I'm 47.  As near as I can tell, I've been dealing with untreated OSA since I was maybe 12 or 13.   Even at that age, I would fall asleep in class, as soon as I started driving I had problems falling asleep behind the wheel.  Between college and work, my sleep schedule was a mess for several years.

Upon graduating, I found I had problems falling asleep at work.  I could nap at a moment's notice.  Then, I was diagnosed with diabetes.  Despite being a "fairly" active person, I kep gaining weight each year.  Up and up the scale went.  Then I was put on meds for HBP, and depression.  My drs kept asking me about bariatric surgery and I resisted.  I got slower, and tireder, and less interested in life.  I had panic attacks, was claustophobic, hated being out in public (like stores etc)

Summer of 2006 I had a TIA.  What a wake up call!  I lost 30 lbs in a few months, but then reverted to just giving in to exhaustion and depression.  I felt like a time bomb.  I kept complaining to my dr, insisted on seeing a neurologist, who found nothing notable wrong.  I didn't gain weight back, but I quit losing.  Exercise was almost out of the question I was so tired.  My job performance suffered terribly, to the point that customers were complaining to management about me.

Finally my dr ordered a sleep study, was diagnosed with OSA, and began CPAP treatment in Spetember 2007.  The things I notice most are that I am beginning to concentrate at work, my nighttime snacking has lessened greatly (which should help with weight), I may get up once during the night where I used to get up 3 - 4 times.  I was one of the lucky ones who got a good machine and mask combo that I like the first time, and I don't mind wearing it.  When I get the chance on weekends, I sleep in until almost 8 am!  I could never do that before.

I have been extremely lucky at work:  I've been here nearly 20 years so I guess that counts for something.  But my manager and our CEO are very understanding about my health problems, have told me to ask for help whenever I need it and any available staff member will help out.  I just got my annual evaluation today and met all but one of my goals (despite all this cr@p!), and my manager said I was doing OK.  He said he has noticed that I'm "perkier" in the afternoons, and it's almost like having the old Petmama back.  I'm glad others notice, it confirms what I'm feeling.  I can work harder on the weekends (yards etc), I'm actually interested in cooking dinner again, and I'm hoping to start exercising regularly soon.

Hope this long tale inspires some to keep up with treatment!


_________________
Give peace a chance

Here's a chiquita success story. A couple of weeks ago, I set off for a ten-day trip in Mexico. I asked all kinds of questions before I left about my Mseries Auto machine --- I wouldn't have access to distilled water, so would boiled water be ok for that amount of time? (Yes). Would the electricity be a problem? (no). I took two masks and two hoses because I wouldn't be able to wash them (not wanting to use contaminated water, and having limited boiled water available). I switched them every day -- letting one dry while I used the other.  Good planning, yes?javascript:emoticon('')
Applause However. Getting up at 3:30 a.m. to leave, I inadvertently left behind the part of the power cord that goes to the wall -- it's a two-part cord and when I unpacked the unit in Mexico City, I discovered I only had one part.  I almost had a nervous breakdown. I felt so vulnerable. What would I do? My husband looked into Fed-Exing the cord to me, but because of two holidays, it would take almost a week to get to me. This was very frightening to me. I was only diagnosed last May, but I am really addicted to my wonderful machine and its amazing results. I did not want to spend nights gasping for breath again -- in another country yet!  
Well, i was really fortunate -- one of the other people traveling with me looked my machine (he's a retired doctor) and said "you should be able to get this cord -- it's very standard".  Luckily, there was someone who knew where there was an electronic "store" (more like a tiny store-front place) and VOILA, she had just what I needed --- it was much more lightweight than the one I had at home -- and I was nervous that it might get hot because of the humidifier....but the little darling worked like a champ the rest of my trip......and......it cost me about one dollar and twenty-five cents!!javascript:emoticon('')
Very Happyjavascript:emoticon('')
Laughingjavascript:emoticon('')
Applausejavascript:emoticon('')
Applausejavascript:emoticon('')
Applause

SereneSara wrote:

Here's a chiquita success story. A couple of weeks ago, I set off for a ten-day trip in Mexico. I asked all kinds of questions before I left about my Mseries Auto machine --- I wouldn't have access to distilled water, so would boiled water be ok for that amount of time? (Yes). Would the electricity be a problem? (no). I took two masks and two hoses because I wouldn't be able to wash them (not wanting to use contaminated water, and having limited boiled water available). I switched them every day -- letting one dry while I used the other.  Good planning, yes?javascript:emoticon('')
Applause However. Getting up at 3:30 a.m. to leave, I inadvertently left behind the part of the power cord that goes to the wall -- it's a two-part cord and when I unpacked the unit in Mexico City, I discovered I only had one part.  I almost had a nervous breakdown. I felt so vulnerable. What would I do? My husband looked into Fed-Exing the cord to me, but because of two holidays, it would take almost a week to get to me. This was very frightening to me. I was only diagnosed last May, but I am really addicted to my wonderful machine and its amazing results. I did not want to spend nights gasping for breath again -- in another country yet!  
Well, i was really fortunate -- one of the other people traveling with me looked my machine (he's a retired doctor) and said "you should be able to get this cord -- it's very standard".  Luckily, there was someone who knew where there was an electronic "store" (more like a tiny store-front place) and VOILA, she had just what I needed --- it was much more lightweight than the one I had at home -- and I was nervous that it might get hot because of the humidifier....but the little darling worked like a champ the rest of my trip......and......it cost me about one dollar and twenty-five cents!!javascript:emoticon('')
Very Happyjavascript:emoticon('')
Laughingjavascript:emoticon('')
Applausejavascript:emoticon('')
Applausejavascript:emoticon('')
Applause

Could you show us a picture of the replacement?  Or possibly the specifications off of it?  I'd love to find a smaller power cord for my traveling unit.  Or is it just the cord that goes from the wall to the converter box on the floor?  That one is a standard two wire laptop computer cable.  I'd like to find a smaller version of the box that the cord plugs in to.


_________________
SidecarMike

BiPAP Auto M Series & a Respironics OptiLife mask

I got a sleep test in November 2006, after my daughter was diagnosed with OSA. With an RDI of 20, CPAP was prescribed. I started on CPAP in December. That was the beginning of an 8-month struggle. I found myself with chronic sinus problems/headaches, including a brain fog that at times seemed worse than any OSA effects I might have had earlier. There was also a lot of aerophagia (swallowing air) which made mornings moderately miserable.

After 6 months and consultations with my sleep center, I decided to check other angles on this condition. I went to a top ENT doctor, who did a CT scan of my sinuses. She found that my nasal airway was fairly narrow, though my sinuses and other airway passages looked OK. While she didn't recommend not using CPAP, she  said I might try breathing strips to open the nasal passages, along with Nasocort for sinus irritation. I also went to my acupuncturist, who treated my lung functions, helping me to breathe easier and more efficiently overall.

Over the summer there were occasions that I did not take my CPAP along on trips.  Using the breathing strips, I noticed I felt good in the morning. In the fall, I went back to my sleep center and asked to be retested. They were quite skeptical, but agreed. Just about 12 months to the day after my first test, I got an RDI of 8! My practitioner couldn't explain it, but congratulated me and said to get retested periodically.

I've been off CPAP for some time now, and feeling fine. I feel grateful for the "CPAP journey" for what it taught me about being active in taking care of my health.

Here's my personal theory on my case, for what it's worth:

--I was a fairly mild case; those with more severe OSA might not be able to manage their OSA as I have.
--I believe my OSA was a combination of inefficient respiration and narrow nasal passages. The biomechanics of airway collapse are a function of at least three factors: (1) negative pressure from inhalation, (2) tissues susceptible to collapse, and (3) the inlet area of the nasal passages.
--In my case, it's my theory that by widening the inlet area, I reduced the negative pressure effect in the pharyngeal airway. There may also have been some benefit from the acupuncture that eased my breathing, which could have reduce the negative pressure induced by inhalation.

While I'm grateful not to need CPAP at the moment, I may need it later if my conditions change. I'm 57, in pretty good health, but will get retested periodically. The one best thing I appreciated in this journey was the sleep test itself. It's the most detailed and accurate medical test I've every seen.

What I am less convinced of is the universality of CPAP as THE treatment for OSA. In my judgment, there's a "hammer and nail" effect at work here. Because CPAP is effective, and widely accepted by insurance, it can become overly convenient to prescribe, as in "when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I believe some fraction of mild OSA cases in which other approaches can work as well or better.

Bill in Maryland

I am about two and a half months out from my diagnosis with Sleep Apnea.  I, like many of you have reported, had various difficulties getting started on CPAP.  First I could not finish the titration study in the sleep lab.  My insurance would not pay for home titration, so I had to make the arrangements and pay my self.   Finally, I got on a machine and have been on it for about a month now.

The results are amazing.  Before I thought that if life was so hard at 47, I did not know how anyone lived past 50.  I literally felt like I was slowly dying.  I could not think, could not remember, could not do simple tasks,  I did not even want to do things I enjoyed.  My blood pressure was out the roof (160+/100+), my resting heart rate was over 100, I had deep bags under my eyes,  I caught every thing coming and going and kept it twice as long as my wife and daughter.   I slept everywhere I went.  I'd fall asleep in meetings and start snoring - how embarrassing!    I would fatigue on the road and always had to stop and take naps when I was traveling.  

Now after just a little over a month on the CPAP machine.  My blood pressure is  down to 120/70, my resting heart rate is in the low 80's,  I still don't remember as well as I would like, but my reasoning ability is back.   My job requires me to do a lot of problem solving,  I can actually do my job now.  I drove on a 12 hour trip two days without getting fatigued even one time.   (12 hours each way)  I am back at my hobbies and getting things done around the house.  I feel 20 years younger - at least.   I can't remember the last time I felt this good.

Have I gotten where the mask does not bother me?  NO, but I would not sleep without it either.   I hate it, but would not trade it for a lifetime supply of ice cream.  (a favorite)  Its one of those things you just have to learn to accept, one of those things you force yourself to do for your own good.  It like the ole adage  "I would feel like a fish out of the water"  if I had to sleep without it.   I'm even looking into a battery system so that I'll have it even if the power goes off.

I am feeling soooo much better, thank God. Today was my 62nd birthday. I had a lot to do and finished my vegetable soup I started last night. had my best married friends over. We stuffed ourselves! I didn''t need a nap and it is now 11:26PM and I am not sleepy yet. I get so much more done now with my auto titration  goes from 4.0 to 8.8 or up to 11.3. I sleep 7and a half hrs without waking and then push button for another half hour. This c-pap machine is the Best invention in the century. Imagine how I will feel in a year. Dec 4th I was two months old......so to speak.


_________________
Res Med Auto Titration/Humidaire3i
Res Med Mirage Swift Nasal Pillows
Alternate mask: Respironics Nasal AireII
Air pressure as high as 11.3
2 months on c-pap 12/04/07

Hello! I just wanted to share my success story with everyone also. My story is like most of the others, I was always tired,always sleepy( I could go to sleep anywhere, even a red light!) I couldn't understand why I was always complaining about being tired when I slept 8-10 hours a night!! I would take naps when ever I had a chance, thinking I would feel better if I could just get a little rest. I know people who worked more hours a week than me and had more than one child that never complained like I did, what was wrong with me? I wanted so bad to be able to do the things that a wife and mother were responsible for, and still have a little life in me.

Thanks to my employer, that was always hearing me complain ,(he also has a cpap), he suggested I get tested for sleep apnea. I did, and things have been better every since!! I am able to do twice as much as before and I never get sleepy driving, or at the movies. I have more energy so I'm constantly on the go and when it's time to sleep I actually sleep instead of dozing lying there half asleep hearing everything and going to the bathroom three and four times each night!

I am so happy to have my life back!!

Laura-Alabama   

Although a little bumpy, overall my story is a complete success. Like many, my wife complained about my snoring and even told me several times I had sleep apnea. She is a PCP, so she's more knowledgeable than most, but I still denied it and said everyone snores.

Recently, a year or so later, I find my high blood pressure is back. My wife insisted I get it treated and even go back on pills. I was on medication 15 years ago but was able to get off it after exercising regularly and losing weight. While looking up the high blood pressure medicine on Wikipedia, I saw a connection to sleep
apnea. Then, while looking up its interaction with another medicine I take, allopurinol, I see a connection of gout to sleep apnea. The light goes on and I ask the doctor for a sleep study. He ordered it and I end up doing a split study. I felt great after the study and the notes even stated "CPAP well tolerated." I was diagnosed with moderate OSA, 22 AHI, mild desaturation, 90%, pressure = 8.

The bumps: the sleep study results were available the next day butmy PCP didn't read it right and wanted a titration study performed. I called his office several times and went to see him, but due tovarious reasons didn't get a machine for over a month. And my DME is/was Apria. :-O Yeah, they gave me the most basic Respironics,
the DS100M. I ended up buying a BiPAP Pro and a M Series Pro, masks, and heated humidifiers and returning the DS100M.

I've been using CPAP for 7 weeks and it has made a world of difference. I no longer: snore, have night sweats, fall asleep almost anywhere, feel drowsy driving long distances, and at my last appointment, my blood pressure was good. I plan to get off the allopurinol in a few months. I'm lucky in that I had no  issues with using CPAP--took to it like a duck to water.

Before getting the CPAP, my wife asked if I would wear it since she has many non-compliant patients. I said "Yeah, especially if I get to drink beer again." I had essentially given up drinking because of gout. I recently bought my first case of beer in years.

Cheers!

I wished I had known about this site and forum earlier. Ever since Dec. of 2006 I was having headaches and seemed to be staying sick alot. On March 10, 2007 I suffered a stoke. I was only 36 at the time (turned 37 in the hospital). The month before the stroke, I remember my head hurting so badly most days. The days leading up to the stroke had my head hurting the worst.......I was popping tylenols and ibuprofins like candy each of those days............
Long story short and a loooooooooooooooooong year, 60 lbs and all the symptoms you guys mentioned, my neurologist suggest a sleep study. Three hours into it, the tech said that she couldn't watch me all night. They said I stopped breathing an average of 168 times per hour and some being 20 - 30 seconds at a time.................I remember crying on the way home thinking that I was dying.........perhaps I slowly was................The next day I was given a CPAP auto machine that ran auto from 4 - 20. I slept for 12 hours that first night and felt so much better after just one night. After two weeks, I went back for a follow up study. My new machine came in which now is auto from 4 - 22 and is amazing. I have been on a CPAP machine since Nov 16th and feel so totally different. I wonder how my health would have improved dramatically had I been tested shortly after my stroke. They are not 100% certain, but feel that the stroke was caused by my apnea.  I am now an active (unofficially) advocate for sleep testing and CPAP machines. I firmly believe that the CPAP machine saved my life!
Sheri Hall
Mississippi

It's too early to call this a success story, but after three nights with a cpap machine I don't want to sleep without it.

I'm twenty-one and before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea I hadn't enjoyed a "good" nights sleep in years.  I would wake-up in a sour mood, completely exhausted, my memory was crud, and I would live in a foggy state-of-mind for the first five-or-six hours of the day.  For years the only times I felt fully awake were the handful of hours before I'd go to sleep again.  I was taking naps daily, but they never seemed to help relieve my exhaustion for more than fifteen minutes.  The worst part was that I rarely had dreams.  I talked to my friends and family about it and they told me "Everyone dreams, you just don't remember yours.  It's normal."

No it wasn't normal.  When I slept I would hang in a dark fog for hours and then "wake up" in the morning.  At most I'd dream once a month; even then it would always be a short-lived five or ten minutes and then back to the fog.  I'd routinely wake-up sweating with my heart pounding but I'd toss off my blanket and try to go back to sleep; completely ignoring the experience.  Last Fall I had a roommate for the first time and he told me I snored like a foghorn and that at times I would stop breathing and then gag for breath.  I went to the doctor - got tested - and learned I have severe sleep apnea.

My first night with a cpap I used a nasal mask and a chin strap.  I didn't notice any changes that night.  I woke up a dozen times, as usual, and it simply didn't work.  It turns out I'm a mouth breather and with the chin strap/nasal mask setup I was still suffocating because I'd try to breath out of my mouth but the chin strap prevented it; nullifying the point of the cpap.

Round 2, I got a full mask and the first night I had problems with air leaking out.  Unbelievably I had a long, lucid, vivid dream that night; my first in years.  I still woke up in a sour mood, and felt tired as usual but I was absolutely thrilled with the dream and hopeful that this might finally be what I needed.  The next night I fixed the air leaking problem by adjusting the mask.  I still think it's too small and uncomfortable but I cannot argue the results.

The second night with a full mask I had a second long, lucid, brilliantly vivid dream.  When I woke up I was a mildly tired and I wasn't in a sour mood.  After breakfast I was wide awake and I could remember what I had for breakfast the day before.  I don't feel like I have more energy than normal but I'm awake, happy, and I can remember almost everything I did yesterday.  Even if nothing else changes I never want to sleep without a cpap again!

Congrats to those who have been successful with their treatments.  I hope to be among you soon!

I have a few questions for you w/OSA.  I'm trying to figure out how to be successful in treating this.  

1.  Do you sleep on your back or on your side?  If on your side, do you sleep primarily on your left side?

2.  Do you sleep with pillows?  If so, how many?  

Thank you for helping me.

Stillsleepy

have you posted any technical details about your OSA?  If so could you post a link.  If you register people can click on your name and find all of your postings, easy way to get this background information.


_________________
Remstar Auto with CFlex (not M series) since Sept 05
Adams Circuit pillows
CPAP since Feb 23 '93, only slept one night without since (by accident)

No success here.  In fact, I would say failure.

I still have poor fragmented sleep, not spending much time in the necessary sleep stages.  Still have chronic anxiety due to sleep deprivation from the poor quality sleep. Still on disability after a year and after 3 years of xPAP therapy.  Using xPAP results in a slightly better sleep (less awakenings) than without but still arousals are frequent and many. Meds haven't helped only messed me up.

StillSleepy - although I have CSA I have found that the only way I can sleep is by lying flat on my back (one pillow).  This is very new to me as I used used to be a side sleeper (predominantly right-sided).

After 3 months with CPAP, I am now sleeping 8 hours a night (on average) and am starting to feel like a human being again.  I don't know why it suddenly started working for me but I have made a number of trivial lifestyle changes which may have had an effect.

Anyway - keep at it and good luck.

All the best

Keith


_________________
CPAP since 29th September 2007 - ResMed Autoset S8 Spirit with Fischer and Paykel nasal mask.
http://www.bretondiary.com

I have found that when I sleep on my back my mask tends to leak a good bit. I sleep on my side - mostly my right and even times on my stomach. I have been on the BPAP since Nov. 5th and the neurologist told me that after 6 weeks I should fee like a totally new person.  It has been roughly 2 months now and I have more energy than ever before. Good luck to you.