurney, covered me with sensors and seemingly miles of wires and then said go to sleep, all while watching me on CCTV.  I think I finally fell asleep at about 4 AM, just before I was about to leave.  The doc did get a good 45 minutes of data, which was more than enough for diagnosis. 

I wouldn't worry about the accuracy of your test. With the data from your loaner trial, the input of the provider and this forum, you should be in good shape.

[Schernenk]

Welcome to the forum.

I'm relatively new to PAP therapy and scored a 17 AHI on my sleep test.  I'm in my 60s and tiredness began to settle in on me in my mid-50s. I marked it down as the onset of old age. Coincidentally, my wife's complaints about my snoring also began.  I had no knowledge about apneas, obstructed sleep, or PAP therapy back then.  I took the sleep test at my wife's urging and when it came back "moderate" I felt it proved that I was sleeping fine.  As I researched the sleep test results in detail, and considered what they meant, especially in the long term, it began to dawn on me that I had a serious problem.

I began PAP therapy with a lot of skepticism, reassuring myself I could toss it all in a yard sale box if (when) it proved unnecessary.  
On the first night, I was so quiet my wife stayed in bed with me all night and has stayed ever since.
Within 2 weeks, I felt more rested: I was not falling asleep every time I sat still for a while.  
Within a month, the afternoon naps were part of my past.  And I did not fall asleep in the car when my wife was driving.

I encourage you to read the PAP therapy guide.
This forum will provide great advice and guidance.  The recommendation for a ResMed 10 is one such example.
Expect your own PAP therapy to have its ups and downs (good nights, bad nights) but it will put you on a healthy trajectory.
It has been a game changer for me.

These kind of stories are great, really gets me excited to start therapy. I don’t want to get my hopes too high, but all of this would makes sense as to why I can never really feel rested. 

I have tried all these different things, CBT for insomnia, supplements, blood work, sleeping pills, no sleeping pills, I lost a bunch of weight at one point (not because anyone told me I might have apnea but just because) and never gotten anywhere. I was at the point where I was telling myself I guess this is just life, and it must by how everyone else feels. 

Apnea had crossed my mind but I just didn’t present any of the hallmarks, not over weight, don’t snore etc etc.  Thankfully I advocated for myself and pushed for the sleep study to “rule apnea out”, and guess it came back positive. 

Thanks for the positive words.

[UnicornRider]

A lot of good advise here. Stay in frequent contact during your thirty day equipment trial. This forum will help you adjust to therapy & mask, as well as adjust your therapy pressures, timing and tuning to optimize the benefit of *PAP therapy. They will also assist with mask selections & recommendations, ( always go for a fit pack, it usually has several sizes, you may lose or gain weight in the near future). 

    During that initial trial period you want to ensure the machine they provide will be the  best  one to serve your needs. Post your sleep studies as soon as possible, be sure to redact your personnel information. we have some very knowledgeable people who can recommend the best machine to get.  There are some machines that have a much wider application than others due to special timing and tuning features as well as range of pressure. 



    

[Schernenk]

I picked up my trial machine today, I'm going to start a separate post about my therapy where I will post the setting the practitioner set it up with to start out with.

Here we go!

Thanks for everything so far.

[UnicornRider]

Post some OSCAR Reports, inquiring minds are curious to see.

[Schernenk]

Post some OSCAR Reports, inquiring minds are curious to see.

Posting in my other thread that I started!