Mild Apnea with multiple risk factors

[zonker]

I had a follow up with my sleep doctor's PA and she agreed to start me on a 3 month CPAP trail due to my risk level. She has filed with my insurance and hopefully will hear within a week or two. If the trail shows positive results, we would continue on the CPAP. If insurance balks, i may look at purchasing a Resmed Autoset on my own. Wish me luck.

good luck! and remember to come back to this post and update us on your situation.

[TASmart]

Even if the insurance will not pay, it may be useful to have to Dr write the prescription so you can shop at online sources like our sponsor to get as good of a price as possible. Just because something is not covered by your insurance does not mean it is not beneficial for you to have.

[rileyrd22]

Quick update on my situation. The insurance approved a trail period and I am picking up my equipment tomorrow afternoon. I have confirmed with the DME they are supplying a Resmed 10 Autoset. Therapist said i can try multiple masks to find the the best fit. Although i would like to get a nasal pillow (probably Dreamwear), but i am a mouth breather so thinking about a FFM like Resmed F20 or perhaps the Dreamwear FFM initially. I can get Dreamwear pillows or Remed P10 from Amazon fairly cheaply to try to learn to not mouth breath.

Wish me luck.

[Okie bipap]

I have used both the F20 and the Dreamwear FFM, and prefer the Dreamwear. If you get the Dreamwear FFM, you can purchase a regular cushion at a very reasonable price.

[zonker]

Quick update on my situation. The insurance approved a trail period and I am picking up my equipment tomorrow afternoon. I have confirmed with the DME they are supplying a Resmed 10 Autoset. Therapist said i can try multiple masks to find the the best fit. Although i would like to get a nasal pillow (probably Dreamwear), but i am a mouth breather so thinking about a FFM like Resmed F20 or perhaps the Dreamwear FFM initially. I can get Dreamwear pillows or Remed P10 from Amazon fairly cheaply to try to learn to not mouth breath.

Wish me luck.

good luck, riley!

if you want, here is a link to a possible solution to mouth breathing-

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=112758&st=0&sk=t&sd ... i#p1086296

i use this myself save that i use two hairbands instead of one. (obviously, i have a big mouth!) i also use a soft cervical collar. works great for me. it may do the same for you.

[Pugsy]

If you end up wanting to try the ResMed P10 nasal pillows...before you buy one anywhere check with me.
I might have a used headgear and frame you can have ...and new nasal pillow.

[musculus]

Hi All,

I had my sleep study completed and got the results about two weeks ago. The initial call reported that i had some apnea and would get full details at the doc appt. The good news was that I was diagnosed with only mild apnea with a AHI of 5.1. 24 events total. Lowest O2 was 92. Felt pretty good about results. Was offered an oral appliance which I declined for now. Docs said CPAP was overkill for those levels. I do have several risk factors including high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and evidence of two small strokes. I am wondering if I should re-visit the idea of CPAP with the docs although i an not hopeful.

I am toying around with buying a used machine from craigslist to do a trail to see if it would help reduce my level of risk. I can get a mask from Amazon or order the parts from online vendors and put together myself.

Would love your thoughts.

you need CPAP with such risk factors!! your doctor is a moron, find a better one if you can!

[ChicagoGranny]

you need CPAP with such risk factors!! your doctor is a moron, find a better one if you can!

rileyrd22 wrote:
I had a follow up with my sleep doctor's PA and she agreed to start me on a 3 month CPAP trail due to my risk level. She has filed with my insurance and hopefully will hear within a week or two. If the trail shows positive results, we would continue on the CPAP. If insurance balks, i may look at purchasing a Resmed Autoset on my own. Wish me luck.

The insurance approved a trail period and I am picking up my equipment tomorrow afternoon. I have confirmed with the DME they are supplying a Resmed 10 Autoset.

[rileyrd22]

screenshot-20180616-060200.png (184.67 KiB) Viewed 26026 times

I survived my first night and did the attached screenshot. AHI was .65 which is great for a first timer. I am using the Air Touch F20 which seems pretty comfortable even though I did get tangled up in the hose a couple of times. Things to get used to i suspect. Going to use the F20 for a few days before deciding to try a pillow. Comments welcome

[Jas_williams]

screenshot-20180616-060200.png

I survived my first night and did the attached screenshot. AHI was .65 which is great for a first timer. I am using the Air Touch F20 which seems pretty comfortable even though I did get tangled up in the hose a couple of times. Things to get used to i suspect. Going to use the F20 for a few days before deciding to try a pillow. Comments welcome

Your graphs and numbers look great how do you feel ?

[rileyrd22]

Felt pretty rested on wake up. I hope the trend continues. With my low AHI already this is for risk avoidance for the most part, but really helps if sleep is more productive as a result. Lets see what happens over the next few days.

[Pugsy]

I know you were doing this more as a preventative thing and not so much for an immediate relief of some unwanted symptom but you might find that you get the side benefit of maybe sleeping better enough for you to notice the better sleep.

Sometimes when OSA happens to people the decline produced is so gradual that people don't really notice the decline until the cause of the decline is remove and the improvement is also a gradual improvement.

I had 2 rather obvious symptoms of OSA that are common enough but not everyone had them...the headaches and the nocturia.
Those symptoms went away fairly straight away but if I had not been experiencing those symptoms my improvements would have been much more gradual. I still had rather crappy sleep in general due to pain issues..so cpap did not fix that. So any fatigue issues that so many people might have with OSA...I was still having those because of the crappy sleep.
Once I got past the crappy sleep from just having the alien plastered on my face (that took about 3 months) I did see some gradual energy improvements but never the miracle some people have.

Maybe you will see some gradual improvements because you didn't see a decline in much because it was such a slow decline that it easily became the new norm.

While taking an aspirin a day to prevent that heart attack is easy to do and not particularly annoying....sleeping with all this stuff isn't quite so easy and it can be annoying so it is nice if we can have some sort of something that is tangible that we can feel happening right now as a benefit instead of a potential benefit down the road.
Maybe you will get lucky in that regard.

[D.H.]

I noticed that about half of your events are "clear airway" events. However, your overall AHI is relatively low. Zero is ideal, but it's unachievable for most.

[rileyrd22]

I have now completed one week with my Airsense 10 Autoset and overall i am please with my results. My AHI has been below 1 several days but a few days were it was between 1 and 3. I have been using my Air Touch F20 mask, but did order me a P10 from Amazon to try. Attaching one of higher dates. My goal is to be be below 1 a majority of the time.

screenshot-20180623-132140.png (185.43 KiB) Viewed 25924 times

[Hang Fire]

My goal is to be be below 1 a majority of the time.

Why?

Wouldn't a better goal be to sleep well and feel good?