Doubleb (Therapy Thread)

[Doubleb]

So after several straight bad nights I used one of my Google cameras to record my sleep. I am rolling over on my back and not chin tucking. My lower back has been hurting for a few weeks now so after a few hours of side sleeping I roll over to reduce the pain. Then the apneas start.

[OpalRose]

I understand and have a similar problem. I start out on my side until the hip pain wakes me. When I start to turn over, I make a conscious effort to keep rolling to the opposite side.
Try rolling to your opposite side instead of your back.

[Doubleb]

Definitely. The issue is I’m not waking up. Tonight I’m going to try to find something stiff enough to put behind my back to keep me from rolling over.  Or maybe if I start out on the other side maybe I’ll just roll over to my more natural position. 

But I cannot suggest the camera trick enough. Oscar tells me the time it started then I can look at the footage and know exactly what happened.

[narual]

Tonight I’m going to try to find something stiff enough to put behind my back to keep me from rolling over.  

Try taping a tennis ball (or something of a roughly similar size without hard edges) to your back or to whatever you're wearing to sleep. It's a classic technique that works. If you wind up on your back you'll quickly get off it because having a tennis ball suddenly and unexpectedly digging into your back isn't generally comfortable.

[Doubleb]

So I had an appointment with my Doc last week, he upped my pressure by 1 on both the low end and the high end due to the events I have when I roll over onto my back. My average AHI is down from 9 to 6, but last night I got a real good seal and hit 3.6.. I had 1 night this week where I woke up with both nostrils clogged. Took the mask off and used some nose spray to open them back up, but fell back asleep before I got the mask back on and I can tell you, I felt it the next day. Mask is life....

I've notice that my blood sugar is now regulating much better. I usually wake up and find it to be at about 105 but lately it's been in the upper 70s or low 80's. I've lost 13 lbs this month, but I've changed my diet as well and added a bunch of water daily. Also my low side blood pressure is now down under normal, but the high side still stays high until the BP meds kick in... Hope to see that top number start to drop.

Anyway, if anyone new to the site and treatment is reading this, Keep it up! I now know just how important quality sleep is to overall health. It might be a struggle to get started, but it is so worth it.

[narual]

If you’re talking about Afrin, be careful with that stuff. It’s absolutely amazing and magical but your sinuses get addicted to it fast and after a few days they’ll close up continually so you have to keep using it. Takes a week of prednisone to get off it. 
But since you’ll have to use it occasionally anyway - the Amazon BasicCare no drip version works identically (unlike most store brands I’ve tried), comes in a larger bottle (1oz), and is less than half the price.

But take a look at Intake Breathings magnetic nose strip - it’s like the breathe right strips but incredibly superior. It’s a couple tiny bandaids with a little metal disk in the middle of each, you put one on each side of your nose, then a stiff black plastic arch (6 different sizes) with magnets in the ends attached to them and forces the parts of your nose they’re attached to outward. I’ve been using them since January and I frequently wear them even when I’m not sleeping now. You can slip the arch off easily and the magnets aren’t terribly obvious, particularly if you wear glasses or if you’re Caucasian with a skin tone vaguely in the neighborhood of typical bandaids.My only complaints are that they’re a little bit expensive (you can reuse the metal discs with cheap surgical tape though) and that the adhesive is inconsistent - I’ll occasionally get a few that just won’t stay glued to the skin no matter how oil free it is.  

Obviously you can only wear them with the cpap if you’re using a mask that doesn’t block the bridge of your nose, but they work great with the Resmed f30i and n30i