De-lurking & Introduction

rubberchimp · Post by **rubberchimp** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:37 pm

Greetings folks,

I've been lurking on cpaptalk for around 6 months now, but I reckon an introduction is in order before I start any other threads.

I'm a 31 year old man and have recently been diagnosed with moderately severe OSA (AHI ~28 ) after around 10 years of moaning to various doctors about morning headaches, daytime tiredness, concentration & memory problems, irritability and fatigue. Seems that "I don't know" is never the correct answer when asked by a doctor if you have sleep apnea.

My breakthrough came when searching online for "waking up tired"... Sleep disorders were the only thing that coupled this symptom with weight *gain* rather than loss. After reading a lot of online reference material and stories from other sufferers, I decided that it seemed a likely candidate as it fitted my other symptoms too and I pushed hard for testing with my current doc.

I was quite anxious leading up to the first sleep study, wondering if I had sleep apnea or if I was crazy and wasting everyone's time... you folks with sleeping partners that can actually tell you if you snore/stop breathing are lucky Thankfully, the tests came back showing that I certainly wasn't imagining it, and my time had been well spent. I was having hypopneas constantly throughout the night and apneas mostly when on my back.

I've since found that I also have other issues affecting my upper airway (deviated septum and enlarged turbinates), and I'm scheduled for surgery to improve the situation on that side of things. I've always had trouble getting adequate airflow through my nose and have done my fair share of mouth breathing. I'm holding off buying my own CPAP machine 'till after the surgery so I can see what impact it has on my airway first.

I've been on CPAP for a couple of weeks now with a Resmed S8 AutoScore rental and I'm using a Resmed Mirage Activa mask. Tried the F&P Opus nasal pillow, but found it irritates my nares too much for constant use. The Activa is comfortable and I've got it adjusted nicely now so there's no leaks, but also no mask marks in the morning. It sure feels odd to have it so loose before turning on the airflow, but it's quite comfortable in use.

I'm finding that I can sleep fairly well with the mask on and mask/mouth leaks aren't a problem, but I'm not at the point yet where the daytime sleepiness and fatigue has gone. My AHI is down to around 4 according to the machine... both the doc and the cpap supplier seem to think this is acceptable (and I'm willing to try it for a few weeks at least before pushing to get it lower). I won't call myself a success story though until the brain fog lifts and trying to focus on complex tasks no longer feels like eating soup with chopsticks .

Over the last few months, cpaptalk has been an invaluable resource in educating myself about sleep apnea/hypopnea and cpap... it feels so good to have some idea what's going on and how to fix it. I look forward to contributing to the community

Slinky · Post by **Slinky** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:37 pm

Well, WELCOME. We're glad you finally decided to come out of the shadows and give up lurking for jumping in and taking part!

Aha. Another Resmed-er!!! Good going! You've been loaned a goodie! Donchya love getting that data in the morning? How great that you've been able to get so comfortable and relatively leak-free w/your Mirage Activa. Some of us have to go thru so doggone many mask before finding one that "works" for us.

Good luck w/the septum and turbinate "repair". Its a good thing you finally decided to take charge of your health care and start getting some answers! Whilst it can take some time to get past "the tireds" and the "fog" did you by any chance get a copy of not just the doctor's dictated results (1-2 pages) but also the full scored data summary report w/condensed graphs (5+ pages)? You might happen to have another sleep disorder in conjunction w/your OSA that is continuing to contribute to the "fog" and the "tireds". It might be worth checking into and getting that copy.

rubberchimp · Post by **rubberchimp** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:59 am

Thanks for the warm welcome Slinky

I haven't bought the Resmed software myself yet, but I can view the data that the machine shows on the LCD 'cause I watched how the cpap supplier accessed the clinical menu (Hey, she didn't tell me to look away or anything.. I was just paying careful attention ) Every time I ask 'em about the software, they seem reluctant to sell it since it's usually bundled with a new machine. I'll buy it elsewhere, but I'm happy to stick with 'em cause they're fairly good otherwise and I'm in an area where my choices for face-to-face support are limited (I'm an Aussie btw..).

I have a partial copy of my first sleep study.. it's just a summary report the sleep lab faxed to the doc and isn't very detailed, but still shows some interesting things (sleep phase, SPO2, air flow, position etc). I'm contacting the sleep doc this week to get 'em to mail me full copies of both my initial sleep study and the titration study for my own files. They readily gave me a copy of the original report, so I don't think it will be a problem.

The doctor doesn't seem to think there's any other issues (other than flow limitation from the upper airway.. I showed him a CT scan and he was pretty glad to hear I was seeing an ENT about it). I'm giving my current cpap therapy about a month to settle down and prove itself before I'm gonna make any judgements about whether it's working as it should be.

When feel I have enough energy, I'll be starting a real exercise programme again so I can get some weight off and help the CPAP along (~115 kg atm). There are some other interesting complimentary measures I'm looking into... I'll post on here if I gather any useful info worth sharing.

Cheers!

tangents · Post by **tangents** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:58 am

Welcome to the forum, Rubberchimp! (Interesting handle, by the way )

I'm sure you'll be successful with your therapy, since you've already taken so much of it into your own hands. There's so much to learn, for a relatively simple condition! I'm 16 months into it myself, and learn new stuff on this board all the time. The folks here are great, so post any questions you have. Good luck, and nice to finally meet you!

Regards,
Cathy

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:06 pm

welcome to the forum!
It sounds like you're already learned a lot from the forum and from your own research, so that's half the battle already won! good for you
It's definitealy a good idea to give the treatment "some time to work", since it didn't develop overnight, it will take some time for your body to work through the sleep backlog.