Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here

[SuperSleeper]

[note: parts of this thread were copied over from our old forum (thread started in March. 2011) For brevity, only posts of personal stories have been copied over here.  Posts of greetings and comments and CPAP advice have not been copied to this thread.]


Thanks to one of our Advisory Members, this thread was created to encourage new CPAP users.

If you have a CPAP success story, please reply to this post and tell us:

1.  How is CPAP therapy making a positive difference in your life?   What impact has it made upon your health & happiness?

2.  Have you had any problems with CPAP that you solved with a positive outcome?  If so, what did you do to solve the problem?


Welcome to Apnea Board - let us know how CPAP has helped you!




PLEASE NOTE:  This thread should not be used to ask for help - please start a new thread if you'd like to ask a question with regard to your therapy.

[SuperSleeper]

I think it is too early for me to be doing a success story , but i will go first to give encouragement to our 3,632 members (as from now )
I have been on my cpap journey for 4 months now ,at times it has been frustrating with mask leaks ,nasal congestion but i realized that in order to reap the benefit of the therapy is to stick with it and find ways to make it work .
I do feel my life has changed since then and given a second chance .
I no longer wake up with a headache .
I no longer wake up to use the bathroom .
I no longer feel sleepy during the day ,watching tv or at the movies.
Just feel happier and more full of life .
My thanks go to every body who contributes to this forum ,it has helped me to learn more about sleep apnea and continue to be an excellent resource .

[SuperSleeper]

I'm on cloud nine. Go ahead- I dare you to ask me why?

Oh what the heck I just came from my Dr's office - the E.N.T. (ear, nose, throat). I have got this machine under my full and complete control along with what I'm suppose to be doing!!!! The big thing is my AHI. Are you ready for this - 0.6!!! Yes that right 0.6!!! No the decimal point is not in the wrong place, it's suppose to be in front of the 6!!! My leak rate is a - drum roll please - 7.2 median, 95th%: 13.4 and the max was 23.4!!! And that may be due to the itching problems I get once in a while and the fact I may be opening my big mouth a time or two. To go along with that o.6 how about this: Apnea index - 0.5 Obstructive: 0.3. I'm so below mild I scare myself.

I am proof that anyone can do this with the positive outlook I have. I can relate to: Frustrating - Aggravating - Irritating and any other ing you can thinkl of. It always wasn't the "bed of roses" it is now - trust me!!! I too do not wake up with the headaches. I have more energy to get through the day. I actually look forward to going to bed and hooking up!!! How can anyone NOT sleep with a big chunk of plastic and a 6 foot hose - they must be crazy - they are the abnormal people of the world - we are the normal ones!!!

Did I tell you my AHI was 0.6???

I am floating on cloud nine - the sun has been shinning all day - the temp hit 47 today - what could possibly... Oh crap we loose an hour of sleep this weekend. Oh well - can't have it all perfect can we!!!

[SuperSleeper]

When I started on CPAP, I couldn't believe how different I felt a few weeks after starting my treatment. After reading the problems that some other people on the forum have had, I feel lucky. It just took a couple of weeks to get used to the blast of air in my face (my pressure is 12cm). I probably used the ramp feature for less than a week.

All my co-workers and friends have commented on how much better I look. I have lots of energy, my headaches are gone, and I have no problems with fatigue and concentration. I have lost 12 pounds since starting on CPAP.

As other people have mentioned in other posts, the type of attitude you have when to start your CPAP journey can make a big difference. So keep your thoughts on a positive note and good luck!

:I-Love-CPAP:

[SuperSleeper]

I was always healthy, I exercise eat right and have an active lifestyle. So when I began feeling like a slug in the afternoons like I hadn't slept the night before I felt something was wrong. After some tests my doctor said he could not find any problems with my overall health other than a slightly low iron level. He told me to take a one-a-day vitamin with iron which really didn't help much.

After about a month I told a friend about my lack of energy and she told me to get checked out for sleep apnea. She worked for a DME and got me setup for a sleep test here at my local health center. I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea. This surprised me. While I was maybe 5-6 or so pounds over my "ideal" weight of 135 I wasn't fat at all and I always associated sleep apnea with obese people. So, about a week after the test I received my CPAP machine with a set pressure of 9.0 and began my new life with my new "friend".

When I first started using the machine I needed encouragement. I posted on another popular CPAP forum that I wasn't seeing improvement my mask leaked and I still felt lousy. I got the "hang in there" "don't quit" "it will get better" standard reply. Pressure changes didn't help and I was pretty frustrated.

For my first year on CPAP I was a miserable wretch. I hated the machine and the mask and was ready to give up and just deal with sleep apnea without a machine.

Then I read a post here on Apnea Board about making sure your mask size is appropriate for your face. So I went to friend who worked for a DME in another city and she checked my facial structure and told me I was given the wrong mask size. No wonder it leaked, duh! I had to tighten it down so much that I had bruised cheek bones and sores on my face! (wish I would have read Jeffy1958's posts on mask fitting back then)

The wrong mask size messed up everything but I had no idea it was the wrong size. If someone had told me sooner I wouldn't have suffered like this for a whole year. I just didn't know any better. No mask should cause pain or discomfort. It shouldn't leak if its the right size and the right style mask for your face. There are several types and sizes to choose from but I had no clue!

To new hoseheads, I will say "don't give up". But I will also say that you should read through these forum posts and see how other people solved their problems. It wasn't until I came here that the thought went through my mind that I had the wrong size mask. It was a simple solution that I just never thought about before. That's why reading other people's experiences can help you.

And now - :I-Love-CPAP:

[SuperSleeper]

I believe I have had Obstructive Sleep Apnea for a long time. My grandfather snored, my dad snores, my brother snores, and I give a freight train a run for its money. I've snored since I was a kid.

I have been in the fire service since I was 19. From day one, the other people in the bunk room complained about my snoring. Firefighters are not subtle when it comes to communication. One, in particular, used to lift the foot of my bed and let it drop when I got too loud. I tried everything- nose spray, popping decongestants before going to bed, those sticky nose strips. Nothing breeds confindence in your paramedic at 3am like seeing a forgotten nose strip stuck to his face as he asks you "so, do you take any medicine"... Needless to say, nothing worked, and my OSA got worse as I got older. I convinced myself that always being dead tired was just a result of the sleep deprivation that comes with working 24 hour shifts. Sometimes we fire folk aren't real quick on the uptake.

A brilliant family doc sent me for a sleep study in the summer of 2010. Of course, I made the "severe OSA club" O2 sats of 75%, 5% of the night in REM, AHI higher than I care to think about. When I went for my titration, I had the best night of sleep I can recall in years. How many people do you know that raves about the restful night they had while "wired for sound"? I was one of the lucky ones who had a dramatic experience with CPAP. I was sold, went straight to the Doc, and hand delivered the script to the DME so that I could pick up a CPAP that day.

CPAP is worth the trouble! The benefits get better over time, and the down sides become easier and easier to deal with. After these few short months, getting "on the hose" is part of my nightly routine. It is as natural as brushing my teeth before bed. It's almost a ritual that I need in order to relax. My wife and I can sleep in the same room again, and nobody drops the foot of the bed anymore.

If you are having trouble adapting, just stick with it and talk with those who have been there. There are lots of choices, and a dizzying array of masks, machines, doctors, and options to choose from. All of them make a difference, and the biggest part of the battle is finding the combination that will work for you. I assure you- once you get it all right, it will be worth it!

[SuperSleeper]

Why we put a chunk of plastic and a 6' hose on our heads evey night to sleep.

But first:

On the morning of December 26, 2004, White was rushed from his home in Cornelius, North Carolina, to a nearby hospital in Huntersville, North Carolina, where he was pronounced dead. White had suffered a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. The most likely cause of this, according to the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner's Office, was the cardiac and pulmonary sarcoidosis that he had lived with for years. It was also stated that sleep apnea, which White was known to suffer from, contributed to his death.

The following story took place a few months ago, shortly after I started treatment. My 3 year old granddaughter, Mee-Ah (nickname), is the apple of my eye and heart. She is the youngest of my 4 grandaughters. Susan and I have her just about every weekend. If we go more than two weekends in a row without her we both go through withdrawals.

One Saturday I walked into the bedroom and she was sitting on our bed sobbing. I picked her up and asked what was wrong. Through the sobs she said "I don't want my PaPa to die"! Wow; what caused this. Just then Susan walked in and wondered what was goin on. Mee-Ah had me in a "death grip" of a hug. I told Susan what she said and that's when Susan started to get tears in her eyes and now I'm wondering - What The...

This is what happened just before I walked in to cause all of this. Susan and Mee-Ah were putting clothes away. Mee-Ah asked what would happen if PaPa didn't wear his Ba-Sheen (3 year old for machine)? Susan nonchalantly said "Papa could die". Then she walked out to go put clothes away in the other bedroom and that's when I walked in.

Who would have thought a 3 year old would have that deep of an understanding about death - WOW. It took several minutes to get her calmed down, not to mention how bad Susan felt. As a result of this I now have my own little Ba-Sheen police on the weekends!!! Before going to bed she reminds me to put it on. There are those mornings when I wake up, go do my thing in bathroom (loo) climb back in bed and don't put my mask back on. When she wakes up, she will climb in bed and I get a scolding from her for not wearing my Ba-Sheen. I don't even try to explain that I just took if off. In her mind, I should have it on whenever I'm in bed and she will accept no excuses!!!

If you won't do it for youself - do it for those that love you more than you love yourself.

[SuperSleeper]

Well, my story starts off in early 2004... I was Regional Project Coordinator for a computer training company and my job required extensive travel, mostly in the Midwest via car. I'd noticed that for the past few months, I had increasingly felt sleepy in the afternoon, around 2-3 p.m. or so, but as most "road warriors" do, I didn't think twice about it and stopped off at the local McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks and loaded up on super-caffeinated "go juice". After drinking a large coffee, I was good to go!

While driving in my car, I would occasionally start to doze a bit... and I would struggle to keep my eyes on the road. I remember slapping my face to stay awake, opening the window and letting the cold air come into the car, stopping for a cup of ice and chewing on the ice to stay awake, walking around the car a couple of times to wake myself up....

Then, one day while traveling west on I-70 heading towards Columbus, Ohio I awoke to the sound of my car going over the "rumble strips" on the side of the highway and my car went off the road and into the grass, and almost completely into a ditch on the side of the road. That, needless to say, was my first wake up call.

A few weeks later, I was coming home from a long trip, late on a Friday night, and I had stopped at a stoplight about 6 blocks from my house. While waiting for the light to change, I fell asleep. The next sound I heard was a police officer knocking on my driver's side window. I opened the window and he asked if anything was wrong. Apparently I had slept through a stoplight change (at least one, maybe more). Fortunately, I was close to home and now fully awake to drive the remaining 6 blocks to my comfortable bed!

I can't remember how I first heard about sleep apnea, but my wife mentioned that she thought I might have it due to my behavior while sleeping (snoring, stopping & starting of breathing abruptly, etc.)

I went to my primary care physician and he told me I should have a sleep study done, so I scheduled it and went through a split-night study at my local hospital's sleep center. It was not a good night at the sleep center, it took forever for me to fall asleep, but apparently, I did sleep some and they woke me up in the middle of the night to put a CPAP on me... then I fell asleep again and was awakened around 6:00 a.m. and they said something like, "Oh yeah, you most likely have sleep apnea, the doctor will be contacting you".

About a week later, my sleep doctor told me I had severe sleep apnea and I was sent to a local DME. They gave me a Respironics REMstar Pro with C-Flex (the older, pre-2007 unit, affectionately known as "the tank"), set at a constant pressure of 14 cm/H20. With about 10 minutes of instruction I was sent on my way.

Started using it and after the first night, I felt SUPER (hence my user name SuperSleeper)

It was like I hadn't really slept for many years... "Oh, so this is what real sleep feels like!".

I was (and remained) completely compliant with my CPAP treatment, the only problem I had was the first week or so, I would wake up in the middle of the night and take the mask off, but this went away after the first few days. Then, after the first "WOW" feeling, my daytime sleepiness returned to a small degree... I was initially frustrated, but several people told me that I might be suffering from what is called a "sleep deficit", where your body (for the first time in a long time) feels what it's like to get a good night's sleep, so it is "telling you" that it wants more of that good sleep, just to "catch up" or "make up for" all that terrible sleep you'd been getting before.

So, for a few more weeks, I patiently waiting, remaining completely compliant and wearing my mask every night all the time I was sleeping... and eventually, people were right-- my daytime sleepiness slowly got better... but again it was very gradual, almost non-noticeable, until one day I just realized... "hmm.... you know I don't feel as sleepy as I used to..." and from then on it got much better.

So, since early 2004, I have used my CPAP machine every single night, and even if I took a nap, and I can't imagine sleeping without it now. After reading about the benefits of Auto-CPAP machines, I took the plunge in 2010 and bought my first auto machine - the ResMed S9 AutoSet, a great little machine. I feel this machine has greatly enhanced both the comfort and effectiveness of my CPAP therapy, and with the free ResScan computer software to monitor and analyze my data, I'm completely pleased with my new system.

I would encourage you to not give up on your CPAP therapy... it can and it will work. Give it time, and if you have any questions, issues or problems, that is why Apnea Board is here... we're not medical professionals, so we can't take the place of your doctor, but we can help you because many of us have gone through the same things you're going through now.

If you need help, post a message in this Main Apnea Board Forum and we'll do our best to reply in a timely manner.

Thanks for listening...

[SuperSleeper]

I am new to CPAP but it is an evolving success story. I know that the CPAP is for me and it's healthwise one of the best things I've done for myself. I'll give it some time and then I'll update. In the meantime, do note that my symptoms of TMJ have been alleviated since being on the CPAP. I don't know for sure why, but my best guess is that my facial muscles are more relaxed due to being able to breathe better. (My TMJ is caused by muscular issues).

I am also less irritable and way more positive, alert, and energetic in the morning.

[SuperSleeper]

I have been for 1 month on xpap so it is more a progress report than an actual suceess story.
I have severe and treatment resistant hypertension so my cardiologist conducted a series of tests . One of them was a at home test for sleep apnea (stardust monitor + oxymetry) which yielded an AHI of 39 (obstructive 13, Central 5, Hypopneas 13). Next thing I knew an appointment was set up with a DME and within 2 days a got the Resmed machine and the F&P mask. The whole thing came as a shock and being a skeptical soul this felt like a business scam to me. On top of that my regular physician felt that the at home test results where unreliable . Therefore I had mixed feeling about the therapy (another sleep apnea test is scheduled for June ) but decided anyway to go ahead.

The DME was very effective in filling the paperwork and telling me to put the nasal mask on my nose (how nice) and avoid mouth breathing and then I was on my own. I was very happy to find different forums to learn more on sleep apnea and the XPAP therapy.

I guess The first few nights were typical in that I was unable to sleep (the sleep apnea problem was solved as I now had insomnia) and as a result I was now feeling really tired during the day (which was not the case prior to CPAP). I quickly improved my usage to an average of 4 hours then 5 hours (meaning 1 hour wide awake then 2 hours sleep then awake again for 2 hours/mask off then finally going back to sleep for another 2 hours mask ON). (The DME came back after 3 weeks to verify compliance and was happy with the results (average AHI around 4). I watched over his shoulder as he was displaying data with REscan and am still waiting for a copy of the report (not that it matters anymore since I have now a copy of the software - i guess you know where- and received the usb adapter i ordered from Australia).

During my next appointment with my cardiologist I told him how dissatisfied I was with the DME and that resulted quickly in a visit from another technician (we tested several masks as I was not totally comfortable with the Flexfit 407: turns out the other - from Resmed and Respironics -were probably worse ; I am now trying the Resmed Swift LT but I feel that overall the Flexfit is better for me (more invasive but much easier to use and set up correctly). I was switched to CPAP (pressure 12).
I guess this story echoes the many posts on lack of education on CPAP and/or respect for the user . I feel developping an understanding about what's going on with Rescan and the different hidden menus on the S8 (only the usage menu was readily accessible) is key to really benefit from the therapy . Istill fell sleep deprived but somehow more energized so hopefully something good is happening.

Anyway these were my 2 cents. Hope this will be useful to someone out there