Post
by brm2000 » Sat Mar 29, 2014 1:40 pm
I don't normally submit to these things, but using CPAP has been a life saver for me and I would like to share the good news. The issue was that I was misdiagnosed when I had my first sleep study. My first doctor was not a sleep specialist but a liver specialist who was literally 90 years old. He said that due to the fact that I had moderate sleep apnea, I should try to lose weight, he did offer the machine, but said weight loss was the first step. My next step was to see a ENT and he said that I had a deviated septum, and that a CAT scan later, he would do an operation that would fix that. So I waited and thought about my options and did not get the CPAP. Instead I tried to lose weight by diet and exercise. Since I was not sleeping properly, I was always tired and forcing myself to exercise and had a ravenous appetite. I looked tired and never seemed to lose weight. My primary care doctor remarked that at times my heart rate was too slow in the morning and ordered an EKG, everything turned out fine, regarding the heart. I had high blood pressure that never seemed to go down regardless of the medication I was on, and exercise.
Fast forward three years, a new primary care doctor, and a new sleep study. This time I was diagnosed as severe having an AHI of 62 and oxygen levels below 50 percent at times! As well as having periodic leg movements, and sinus bradycardia, night sweating, night time urination, snoring, stomach issues and being just plain miserable. In the intervening period, I had not gained much weight, but felt much older. The new sleep doctor was going to pull my licence, if I fell asleep at the wheel, but I convinced him I did not, which was true. I had somehow bulled myself through with the sleep apnea and had acclimatized my self to having less sleep. I was just barely surviving, but I was doing just fine IMO.
After getting the Resmed S9, with a nasal mask, it was a world of difference for myself. I have been 100 percent compliant for one year to this date. Except for when there was a power failure, and the next day I felt miserable. My setting is at a water pressure at nine, and medium humidification. I use a set back of two, which works for me, and 15 mins. of ramp.
The recovery happens in stages, for the first three months your brain and body recover as you sleep through the night, but you just feel better in general. However after that, is when the real changes occur, as the benefits become permanent and solidify. You will notice that your memory comes back, and that you have greater self control, and at this stage, other people start noticing. With myself, there was a severe positive personality change, I realized that I had been very anxious before treatment. As well, all of my exercising started to have dividends like muscle growth and energy that never occurred previously to the CPAP. For myself it was starting a new life and I noticed that people sometimes did not know how to take the new me, as I behaved somewhat differently.Thats what sleep does for you! No more teeth grinding, night sweating, lethargy, night time urination, snoring choking stomach issues, better skin, heart issues resolved, blood pressure stabilized, memory returning, all because of Cpap!
To make a long story short, get to a sleep specialist if you can and get a sleep study if you can. If for what ever reason, you can't afford either try to get an auto titrating machine and see if you need it. Just do it. Try different masks, if yours does not work, I was lucky and just had to get a larger mask do to proboscis issues and research, research, research. I can not speak more highly of these forums and scour the net for advise. Be your own advocate, as is often stated this is a woefully under-diagnosed phenomenon.