07-04-2024, 02:43 AM
Swapped from Sefam S. Box to ResMed
Hello all,
I just wanted to say that some time ago I was diagnosed with mild to moderate sleep apnea. I wanted to share my story in case it would help someone else. Apparently almost inexistent sleep apnea on the side, and quite strong on my back, which resulted in a score of 15.6 AHI. I say "apparently" because the sensor kept coming off over night, and I would wake up all the time trying to readjust it. You will see that me waking up easily is a theme. So I thought the positional data was a bit dubious.
I had to access the study through private care because I had been waiting on the NHS for months to just get the sleep study.
I get given a Sefam, I read it's the NHS standard issue, which reassured me. It was a costly purchase, I also bought the service that goes with it where the Sleep Clinic gives some consultations afterwards and offers support. This was all well and good, except I had no control over the machine and I had to keep asking the clinic to change settings for me. Having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, while they were giving me responses within a day or two, it was not fast enough to avoid the issue where the machine would wake me up more than the sleep apnea and then it triggered my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. CFS = I can't work, I could not afford to keep triggering it. A CFS episode can last for days, several episodes can last for weeks. To be clear, the CFS was diagnosed separately from the OSA, it was caused by COVID and for now the two diagnoses are separate.
Aside from the lack of control, I just had all sorts of problems with the Sefam. I felt I would suffocate, so they turned on the comfort setting (i.e., lower pressure when you breathe out), but then the pressure inside the mask changed very suddenly and that woke me up. But even trying different levels of the comfort settings, when exhaling I felt that the Sefam would pull the air out of me somewhat. On the other hand somehow the incoming flow of air felt very invasive, no matter how many times I tried to get used to it during the day, while watching TV etc. I wound up waking up so suddenly one night, it was like having a very bad episode of sleep apnea, and my heart rate was racing WHILE on the machine, all the while the report said I had no episodes. The machine was just keeping me awake more than the apnea and I breathed worse. My max pressure was 6, which I know is rather low, but remember my apnea is not severe. I also had Ramp on, and even with that, it would take me a while before I could fall asleep in the first place. However, when I could keep the mask on, I didn't get any OSA episodes. The clinic said I'd get a little bit of flow obstruction with that pressure, but given that I would wake up so easily and I wasn't getting blocked, they didn't want to raise the pressure yet until I got used to it. I agreed with this assessment.
The situation didn't improve, and with the CPAP making my sleep quality worse, I gave up on it for a while and tried to do other things the clinic said to do, like sleeping on my side. However, I know full well that I snore on my side, both my other half and I observed it (yes snoring wakes ME up, even though apparently it isn't too loud). So I knew that sleeping on my side was okay, but didn't fully resolve the issue.
On a side note, my watch also is rather good at picking up interruptions. While I can't 100% trust the sleep stages, every time I had a good night with the CPAP the interruption score was rather high and above average. This is a Polar Ignite 3. The interruption score is between 1 and 5, high score is less interruption. Polar states the average person has a score of 3.2. On the machine I can get higher than 3.2. Without the CPAP machine, even when trying to sleep on my side, I can get anything between 1.9 and 2.4. Occasionally I will get a higher score.
Anyway, recently I felt I was going to the loo during the night more often. I could also occasionally feel my airways close and wake up regardless of the sleeping position. A friend of mine (who is the one who suggested I checked if I had sleep apnea), said he was using a ResMed. After some research I saw a number of people saying that they tried both and on the Sefam they were not very happy. So I took the matter in my own hands and bought a ResMed. Tried it last night. I had 0 problems. The only slight issue is finding a position for the mask on the pillow when I turn around (my hips don't like me staying on one side for too long). Otherwise not once did I feel I was suffocating. I didn't feel panicked with the mask on etc. According to MyAir, I had a 0.1 AHI last night. I also put the max pressure to 6.4, given what the Clinic had said regarding still having a bit of flow restriction. It was so much more comfortable, I couldn't believe it. I will keep trying but this is encouraging. I did have the occasional good night on the Sefam so I want to make sure this isn't just a "fluke". And my watch said my interruption score was 4.0 as well.
I will try to remember to update this in a week's time to see how it is going.
I just wanted to say that some time ago I was diagnosed with mild to moderate sleep apnea. I wanted to share my story in case it would help someone else. Apparently almost inexistent sleep apnea on the side, and quite strong on my back, which resulted in a score of 15.6 AHI. I say "apparently" because the sensor kept coming off over night, and I would wake up all the time trying to readjust it. You will see that me waking up easily is a theme. So I thought the positional data was a bit dubious.
I had to access the study through private care because I had been waiting on the NHS for months to just get the sleep study.
I get given a Sefam, I read it's the NHS standard issue, which reassured me. It was a costly purchase, I also bought the service that goes with it where the Sleep Clinic gives some consultations afterwards and offers support. This was all well and good, except I had no control over the machine and I had to keep asking the clinic to change settings for me. Having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, while they were giving me responses within a day or two, it was not fast enough to avoid the issue where the machine would wake me up more than the sleep apnea and then it triggered my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. CFS = I can't work, I could not afford to keep triggering it. A CFS episode can last for days, several episodes can last for weeks. To be clear, the CFS was diagnosed separately from the OSA, it was caused by COVID and for now the two diagnoses are separate.
Aside from the lack of control, I just had all sorts of problems with the Sefam. I felt I would suffocate, so they turned on the comfort setting (i.e., lower pressure when you breathe out), but then the pressure inside the mask changed very suddenly and that woke me up. But even trying different levels of the comfort settings, when exhaling I felt that the Sefam would pull the air out of me somewhat. On the other hand somehow the incoming flow of air felt very invasive, no matter how many times I tried to get used to it during the day, while watching TV etc. I wound up waking up so suddenly one night, it was like having a very bad episode of sleep apnea, and my heart rate was racing WHILE on the machine, all the while the report said I had no episodes. The machine was just keeping me awake more than the apnea and I breathed worse. My max pressure was 6, which I know is rather low, but remember my apnea is not severe. I also had Ramp on, and even with that, it would take me a while before I could fall asleep in the first place. However, when I could keep the mask on, I didn't get any OSA episodes. The clinic said I'd get a little bit of flow obstruction with that pressure, but given that I would wake up so easily and I wasn't getting blocked, they didn't want to raise the pressure yet until I got used to it. I agreed with this assessment.
The situation didn't improve, and with the CPAP making my sleep quality worse, I gave up on it for a while and tried to do other things the clinic said to do, like sleeping on my side. However, I know full well that I snore on my side, both my other half and I observed it (yes snoring wakes ME up, even though apparently it isn't too loud). So I knew that sleeping on my side was okay, but didn't fully resolve the issue.
On a side note, my watch also is rather good at picking up interruptions. While I can't 100% trust the sleep stages, every time I had a good night with the CPAP the interruption score was rather high and above average. This is a Polar Ignite 3. The interruption score is between 1 and 5, high score is less interruption. Polar states the average person has a score of 3.2. On the machine I can get higher than 3.2. Without the CPAP machine, even when trying to sleep on my side, I can get anything between 1.9 and 2.4. Occasionally I will get a higher score.
Anyway, recently I felt I was going to the loo during the night more often. I could also occasionally feel my airways close and wake up regardless of the sleeping position. A friend of mine (who is the one who suggested I checked if I had sleep apnea), said he was using a ResMed. After some research I saw a number of people saying that they tried both and on the Sefam they were not very happy. So I took the matter in my own hands and bought a ResMed. Tried it last night. I had 0 problems. The only slight issue is finding a position for the mask on the pillow when I turn around (my hips don't like me staying on one side for too long). Otherwise not once did I feel I was suffocating. I didn't feel panicked with the mask on etc. According to MyAir, I had a 0.1 AHI last night. I also put the max pressure to 6.4, given what the Clinic had said regarding still having a bit of flow restriction. It was so much more comfortable, I couldn't believe it. I will keep trying but this is encouraging. I did have the occasional good night on the Sefam so I want to make sure this isn't just a "fluke". And my watch said my interruption score was 4.0 as well.
I will try to remember to update this in a week's time to see how it is going.
just fyi watches aren't very precise for sleep stages detection, 0.1 ahi is the accurate and important part.
