Your Personal CPAP Success Story - Post Here

[slwiser1]

Btw, my original tested AHI was 140 back in 2005.

[jgrnot]

In 2002 I could have easily been killed, as I had fallen asleep while drivng twice. Since I had to keep driving for work, I decided to go to a sleep doctor to see what was wrong. The result was that I suffered from extreme Sleep Apnea.
After the sleep test I bought a Remstar Pro off the internet and also a Swift Nasal mask. My life has changed completely, no more falling asleep at the wheel, and I also got married.
I am still using the same CPAP machine (going on 10 Years) and I am still using the Swift Nasal mask. After the first month I threw the Humidifier out and went without one. I clean my mask and hoses about every 3 months and (knock on wood) have never had a problem. At the present time I have 26,943 hrs on my CPAP machine.

[Bart]

I have had sleep apnea since 1996.Knew nothing about it but I was in such bad shape my PCP sent me for a sleep study. Inside of 3 weeks I had my first cpap machine and I can honestly say I have never had anything change my life as drastically as a cpap machine! I was literally a new person the very first night and have never slept a night without it since. I just bought a new machine with c-flex[something I never had before] and WOW what a difference! It was through this purchase that I learned about this forum. I am enjoying reading and learning what everyone has to say.Thanks for all the great info!

[zimlich]

I've finally found success nearly four years after starting CPAP. I started off with mild sleep apnea that became severe in my second year on the machine. I switched doctors for no good reason except that he was in the same office with my neurologist. He was a disaster and when he started giving me the bums rush out of the office, not even explaining changes to me, but communicating directly with the tech I knew it was time to go. I went back to my perfectly good first doc and much better care. I tried CPAP first and as my pressure needs increased, bilevel. The doc (the lousy one put my pressure up to 27/30 which was a disaster. I don't believe they make a mask that can handle that kind of pressure. The machine also did not give any data on AHI. It had alarms which of course were turned off or I would never have slept. About three years in I had another sleep study and a substantially lower pressure 4/8. I went home expecting to repeat this 0 apneas night (a few centrals when going to sleep or waking), but my AHI remained at an average of 18.6 for six months. What a disapointment! I wrangled a sleep study the next year using an ASV machine. Finally I found a machine that works for me. My AHI is down to 4-8. I also found a great mask. The Quattro FX FFM is working quite well for me. It's been a journey of nearly four years, but finally I found success.

[wasserware]

Hi All – this is my first post here and I am glad to have found this great community. I just turned 28 and have just been diagnosed with mild sleep apnea which pretty much confirmed my suspicions over the years. I never seem to get enough sleep and always wake up tired; no matter how many hours of sleep I get and snore very loudly! So I finally decided to get a sleep study done and I’ve attached my results here. As you can see, most of my arousals are caused by hypopneas and my AHI is at 27. The sleep doctor prescribed me with the ResMed S9 elite and initially set the pressure at 7. He has also made another appointment for me to come back to the lab for another sleep study on Feb 15th to fine tune the pressure.

Fortunately I am deep sleeper and the CPAP machine did not bother me too much and I’ve been fully compliant since the day (Jan 24th) I received the machine and average about 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night without any disturbance. After reviewing the data from the machine for the past 12 days, it seems my AHI is under control and has never exceeded 3 and my snoring has completely ceased!

I will post a thread with pictures once I reach the min post count of 8 to show everyone my detailed data!

[theosgirl45]

I was diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea in March 2012. Before that life was horrible. I was so tired that I just couldn't do anything. I would go to bed at 10 or 11 and wake up at 6 to get my daughter ready for school. I would get her on the bus at around 7 and then I would think to myself "Ok, I can go back to sleep for on hour or so and then get some cleaning done". Then I would lay down and when I would wake up it would be like 2 and almost time for my daughter to come home. Once she got home I would help her with her homework, cook dinner, do the dishes, and get her ready for bed. Then I would spend an hour or so with my husband and go to sleep. Then repeat everyday. Eventually the housework just stopped getting done and my husband was getting really frustrated(understandably so). I didn't know what to tell him, how could I tell him that I spent all day sleeping while he was working to support us? It almost ruined my marriage. Then one day I was at my moms house and I fell asleep on her couch. She woke me up and asked me if I was ok. Of course I had no idea what she was talking about. She told me I was breathing funny and should see a doctor. I thought she was just being a mom, ya know paranoid and stuff. Then a few weeks later I fell asleep at my Mother-in-law's house. She told me the same thing. Then it occurred to me how often I was falling asleep at people's houses, and when in the car and stuff. So I decided maybe they were right and I should see a doctor. Before I managed to make an appointment I found out I was pregnant with baby number two.(YAY!) During my first ob appointment I explained to my doctor all my symptoms and he had me an appointment made up to have a sleep study. During my first sleep study I had 524 apneas in 7 hours. They told me my AHI was 118. I got my machine in June and started using it. I noticed a difference almost right away. I feel sooo much better now. I have no idea how I made it as long as I did. I use the Fisher and Paykel Icon Premo at pressure 18. I have to use a full face mask. I tried one of the ones for just your nose but I didn't work for me, it made my eyes water a ridiculous amount. There are lots of hard days when I hate that machine but I stick with it because I remember how hard life was without it. And just because I mentioned being pregnant I had my son on October 1st and he was perfectly healthy and still is. If you have any questions feel free to pm me.

[robgb]

I've had sleep problems most of my life. Have always been tired. Tired, tired, tired.

I didn't take a sleep study until I was in my late forties, after my wife told me I stopped breathing during sleep. I took the study, the tech saw I had severe apnea and hooked me up to a CPAP.

The next morning he told me he cranked the pressure up as high as he could and I still had apnea. The doctor, however, prescribed a machine for me.

This was about ten years ago. The machine was a gray box with a mouth/nose piece and was the worst thing ever. Not only did it not help me with sleep, in my opinion it made it worse. My days were so bad that I would spontaneously cry because I just couldn't get enough rest.

I gave up on the machine, went to the doctor and told him I wanted surgery. They did it and my sleep improved by about 50%, although I had no sleep study to confirm this. My doctor never ordered one and I was too stupid to ask for another.

Fast forward ten years and I started putting on weight. My sleep got worse and worse. I used a PurSleep mouthpiece and that helped quite a bit, but just in the last several months I've been struggling to stay awake during the day.

So I talked to my new doctor and she immediately ordered a new sleep study. I was found to have an AHI of around 15, which isn't horrible (much better than the 90 it was in the old days), but the good part is that the CPAP actually worked this time during the sleep study with a pressure of only 8.

So I was approved for a new CPAP and I was given a ResMed S9 Elite, which I have to say is light years away from that old gray box they gave me ten years ago. They also gave me a nasal mask.

I had a cold, so didn't use the machine the first several nights. But night before last I tried it out and after downloading the software linked to here on the forum, I found I had an AHI of 1.6.

Last night, my AHI was 0.6.

I feel better today than I have in years. And I'm hoping that the next few weeks will help me catch up on years of missing sleep and ultimately help me lose weight again and finally lead a new and better life.

I want to THANK this forum for providing links to the ResMed software. It's nice not to be in the dark about all of this.

[Sleepster]

Welcome to Apnea Board, robgb. I'm glad you're finally getting the sleep you need. The other thing you want to check for is the leaks. Your machine does an excellent job of letting you know when the leak rate exceeds the maximum allowed of 24 L/min. If you go above that the CPAP machine won't be able to stop your airway from collapsing and it won't be able to report a reliable AHI. If you do find that you wake up with air hissing out of your mouth you will need to get a chinstrap for at least a while so you can train your mouth to stay closed. You may also find that nasal pillows are more comfortable than a nasal mask and your insurance should allow you to try that out at little cost to you.

[robgb]

Thanks. I wasn't aware of the affect of leaks on AHI accuracy. I had a few spikes above 24 last night and my AHI reads as 0.3 today. I awoke with a headache—although it may be more of a neck ache because of my high pillows.

I'll have to check to see what I can do about the leaks. I don't really want to wear the mask any tighter, but may have to.

[Sleepster]

If you have only narrow spikes on your leak graph you're leaking only at those times. The rest of the time your machine is correctly identifying apneas and counting them towards your AHI.

You don't want to overtighten the mask as that could cause more leaks.

Are those spikes a nightly occurence or is this just a one-time thing? I would guess that you are either mouth-leaking or your mask has come loose because it's pressing against your pillow. You have a low pressure so I would suggest you try nasal pillows. You can also try a chinstrap. Or both!

Your DME should be very willing to work with you on these issues because all health professionals realize that the number one problem with CPAP therapy is patient compliance. Your DME should be willing to work with all new patients, fitting them with different masks on a trial-and-error basis. It's the norm.