Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.

Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

The pressure bothers me too much
17
9%
I do not like the feeling of mask on my face
25
13%
I have nose congestion/ stuffiness which makes it difficult for me to use the machine
21
11%
It is inconvenient to put on
19
10%
It hampers my social life
14
7%
I feel like I am suffocating
13
7%
It makes my mouth/ nose/ eyes dry
28
14%
I move around during sleep and don't like being confined
17
9%
Leaks a lot
19
10%
Other (noisy machine/ feel bloated etc-please describe)
22
11%
 
Total votes: 195

ems
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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by ems » Wed Jul 02, 2014 6:54 pm

Wow... time flies when you're having fun.

It's three years this month since I started this "wonderful" therapy. I can easily say it took 2 1/2 years to get comfortable with the fact that I needed this therapy and to find a mask that I could tolerate. I spent many months not using it knowing full well that I should have been. It does take time for some of us... for whatever reasons. It's the old story; we are all different and have different issues. What works for one of us won't work for all of us. Being kind and understanding of another person's issues works right away though...
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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by robysue » Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:41 am

49er wrote: The reason I continue to persist after 2.5 years of struggle because not using the machine is not an option.
49er
49er,

I think this point sometimes gets lost when you're involved in the "CPAP doesn't work for everybody" discussions. To the best of my knowledge, you've NEVER advocated a position that says: If CPAP is too hard, just give up.

Rather you continue to use the dang machine night after night because there really is no option. But even after 2.5 years of real work involved in finding a mask and making sure the pressure is enough to give you decent efficacy numbers, you're still not feeling any better with the PAP than without it.

And for folks who start to feel substantially better with PAP in the first 1-6 months, it's not easy to understand that some of us continue to struggle with I feel lousy issues long after we're fully compliant with therapy that is optimized on paper.

I will "celebrate" my fourth CPAP anniversary this September. Since September 23, 2010 there have been a total of 3 nights without PAP, and one of them was a second diagnostic PSG. One was caused by my battery going haywire in the middle of a camping trip; that problem was fixed by borrowing a very, very long extension cord approved for outdoors for the rest of the stay in the campground. And one was caused by a long, nasty argument with hubby where I wound up sleeping in the recliner. In the last year, my long term AHI according to SH is 1.89, my leaks are well under control, and (surprise, surprise) my average usage per night is 6.25 hours (and that represents 100% of my sleep time.)

But while there are certain things that are definitely better with PAP than without, my sleep patterns went to hell in a handbasket during the first two weeks of PAPing, and they still are not back to normal. I have worse circadian rhythm problems, and I remember far more middle of the night wakes than I should. And the more I try to increase the total amount of sleep past 6.0-6.5 hours, the worse the sleep fragmentation seems: In the last 6 months of data, I've had over 100 nights with at least 6 sessions, and 30 nights with at least 10 sessions; in other words, the SH data shows that I'm waking up enough to turn the machine off and back on at least 4-6 times on well over half the nights. And while the severe, night after night basketball-in-stomach aerophagia that I had during the first 3 months of PAPing are a thing in the past, I continue to struggle with moderate levels of aerophagia on many nights. In short, while I have less physical pain during the daytime, I have had no real improvement in terms of energy level as compared to pre-CPAP (but then "energy" was not a problem pre-CPAP). And I continue to feel as though my cognitive abilities are not what they were pre-CPAP: I have much more difficulty concentrating NOW than I did pre-CPAP.

Overall, I rate my PAP experience as a "highly qualified partial success." The success part is the lack of pain and the fact that when I am sleeping well, I'm much less restless. I do have some really good mornings, but they're hardly the majority. (They are correlated to the rare nights where my longest session is at least 2.5 hours long.) But the significant qualification on that "success" is that my sleep subjectively feels fragile, fragmented, and problematic more often than not, and it did NOT feel that way before I started PAP. I fully understand that my remaining sleep problems are NOT things the PAP is designed to fix, but the fact remains those things only emerged as long term problems once I started PAP. And the messed up sleep patterns significantly affect my quality of life and that's why I cannot say that PAP is an unqualified, wonderful, best-thing-since-sliced bread, "I wish I'd started PAPing much earlier" type of success that it is for many folks around here.

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by old dude » Thu Jul 03, 2014 3:38 pm

Robysue, my personal experience is not unlike yours. For several months I was coming up on a 6 hour average machine time, most of it actually sleeping. Most of these nights were broken into 2 sessions separated by a bathroom break. But for the last week or more I have devolved into a mask time of around 5 hours, with 4 to 4-1/2 hours actual sleep. (Even so, I feel better through the day than pre-therapy). If I get something on my mind during the bathroom break-anything at all-then I'm cashed for the night usually. Anxiety disorder is no fun.

But on my best nights I still have periods in the early afternoon during which I fade a bit. I'm not completely in a fog, but if I sat down to watch TV I'd be nodding off in a couple of minutes. I think a fair assessment of my situation is that while my therapy is working pretty decently most nights, I still have some insomnia issues that continue.

But I'll admit it; I'm just flat terrified to not use my machine.

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by flyingwithoutwings » Thu Jul 03, 2014 5:07 pm

robysue wrote:I will "celebrate" my fourth CPAP anniversary this September. Since September 23, 2010 there have been a total of 3 nights without PAP, and one of them was a second diagnostic PSG. One was caused by my battery going haywire in the middle of a camping trip; that problem was fixed by borrowing a very, very long extension cord approved for outdoors for the rest of the stay in the campground. And one was caused by a long, nasty argument with hubby where I wound up sleeping in the recliner. In the last year, my long term AHI according to SH is 1.89, my leaks are well under control, and (surprise, surprise) my average usage per night is 6.25 hours (and that represents 100% of my sleep time.)

But while there are certain things that are definitely better with PAP than without, my sleep patterns went to hell in a handbasket during the first two weeks of PAPing, and they still are not back to normal. I have worse circadian rhythm problems, and I remember far more middle of the night wakes than I should. And the more I try to increase the total amount of sleep past 6.0-6.5 hours, the worse the sleep fragmentation seems: In the last 6 months of data, I've had over 100 nights with at least 6 sessions, and 30 nights with at least 10 sessions; in other words, the SH data shows that I'm waking up enough to turn the machine off and back on at least 4-6 times on well over half the nights. And while the severe, night after night basketball-in-stomach aerophagia that I had during the first 3 months of PAPing are a thing in the past, I continue to struggle with moderate levels of aerophagia on many nights. In short, while I have less physical pain during the daytime, I have had no real improvement in terms of energy level as compared to pre-CPAP (but then "energy" was not a problem pre-CPAP). And I continue to feel as though my cognitive abilities are not what they were pre-CPAP: I have much more difficulty concentrating NOW than I did pre-CPAP.

Overall, I rate my PAP experience as a "highly qualified partial success." The success part is the lack of pain and the fact that when I am sleeping well, I'm much less restless. I do have some really good mornings, but they're hardly the majority. (They are correlated to the rare nights where my longest session is at least 2.5 hours long.) But the significant qualification on that "success" is that my sleep subjectively feels fragile, fragmented, and problematic more often than not, and it did NOT feel that way before I started PAP. I fully understand that my remaining sleep problems are NOT things the PAP is designed to fix, but the fact remains those things only emerged as long term problems once I started PAP. And the messed up sleep patterns significantly affect my quality of life and that's why I cannot say that PAP is an unqualified, wonderful, best-thing-since-sliced bread, "I wish I'd started PAPing much earlier" type of success that it is for many folks around here.
Robysue, if you had not written this yourself I would not believe it. With all the help and advice you give others I thought yours was a total success story. My 8 months on PAP is nothing compared to your four years. I have yet to have a good day, a day when I wake up ready to jump out of the bed. Instead I just want to sleep for the rest of the week, and it's no fun being sleepy at work. I hate PAP therapy but like Old Dude, I too am terrified to not use my machine.
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ems
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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by ems » Thu Jul 03, 2014 7:51 pm

Robysue... referring to your post I'd like to be sure I understand you - and if not, I would appreciate if you would say so: Of course I got that using your machine every nite is not the end all, be all that you hoped it would be. That papping is just one piece of the puzzle and in fact, your cognitive abilities aren't what they were pre-pap. Do you have a guess as to why? Did I understand you correctly?

My thinking is that it's four years since you started this therapy - you/I/we are four years older - life changes are apparent for most of us, menopause is probably in the mix too. A few lucky people seem to escape this and say that this therapy has changed their lives. Really? Not mine. I also think that there are more woman than men having the majority of the issues you describe.

While I applaud myself for finally finding a mask that works, low AHIs and hardly noticeable leaks, along with what you would consider great data, jumping out of bed and feeling wonderful is a joke to me. My hours of sleep and how I sleep are exactly like yours - with the exception of a few 6/7 hour nites with the Airfit P10. I also have more anxiety about going to sleep now than before I ever started "using". I usually see all your late night posts.

So, part of this post is to see if I read your post the way you intended, and part just plain b****ing. Many nites I wish I had never mentioned migraines to my PC, which is what prompted her to send me for a sleep study. I know many of you will say how "lucky" I was so no need to say it. I get it but that doesn't make it better.
If only the folks with sawdust for brains were as sweet and obliging and innocent as The Scarecrow! ~a friend~

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by SleepyToo2 » Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:29 pm

ems and robysue, I fully sympathize with you both. If I have ever felt like jumping out of bed in the morning it was because the dog was barking like crazy for my wife to take her for a walk (the dog won't go out with me yet - a long story that is a work in progress). Normally, it is an effort to get out of bed, even after a long night of sleep. My AHI is low (under 1 most nights recently) and I should be feeling good (so "everyone" says). However, I have had a long period of cognitive failure (for want of a better description). Migraine headaches that I was getting regularly before CPAP have gone away/gotten less severe. But the fuzzy thinking continues - I have had some days of clearer thinking lately, but it has taken nearly 5 years to get where I am now, and I am still not where I would like to be. Perhaps it takes some people a long time to recover from the effects of sleep apnea - I always was a late developer! All I can say is keep on tweaking mask fitting and machine settings until you find somewhere that seems to work a bit better for you - then keep on with those settings. Hopefully, things will get better.

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by 49er » Fri Jul 04, 2014 4:35 am

robysue,

I read what you wrote yesterday during the day from h-ll. I can't tell you how much what you said meant to me.

Unfortunately, I do fall asleep without the mask but not intentionally. Long story.

And like you, my circadian rhythms are totally messed up due to still having problems with feeling so drugged after eating dinner that the only relief is to lay down and go to sleep. I do try and get the mask on as quickly as possible but many times, due to severe sleep inertia, it ends up off. One time, I remember trying to force myself to get it back on but my brain wasn't cooperating.

Anyway, hopefully, switching to a paleo type diet will alleviate that problem since I noticed that when I eat moderate to high carb foods, I have severe spikes on the glucometer even though my blood work was normal.

I am also going to try sleeping in the living room to see if my sleep improves without the computer in my room. I do try to cover all the lights but heck, maybe this will be key, who knows?

Maybe it is more accurate for me to say that cpap no longer feels like torture but the process of sleep feels that way. I do intend to have another sleep study which is a whole other post.

Another possible next step is to try taking the Restoril I have taken on a PRN basis to get back to sleep before putting on the mask initially. I have tried various other meds in that way but it hasn't resulted in any improvement and seems to have had a paradoxical effect. My theory is that if I am falling asleep quickly, that might be the reason the meds are acting that way. Of course, it is hard to say.

In quickly glancing at your post, I am sorry you are having so many struggles since I know how hard you try. Unfortunately, folks like us are not going to get help from sleep doctors who seem to operate in an assembly line fashion mostly even though they have good intentions.

It sounds like many of us need a Doctor House of sleep medicine but I know that is fantasty land big time.



robysue wrote:
49er wrote: The reason I continue to persist after 2.5 years of struggle because not using the machine is not an option.
49er
49er,

I think this point sometimes gets lost when you're involved in the "CPAP doesn't work for everybody" discussions. To the best of my knowledge, you've NEVER advocated a position that says: If CPAP is too hard, just give up.

Rather you continue to use the dang machine night after night because there really is no option. But even after 2.5 years of real work involved in finding a mask and making sure the pressure is enough to give you decent efficacy numbers, you're still not feeling any better with the PAP than without it.

And for folks who start to feel substantially better with PAP in the first 1-6 months, it's not easy to understand that some of us continue to struggle with I feel lousy issues long after we're fully compliant with therapy that is optimized on paper.

I will "celebrate" my fourth CPAP anniversary this September. Since September 23, 2010 there have been a total of 3 nights without PAP, and one of them was a second diagnostic PSG. One was caused by my battery going haywire in the middle of a camping trip; that problem was fixed by borrowing a very, very long extension cord approved for outdoors for the rest of the stay in the campground. And one was caused by a long, nasty argument with hubby where I wound up sleeping in the recliner. In the last year, my long term AHI according to SH is 1.89, my leaks are well under control, and (surprise, surprise) my average usage per night is 6.25 hours (and that represents 100% of my sleep time.)

But while there are certain things that are definitely better with PAP than without, my sleep patterns went to hell in a handbasket during the first two weeks of PAPing, and they still are not back to normal. I have worse circadian rhythm problems, and I remember far more middle of the night wakes than I should. And the more I try to increase the total amount of sleep past 6.0-6.5 hours, the worse the sleep fragmentation seems: In the last 6 months of data, I've had over 100 nights with at least 6 sessions, and 30 nights with at least 10 sessions; in other words, the SH data shows that I'm waking up enough to turn the machine off and back on at least 4-6 times on well over half the nights. And while the severe, night after night basketball-in-stomach aerophagia that I had during the first 3 months of PAPing are a thing in the past, I continue to struggle with moderate levels of aerophagia on many nights. In short, while I have less physical pain during the daytime, I have had no real improvement in terms of energy level as compared to pre-CPAP (but then "energy" was not a problem pre-CPAP). And I continue to feel as though my cognitive abilities are not what they were pre-CPAP: I have much more difficulty concentrating NOW than I did pre-CPAP.

Overall, I rate my PAP experience as a "highly qualified partial success." The success part is the lack of pain and the fact that when I am sleeping well, I'm much less restless. I do have some really good mornings, but they're hardly the majority. (They are correlated to the rare nights where my longest session is at least 2.5 hours long.) But the significant qualification on that "success" is that my sleep subjectively feels fragile, fragmented, and problematic more often than not, and it did NOT feel that way before I started PAP. I fully understand that my remaining sleep problems are NOT things the PAP is designed to fix, but the fact remains those things only emerged as long term problems once I started PAP. And the messed up sleep patterns significantly affect my quality of life and that's why I cannot say that PAP is an unqualified, wonderful, best-thing-since-sliced bread, "I wish I'd started PAPing much earlier" type of success that it is for many folks around here.

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by robysue » Fri Jul 04, 2014 10:34 am

ems wrote:Robysue... referring to your post I'd like to be sure I understand you - and if not, I would appreciate if you would say so: Of course I got that using your machine every nite is not the end all, be all that you hoped it would be. That papping is just one piece of the puzzle and in fact, your cognitive abilities aren't what they were pre-pap. Do you have a guess as to why? Did I understand you correctly?
I went into PAPing with little hope of "feeling better" during the daytime, because, quite frankly, I wasn't feeling all that bad to begin with. I did NOT have the excessive daytime sleepiness and excessive fatigue and brain fog so many people have. I don't know why I didn't have those problems, but I didn't. And I do remember that as a newbie here it was hard to convince people that I was asymptomatic in that sense.

My PAP adventures started only because hubby was alarmed about the fact that I stopped breathing at night and he thought my snoring was getting worse.

I was fatigued during the daytime: But that had been written off by my doc as menopause and stress.

And I woke up each morning with significant hand and foot pain. On the mornings where the pain was at its worst, I'd tell hubby that it felt like I'd slept with my hands and feet in fists all night long. The pain would get better as the day progressed, and usually I'd be pretty much pain free by nightfall. I had complained about this hand and foot pain many times (as well as general achyness) to my PCP. He'd run several tests that are designed to tease out whether someone might have lupus or RA; levels of some kind of chemical that indicates there is inflammation going on were very slightly elevated, but no where near what they would be if the problem was lupus or RA. And so this hand and foot pain had been diagnosed as mild arthritis by my doc, and an x-ray of the feet had confirmed that there was some minor arthritis.

I did have a history of chronic headaches, but even my morning headaches did not match the traditional OSA morning headache pattern; they did, however, match the symptomatology of TMJ headaches, and the morning headaches had responded very well to using a night guard: If I wore the guard, I woke up with no TMJ headache; if I didn't wear the guard, I woke up with a TMJ headache.

So I started PAP with little or no expectation that I'd (suddenly) start feeling better during the daytime. My modest hopes for PAP were that it would NOT interfere too much with my life, that I would continue to sleep about as well I was sleeping in terms of going to bed sometime between 11:00 and 1:00, falling asleep within 40-50 minutes or so, and waking up the next morning between 6:30 or 7:30 willing to get out of bed, although not eager to get out of bed. The pre-CPAP long latency to sleep never bothered me: I was going to bed more or less when hubby went to bed and I'd spend the time in some very pleasant day-dreaming curled up next to hubby.

In other words, I understood that needed the PAP because my diagnostic AHI was 23.something or other. And that having an apnea or a hypopnea every three minutes or so (on average) was not good for my health even though I had none of the standard daytime symptoms. In other words, I regarded OSA the same way I would have regarded a diagnosis of high blood pressure and CPAP the way I would have regarded high blood pressure medication: It's a serious diagnosis even if there are no symptoms and you gotta do what you gotta do to manage it.

But what kept and keeps me PAPing was a totally unexpected thing: About four to five months into PAPing the phrase, "Woke up with no hand and foot pain this morning." Apparently that hand and foot pain was my only real daytime symptom of OSA---it's known that OSA can trigger inflammation and it's possible that my body was responding to all the apneas and hypopneas by tightening up my hands and feet into fists each night.

And while I am still fatigued during the daytime some of the time and I still experience far more brain fog than I did pre-CPAP, waking up with no hand and foot pain is a huge plus and affects the overall quality of my life far more than I would have expected.

But the long term sleep disruption that started with PAP is still a huge problem for me. However, sleeping without a PAP is clearly NOT the answer: As those rare PAP-less nights have shown me: Sleeping without the PAP leads to a lot of tossing and turning during the night---I wake up now with the apneas in a way that I didn't pre-CPAP----and an immediate return of the moderate-to-severe hand and foot pain. In other words, PAP-less sleep leaves me feeling worse in terms of PAIN and PAP-less sleep is just as fragile and fragmented (actually more fragmented) than my fragile, fragmented sleep with PAP.

My thinking is that it's four years since you started this therapy - you/I/we are four years older - life changes are apparent for most of us, menopause is probably in the mix too. A few lucky people seem to escape this and say that this therapy has changed their lives. Really? Not mine. I also think that there are more woman than men having the majority of the issues you describe.
Menopause: My periods stopped about 1.5 to 2 years before I started PAPing. I had, and continue to have, occasional hot flashes, but they're not the horrible kind that some people have to put up with day after day after day...

And I'd be inclined to say all it is is "aging" if stuff hadn't blown up very suddenly right after I started PAPing.

Yep. You read that right: Just after starting PAP, my life went to hell. During the first two weeks of PAP therapy, I went from being a functional 52-year old (pre-CPAP) to a walking zombie (on CPAP). While I never had problems with being sleepy during the daytime pre-CPAP, after starting CPAP I developed serious problem with excessive daytime sleepiness. I wasn't sleeping particular well at night with the CPAP: The mask itself was not too uncomfortable, but the air blowing down my windpipe was unbearable. I felt like a balloon being blown up each night after turning the machine on, and the pressure in my stomach and lungs was painful. Aerophaiga was (and remains) an issue. The air tickled my throat, and I could not tolerate lying in bed with the mask on for more than 20 minutes or so without getting profoundly upset at all the physical discomfort I was in. The discomforts of dealing with the mask at night triggered both severe insomnia and a fair amount of significant emotional distress. And during the day I found it difficult to stay awake in meetings and in classes that I was teaching. Pre-CPAP driving was no problem; within two weeks of starting PAP I was terrified of falling asleep while driving and had become totally dependent on hubby to drive me to and from work. And I had no ability to focus on any of the daily tasks needed for my job as a college professor. And as the semester progressed, things got worse, not better.

In the first six months of PAPing, I was switched from CPAP to APAP to fixed BiPAP to BiPAP Auto. I had six official prescriptions for different pressure settings. And two additional sleep studies for tirating the BiPAP. At the end of the first three months from hell, I started CBT-I under the direction of the sleep doc's PA to rein in the insomnia. At the insistence of the sleep doc's PA I started seeing a CBT psychologist for anger management issues. And I was officially under treatment for CBT-I for five full months before the sleep doc's PA finally fired me as a patient.

If the hand and foot pain had not started to disappear four-five months into PAPing, I'm not sure how long I would have continued with PAPing.

Now almost four years later, I am feeling about as good during the daytime as I did pre-CPAP. The excessive daytime that started AFTER I started CPAP has disappeared. The bed-time dreads are manageable, although my sleep is still far more fragmented than it seemed before starting PAP.

And the cognitive and emotional issues that started after PAP remain. They're not as bad as they were during the first six to twelve months, but I'm not back to where I was pre-CPAP.

My own take? The continuing problems are caused by my fragile, fragmented sleep. If I can ever get to where I'm genuinely sleepying well night after night, I'm pretty sure I'll become less moody and that the brain fog issues will resolve. But sleeping well at this point is not going to be achieved by tweaking BiPAP settings. The BiCPAP is doing its job, but the sleep remains bad for reasons that have nothing to do with untreated (or undertreated) OSA these days.

While I applaud myself for finally finding a mask that works, low AHIs and hardly noticeable leaks, along with what you would consider great data, jumping out of bed and feeling wonderful is a joke to me. My hours of sleep and how I sleep are exactly like yours - with the exception of a few 6/7 hour nites with the Airfit P10. I also have more anxiety about going to sleep now than before I ever started "using". I usually see all your late night posts.
An oddball thing has happened in the last year or so: The dread (or anxiety) of masking up has finally disappeared. Having hubby as a PAPer has helped. It makes me feel a lot less lonely at night. (Fortunately hubby is a duck; he's experienced no significant adjustment problems and he has feeling better in the daytime.)

So most of my late nights are now genuinely "I'm not sleepy enough to go to bed" circadian rhythm problems. I know what I need to do to rein them in, but right now I'm out of "self-disipline:" It's all been spent and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to make myself do things that I don't want to do, even when I know they'll make me feel better. And it's not just sleep related stuff. A year ago, I was walking 4 miles every day. Now? It's hard to force myself to do that. Likewise, it's hard to keep trying to eat a better diet when I don't like most fruits and vegetables and I have a limited taste for meat.

In other words, for now, I'm taking a "vacation" from forcing myself to do things. I know I've got to get back on the horse eventually. But not yet.

So, part of this post is to see if I read your post the way you intended, and part just plain b****ing. Many nites I wish I had never mentioned migraines to my PC, which is what prompted her to send me for a sleep study. I know many of you will say how "lucky" I was so no need to say it. I get it but that doesn't make it better.
I think you're interpreting the post exactly as I intended.

For a long time both I and hubby often wished he'd never insisted that I had to tell the doc that he thought I had sleep apnea. In retrospect, hubby did not realize that my diagnoses was going to lead to CPAP, and neither of us were prepared for the fact that CPAP can be highly disrupting to folks who have a difficult adjustment.

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by ems » Fri Jul 04, 2014 1:42 pm

Hi Robysue and thanks for responding... what I find the most interesting is that foot pain (altho not hand pain) started after I started papping and has gotten progressively worse. It started off bothering me around a year or so ago and eventually got so bad I ended up in the doctor's office. Long story (result of x-rays next week) doctor said he is 99% sure it's age related... i.e. arthritis. Just love getting older. I don't have any hope that in my case papping will help the situation.

It's become more and more obvious that what works for some of us ain't gonna work for all of us. The more posts I read the more I've come to that conclusion. I also think age is a huge factor and how someone young(er) responds to papping versus someone older, is in most cases entirely different. I also am guessing that women nearing menopause/during/post don't take into consideration what a big roll this plays in almost every aspect of our lives. Most of us are so busy trying to get this therapy to work (praying and hopeing it will be the answer to all our health/sleep problems) that other aspects of our lives are mostly ignored - both mentally and physically. Fatigue can be a result of so many issues, with several happening at the same time, that it's difficult to see the forest thru the trees.

I'm beginning to wonder how woman actually lived to a ripe old age not papping - MIL 95 - even women (and men) with health problems many now think can be significantly eliminated with this therapy. I understand the whole oxygen theory (um..I think) which is why I continue to slap the mask on my face every night. Of course I want to think it's helping me - don't we all - but does it really? Does anyone really know? Obviously some doctors think so - but there are doctors and scientists who don't. You feel that your cognitive abilities have lessened since you started papping - is this due to aging or papping or both or neither or emotional? Of course there isn't really an answer - and if there is, please let me in on it.

I can definitely understand how slapping the mask on is easier since your husband now "uses" too. The family that paps together stays together.
If only the folks with sawdust for brains were as sweet and obliging and innocent as The Scarecrow! ~a friend~

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robysue
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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by robysue » Fri Jul 04, 2014 4:43 pm

ems wrote:You feel that your cognitive abilities have lessened since you started papping - is this due to aging or papping or both or neither or emotional? Of course there isn't really an answer - and if there is, please let me in on it.
I started PAP on Sept. 23, 2010. In the two weeks immediately after starting PAP, my cognitive abilities (along with everything else) took a sudden and steep nose dive from functional to dysfunctional. They reached a nadir sometime around March 2011. Since then the cognitive abilities have made a very slow, but steady improvement from the nadir of dysfunctionality. But they're still not where they were in June-August 2010 in my opinion.

Hubby says my cognitive abilities are a bit better than they were in the Summer of 2010; his main evidence is that he thinks my freaky memory for details is back to what it was long before I started my PAP adventures. Hubby says that my freaky memory was fading prior to starting CPAP and it vanished completely during the crash and burn of Fall 2010. But I still feel that my freaky memory for details is not what it once was, nor is my ability to concentrate on things that require careful thought. However some of my missing freaky memory may indeed simply be that I'm almost four years older than I was in the Summer of 2010.

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by Goofproof » Fri Jul 04, 2014 7:25 pm

robysue wrote:
ems wrote:You feel that your cognitive abilities have lessened since you started papping - is this due to aging or papping or both or neither or emotional? Of course there isn't really an answer - and if there is, please let me in on it.
I started PAP on Sept. 23, 2010. In the two weeks immediately after starting PAP, my cognitive abilities (along with everything else) took a sudden and steep nose dive from functional to dysfunctional. They reached a nadir sometime around March 2011. Since then the cognitive abilities have made a very slow, but steady improvement from the nadir of dysfunctionality. But they're still not where they were in June-August 2010 in my opinion.

Hubby says my cognitive abilities are a bit better than they were in the Summer of 2010; his main evidence is that he thinks my freaky memory for details is back to what it was long before I started my PAP adventures. Hubby says that my freaky memory was fading prior to starting CPAP and it vanished completely during the crash and burn of Fall 2010. But I still feel that my freaky memory for details is not what it once was, nor is my ability to concentrate on things that require careful thought. However some of my missing freaky memory may indeed simply be that I'm almost four years older than I was in the Summer of 2010.
If it's not the added age that's limiting your freaky memory, maybe your husband is kinking your hose, trying to suppress what you are trying to remember.★♥★

One of the bad things zbout XPAP treatment, we get to live longer, so during that extended time, more body parts can fail. Morbid I know. Jim
Use data to optimize your xPAP treatment!

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." Voltaire

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robysue
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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by robysue » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:56 am

Goofproof wrote: If it's not the added age that's limiting your freaky memory, maybe your husband is kinking your hose, trying to suppress what you are trying to remember.★♥★
Hubby needs my freaky memory more than I do. He has no memory of his own. At this point I know more about his childhood than he does.
One of the bad things zbout XPAP treatment, we get to live longer, so during that extended time, more body parts can fail. Morbid I know. Jim
As my 92 MIL who has a whole host of problems says: Yes, I've got a lot to deal with, but it beats the alternative.

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ems
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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by ems » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:54 pm

One of the bad things zbout XPAP treatment, we get to live longer, so during that extended time, more body parts can fail. Morbid I know. Jim

RS said: As my 92 MIL who has a whole host of problems says: Yes, I've got a lot to deal with, but it beats the alternative.

But the real question is... does your 92 year old MIL PAP?
If only the folks with sawdust for brains were as sweet and obliging and innocent as The Scarecrow! ~a friend~

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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by Goofproof » Sat Jul 05, 2014 1:14 pm

Anymore, I look forward to the next pain and or the next medical problem, it's a good sign I'm still alive. I used to check the obituary in the newspaper, then I realized, if I died I wouldn't be able to read it, so I stopped. Jim
Use data to optimize your xPAP treatment!

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." Voltaire

ems
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Re: Poll: Can CPAP be a torture for some?

Post by ems » Sat Jul 05, 2014 1:28 pm

Goofproof wrote:Anymore, I look forward to the next pain and or the next medical problem, it's a good sign I'm still alive. I used to check the obituary in the newspaper, then I realized, if I died I wouldn't be able to read it, so I stopped. Jim
Now there you have a true statement!
If only the folks with sawdust for brains were as sweet and obliging and innocent as The Scarecrow! ~a friend~

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