Finished first week of cpap

[chilliman64]

hi all,

I got diagnosed with OSA last year (AHI 42) and I've just finished my first week of cpap. as the machine is not mine (I'm on a six week trial) I can only go off the stats on the screen (S9 autoset).

I've been keeping my morning AHI readings and have averaged 2.17 over the seven nights so I would have to say that cpap is working for me. I'm fortunate that I've been able to wear my Zest nasal mask every night/ all night.

I had a few days where I actually felt like I was feeling a little 'fresher' during the day but today I feel washed out and very tired despite this morning waking to find an AHI of 1.0.

a term I'd never heard of before (until reading up on this forum) is 'sleep debt' - I guess this is now what I am feeling??? having been a snorer most of my adult life and by extension maybe having OSA for some/most/all of that time would explain today's lethargy if I subscribe to the the theory of sleep debt (I know not everyone is convinced of it's existence). is it normal to have such relatively low readings and still feel like !@#!? (can I use that word here??) I know from research that we are all different in the way cpap works for us and the immediacy of results achieved.

I guess I'm a bit different to a many OSA patients where I actually had looked forward to cpap as it seemed to be a good solution to my sleep problems. I'm sick of sleeping in a different room to my wife but given my snoring and thrashing around it was not fair to her for me to stay in the same bed (such a simple thing that was taken for granted - sleeping with my partner, and I do mean sleeping!). cpap adaptation/acceptance has been easy for me as I wanted it.

I'm not pleased to find that so many have my condition (or sadly much worse) but I am comforted to find out that I am not alone and have some familiars to share my woes with. sleep should be simple - you feel tired, you lie down, you go to sleep, you wake up refreshed - yet so many can't even do that, an action that requires no effort whatsoever, just relaxation.

so I don't ramble too much I'll finish off this post after one more point even though I have much on my mind and much I'd like to exchange and discover.

my last point (for now): on my initial GP consultation to get a referral for a sleep specialist I explained to my local GP that I had a chronic snoring problem which was disrupting my sleep and the sleep of my wife and based on the news reports alerting people to the issues of bad health caused by sleep disorders I wanted to do something. she reponded "well what do you want done, we can't just fix snoring you know!" I left despondent and thought 'well that's that I suppose'. a few more months of terrible sleep and I tried again and here I am.

[Sheriff Buford]

Welcome! Your story is a similar one. I would say that sleep apnea has robbed you of the proper sleep you needed for a very long time. I tell my children that the body will forgive, but not forget. Though you have experienced some good days, you will always have some bad ones. Keep going! Once you start to "pile up" the good days, you body will slowly heal. It will take time. For me... though I suspect I felt immediately refreshed, it probably took well over a year to repair the damage I did due to the lack of proper sleep. You'll have good and bad days. Stay on this forum and educate yourself. Ask questions. Knowledge will help you thru the bumps on the road to complete recovery.

Happy papin'

Sheriff

[Mary Z]

Keep up the good work and hopefully you will feel better as you use the machine. Your AHI looks good. I was like you- I jumped at the chance for a trial of CPAP- my daytime sleepiness was completely ruining my life. I also had a return of symptoms when that sleep debt came due.
Keep us posted

[Dale92]

Hang in there! When I had my sleep study I had an AHI of 59 and they set me at 18 cm of water on a straight CPAP. I found this board and did research on what has helped others and applied what I could to myself.

It does take time to lose the sleep debt you have accumulated and it will take time to find out what really works for you as far as pressure, masks and day to day triggers. As you go along you will see more good than bad days and you will find things you do that affect your quality of sleep to the good or bad. Keep track of the things you notice and also look for help from the wonderful people here.

Dale

[Pugsy]

A low AHI doesn't guarantee feeling on top of the world. It just means not many events happened during the night. While there is a lot of truth behind the "give it time, you are new to all this", I think that it sure doesn't hurt anything to also look at other possible culprits while you are "giving it time and paying off any possible sleep debt".

There is more to having good restorative sleep than having minimal to none apnea events. Here are some possible factors which can and will impact how you feel.
Hours of sleep....fragmented sleep for any reason...meds you might take....pain....other health issues...bed comfort...mask comfort and fit issues....insomnia....sleep hygiene...and the list goes on.

[robysue]

chilliman64,

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you've had a good first week. As others have said, there will always be ups and downs. (Even people without OSA have some bad nights after all!) But as long as the good nights outnumber the bad ones, the overall trend will be positive.

I got diagnosed with OSA last year (AHI 42) and I've just finished my first week of cpap. as the machine is not mine (I'm on a six week trial) I can only go off the stats on the screen (S9 autoset).

I don't follow your reasoning here. Even if you only have the machine for a six week period, what's to prevent you from pulling out the SD card and uploading the data into SleepyHead or ResScan to look at all the data? Uploading the data won't erase it from the card.

And if there is no card in the back of your machine, what's to prevent you from going out and buying a cheap 1 or 2 gig SD card and sticking it into the machine?

[chilliman64]

thanks for all your responses, through my fogginess your comments have given me some clarity. I don't think I expected cpap to be an immediate silver bullet (maybe I did...) but I had equated low AHI with 'perfect' sleep. I hadn't considered the other factors.

chilliman64,

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you've had a good first week. As others have said, there will always be ups and downs. (Even people without OSA have some bad nights after all!) But as long as the good nights outnumber the bad ones, the overall trend will be positive.

I got diagnosed with OSA last year (AHI 42) and I've just finished my first week of cpap. as the machine is not mine (I'm on a six week trial) I can only go off the stats on the screen (S9 autoset).

I don't follow your reasoning here. Even if you only have the machine for a six week period, what's to prevent you from pulling out the SD card and uploading the data into SleepyHead or ResScan to look at all the data? Uploading the data won't erase it from the card.

And if there is no card in the back of your machine, what's to prevent you from going out and buying a cheap 1 or 2 gig SD card and sticking it into the machine?

you make a good point robysue, I hadn't even thought of obtaining the software to read the SD card! I'm fairly sure I don't have much leak during the night and although I'm not convinced this mask is 'the mask' for me it seems to be doing what it's supposed to do. time will tell, afterall, I'm a veteran of eights nights of cpap lol.

3.6 last night but actually woke feeling fresher than yesterdays 1.0. I can't wait for the morning I wake up and feel like Superman!

[chilliman64]

UPDATE

I gave up on the idea of CPAP after my earlier posts in this topic and decided a mandibular device was what I needed. well after trying many which did help somewhat but also realigned my bite for me I decided to try CPAP again.

I have just completed a little over six months (with 100%) compliance and I love CPAP. I'm sleeping better. most of my AHI readings are below 1.0 with the occasional 'high' reading 1.x. I actually had a 0.0 a few nights ago.

CPAP has changed my life. these days, I can't wait to go to bed because I know a good sleep awaits.

best of luck to all of my fellow hoseheads!

Mark