Does anyone ever just give up on cpap?

[palerider]

Jeff, my opinion is that the only time sleep apnea is a condition is if you are born with it. In all other cases you earn it.

Choices in diet, lifestyle, exercise, and the luck of the draw as far as physical damage from accidents goes all contribute to earning the symptom of sleep apnea. After noticing the symptoms you may be able to achieve more restorative sleep by focusing on the root causes and trying to deal with them.

Treating the symptom using CPAP is an excellent start, but what about the roughly 50% that can't tolerate CPAP? Perhaps improvements could be made by digging a little deeper.

There is most likely a point of no return where you have damaged the body beyond it ability to repair itself, but I am not sure where that point is. If you "believe" you are there, then you probably are there. In my case I believe I may find more improvement.

+1 In total agreement.

Well, if there wasn't enough to doubt HoseCrushers' opinion before, this seals it.

[jnk...]

Jeff, my opinion is that the only time sleep apnea is a condition is if you are born with it. In all other cases you earn it.

Choices in diet, lifestyle, exercise, and the luck of the draw as far as physical damage from accidents goes all contribute to earning the symptom of sleep apnea. After noticing the symptoms you may be able to achieve more restorative sleep by focusing on the root causes and trying to deal with them.

Treating the symptom using CPAP is an excellent start, but what about the roughly 50% that can't tolerate CPAP? Perhaps improvements could be made by digging a little deeper.

There is most likely a point of no return where you have damaged the body beyond it ability to repair itself, but I am not sure where that point is. If you "believe" you are there, then you probably are there. In my case I believe I may find more improvement.

+1 In total agreement.

-1 Utter nonsense.

But you are both free to believe whatever you please.

May you find whatever it is you seek.

[texascatfan]

no longer needed her CPAP machine. It appears she was able to identify and deal with the root cause and eliminate it. I would have loved to discuss this further but she was on her way to San Francisco to hop a sail boat to Hawaii. At age 72 she appeared healthy and full of life. I would have loved to hear more of her story but life moves on...

There is one unicorn in the universe; you found it and didn't take a photo. Shame on you.

You made me laugh out loud and startle the cat napping under my monitor!! Very funny. Is there no "rep points" feature in this forum??

[HoseCrusher]

palerider, I am sorry to hear you experienced kidney failure. You are in my thoughts and prayers hoping you will continue to find your way through this.

Kidney failure is much more difficult to recover from than the symptom of sleep apnea...

I was focusing on stage 3 and stage 4 degradation rather than full failure. If you are in an automobile accident and have a leg amputated there is no way to grow back that leg.

I totally respect your opinion but don't agree with it. I believe the body is intelligent and has a normal state of being healthy. We throw a lot of crap in the way of this process and are the unfortunate result of unforeseen circumstances. That doesn't mean that we just have to roll over and accept our situation.

I do realize that there is a point where you just hang in there until you die. I also realize that a lot of people can find improvement in the quality of their lives by addressing some issues. Even if you are just hanging in there there are frequently changes that can improve quality of life.

I work with a group of people with a terminal illness. There is no hope for a cure but I bust my butt trying to find ways to improve their quality of life. While I shoot for the stars, I occasionally make it to the back fence. My unorthodox approach hasn't cured anyone, but I have made a difference in quality of life. If you are caught in the downward spiral I don't expect you to understand this, but as long as you are breathing I believe there is hope for improvement.

[palerider]

I totally respect your opinion but don't agree with it. I believe the body is intelligent and has a normal state of being healthy.

Changing your vitamins or what you eat, or what you exercise isn't going to make your lower jaw move forward and open up your airway, no matter what you agree with.

There are a lot of 'normal' and 'natural' states of the body that are very detrimental to 'being healthy'.

[raisedfist]

People definitely give up all the time. From my own experience, I have been with several sleep physicians and DME's, and only one has done anything useful for me. The respiratory therapists that have come to my house for "follow ups" are as dumb as a sack of rocks. Luckily I happen to be moving back soon near a provider I can trust.

[ozzyluvshockey21]

I gave up on the standard cpap. I tried for years on and off, months at a time. I could never tolerate it though. I tried a retitration, but I just couldn’t sleep on the damn thing. The air was just too much. It would puff my cheeks out and keep me awake, drove me insane!

However, 2 months ago I got an auto-cpap and I have no problems at all sleeping on it. I wish I had it years ago. I am still working out some other kinks, but I am much happier and don’t see myself giving up again.


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[chunkyfrog]

I stuck with my original single pressure cpap for 9 months (not fun, aerophagia, etc.)
until I could get my first Autoset. I could have quit, but it was the only way I could sleep.

[ChicagoGranny]

My unorthodox approach hasn't cured anyone

You finally said something I can agree with.

[Sluggish]

This thread has been quite an eye opener.
Mainly I have learned two things:

1. Lots of people give up (more than I thought).
2. (almost) Nobody on this board seems open to any possibility other than CPAP for rehab.

Granted, the name of the site is cpap.com after all. But just saying.

[jnk...]

open to any possibility other than CPAP

You misunderstand, I believe.

There are other possibilities, but good docs reserve them for patients who can't or won't use the present gold-standard treatment: CPAP. That is why we stress giving that most-effective treatment the full shot before moving on to less-effective approaches.

Lots of people give up

The system often fails to provide the help needed for making a success of CPAP. Thus the importance of users helping fellow users, such as in this forum.

[Sluggish]

open to any possibility other than CPAP

You misunderstand, I believe.

There are other possibilities, but good docs reserve them for patients who can't or won't use the present gold-standard treatment: CPAP. That is why we stress giving that most-effective treatment the full shot before moving on to less-effective approaches.

Lots of people give up

The system often fails to provide the help needed for making a success of CPAP. Thus the importance of users helping fellow users, such as in this forum.

I'm somewhere in the middle. Agree that CPAP is good. But we should not rule out lifestyle changes etc..

[palerider]

I'm somewhere in the middle. Agree that CPAP is good. But we should not rule out lifestyle changes etc..

"Lifestyle changes" aren't going to reshape your jaw.

[jnk...]

Lifestyle changes arent possible without there being a life to style. Let CPAP save the lfe. Then they can style it any way they want.

Without decent sleep, no other changes are possible.

Good docs understand that.

So do we.

So should you.

In my opinion

[Sluggish]

I'm somewhere in the middle. Agree that CPAP is good. But we should not rule out lifestyle changes etc..

"Lifestyle changes" aren't going to reshape your jaw.

And a $20k surgery reshaping your jaw doesn't always fix the issue either does it?