Newbie would like to hear success stories, please.

A year in to apap. And am a big advocate of this treatment. Not every night is perfect but so much better now the way I feel. I’ve lost 34 lbs. I’m training 4 people on PAP and want to save the world. I love helping others and changing their lives. I own 5 machines now and loan them out to people who need them. Yes I use the So Clean machine a real game changer!

MarkDeLange wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:09 am

Yes I use the So Clean machine a real game changer!

This thread is for success stories only. So, I ask you and anyone else who wants to comment on SoClean to take it here - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=176205

Cpap no doubt has literally saved & improved my Life since 2007when I started. Plus one week after starting therapy I found this incredible wealth of knowledge & folks there in with huge hearts. At times I like in myself to the character in that movie where the baby is born an old man and as he gets older he appears younger

Hello,

First time poster and first time reader here. I've been using a CPAP for 9 years now. I'm 40 @230lbs and my weight has been around that for a while now. Anyway, before I had my sleep study, my wife was constantly awoken by my snoring and would have to shove me awake because I would stop breathing. I used to be very tired and had many near misses on the freeway because I would fall alseep. One time one of my high school friend happen to pass by me and saw me driving in the fast lane ASLEEP! I also had migraines back then and I would frequently wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I was suffocated. There were many times too where I woke up feeling horrible and didn't want to go to work. Like so tired and miserable that I was emotionally defeated to the point of tears.

After getting my sleep study and CPAP in 2010, ALL of that went away. The first thing I noticed was I was waking up at the 4 hour mark feeling like I got a full 8 hours of sleep on literally the first day of use. The last time I felt this much energy when I was 19 and used to sleep 12 hours a day. You just wake up with no gradual wind-up and sometimes you can feel the awakeness all the way into your toes and finger tips. After a couple of years though I noticed that the pressure wasn't enough so I tweaked my Resmed S9 and turned up the pressure. Few more years go by and that was fine for a while until I started to notice a leak in my tubing so I bought a new one but it was an unofficial tube and ripped 2 days later. So I end up taping up my original tube with scotch tape. I also stupidly purchased 3rd party (non-HEPA) filters - BAD idea. After a while I noticed dust was passing right through and this filter wasn't getting dirty or darker like my HEPA filters. My nose pillow also ripped. I'm a Medium and all I had was an old unused large size nose pillow so was using that.

Anyway, I was using taped hose, wrong size pillow, and useless non-HEPA filter. I noticed the quality of my sleep was degraded and I was unconsciously pulling off my mask at night, sometimes waking up drooling. I don't recall doing that since before my CPAP. Also my breath was worse, probably because of getting all this dirt sucked into my lungs. I decided to get my hose, nose pillow, head gear, and filter all replaced with genuine parts. The next morning, I felt I did 9 years ago like it was the first time I received my CPAP. I'm telling you, I don't just wake up at 7AM like this and start typing on my computer.

Lesson learned: Don't be cheap. You don't have to follow recommended replacement schedule (which honestly is too frequent) but you DO need to replace your stuff with the real thing.

Newbie here to this forum, but been using cpap therapy for almost 10 years.

Hope to fit in & learn some new things. Thanks.

Cpap is a long term commitment. If you stick with it it works. I have been doing it flawlessly for 7 years now.

Hi,

While vacationing in Alaska with my daughter, she noticed that I made funny little “sighing” sounds and stopped breathing while I was sleeping. I told her it was probably due to the cold air...hahaha!

I mentioned the issue to my primary care doctor, and she sent me to a pulmonary specialist who prescribed a home sleep study which registered about 35 episodes per hour. In December 2015 I received a ResMed CPAP machine and started my treatment.

I won’t say it was easy at the beginning because I’m a side/face sleeper, but after trying several different nasal pillows, I settled on the Dreamware Gel Cushions which made all the difference in the world. (The air flows through the tubing on both sides of my head, so I can sleep on either side and still have continuous air.)

Since using the cpap machine, I’ve lost about 30 pounds and my sleep quality is much better. I wake up at least once during the night, but I’m able to fall back asleep rather quickly. (I’m sure it’s age related.)

Also, since using the machine and losing the weight, my primary care doc also took me off my blood pressure medicines. To me, that was the best perk of all!

To any newbies who are struggling, you just have to give it time and effort to reap the health benefits for your body.

Hello I am a newbie. Tonight is my first night trying to sleep with the cpap machine and as you can see it is 3:05 am and I can not sleep due to not being able to have the (full face mask ) on and felling like I cant breath. Has anyone out there have the same problem?

Mperez6132 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:07 am

Hello I am a newbie. Tonight is my first night trying to sleep with the cpap machine and as you can see it is 3:05 am and I can not sleep due to not being able to have the (full face mask ) on and felling like I cant breath. Has anyone out there have the same problem?

This is not the thread to have this discussion. Please start a new post, and you will get lots of help. Welcome to the forum!

I’m one of those suffering from mild sleep apnea, and I’m feeling more well-rested and alert thanks to CPAP treatment. I have tried two MADs in the past, but those led to jaw pain. I’m lucky to need a low pressure, I use a hose stand, and a pillow that I find comfortable. I also use an AirTouch F20 mask.

Well I had the experience of first being disappointed and now seeing marginal benefits. I was having 21 AHIs per hour according to my sleep study, hemocrit was elevated and I was exhausted by 4pm every day. I got my machine and well ...NADA. I was logging my progress on the DreamMapper app and was doing 1.5ish AHI with 90% maskfit for an average of 7.0 hours per night. But...I felt the same as before. Now 3 months in and settled on a mask with 100% fit and getting less than .5 AHI per hour. I sleep through the night and my horrendous snoring is gone. Partner says I don't move in my sleep at all now. I dream like crazy now though and have issues with nightmares. It was no miracle cure for me. I have still 65lbs to lose so we will see then. But life changing for me as far as feeling more alert, rested, etc...nah. Sorry don't mean to urinate on the parade here.

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum but been using CPAP for about 15 years. I'm one of the lucky people who had absolutely no problems using a CPAP from Day 1, and I use it 100% of the time when there is electricity.

It was probably easy for me because I have severe apnea. I didn't realize it until my brother and SIL told me on a camping trip that they could hear that I wasn't breathing for very long periods of time constantly. They urged me to go talk to a doctor. Granted, I was aware that I woke up tired all the time, sometimes woke up "choking", and I went through a period of time where I was essentially trying to sleep all day on weekends but completely exhausted after 16 hours/sleep (I chucked that up to depression). But it never occurred to me that there was something really wrong.

I did an overnight sleep study at Scripps Hospital in San Diego, CA. Afterwards, the technician and neurologist told me I had the most severe apnea they'd ever seen. It is likely I had it since childhood, therefore it that was all I knew and was unaware of the problem.

I took a machine home and was in love ever since. It was literally life-changing. I'm 100% compliant.

I suspect that decades of pre-CPAP life may be associated with chronic issues I've had such as disthymia (long term depression), hormonal issues, issues with weight management, memory loss, etc. But I'm so glad I got diagnosed and treated.

About 6 years ago I was in excellent physical fitness and training for long distance trail running that required overnight camping at very high altitudes with no electricity. I talked to my neurologist about it, and he was able to get me one of those oral appliances to use when there is no electricity. It works well enough for me when my bodyweight is low, muscle tone/mass high, and my cardiovascular system is at peak training levels. But the CPAP is still the preferred equipment.

I'm just so thrilled that these machines exist. My life was horrible pre-CPAP. For any other newbies out there, don't give up. It will change your life and probably save your life.

Gelsomina

Catnapper

For years my wife told me that i had a sleep problem. Kept her awake at night holding my breath, she thinking I was not going to take that next breath. Finally, I went to my internists and he told me to take an in home sleep test. I scored 58 events per minute. I then was referred to a doctor specializing in sleep medicine. He put me on a ResMed AirSense. That took me down to about 24 events per minute. After that, the doctor put me on an AirCurve machine. That machine was a lot more pleasant from the inhale standpoint, but only helped drop my events down to about 19 per minute. Finally, I had to take another sleep test test to prove the ASV therapy worked on me. Then I got a ResMed ASV machine, and that did the trick. I got down to an average of less than 2 events per minute. The CPAP machine therapy has been a huge help to me. I no longer take naps in the afternoon. I am now retired, but when I was in the work world, I always got very sleepy after lunch-no doubt due to my sleep apnea problem. I get a good 8 hours sleep each night, and feel great the next day.