Ldrakekat,
First of all, I want to say you are beginning to get some really good advice here about some of your specific problems.
Next, I want to get back to one of the main reasons that seem to be why you posted here in the first place. And I don't mean the obvious anger. I mean the fact that you landed in this surrealistic misadventure of OSA and CPAP because of pre-surgical screening of some sort. You mention an intended, but unspecified surgery a couple of times in your posts:
I don't think I need [CPAP] but am forced to tolerate it in order to get surgery I need. I am being subjected to this mother !@#$ piece of junk for at least 2 months before I can get the surgery I need
and
In regards to the questions about the surgery. It has nothing to do with sleep apnea. The reason I had a sleep study test in the first place was because of this surgery. It was required along with a lot of other medical tests.
So my impression is that you were asymptomatic and had no idea that you had OSA. That prior to this screening for the surgery it never occurred to you that you could possibly stop breathing (or come close to stopping breathing) 30 times an hour and have O2 desats down to 80% when you sleep. And so you went through the screening for the surgery fully expecting to pass that sleep test with flying colors. And got whopped upside the head with a new reality that still seems unreal to you even though you're 3 weeks or more into therapy.
All in all, it reminds me of a post I saw on another board some six months ago. The poster on that board was hoping to have bariatric surgery and pre-op screening for OSA was mandatory. That poster too responded with both disbelief and anger towards his/her diagnosis. And I wrote a long reply which I think you need to see because much of what I said to that poster applies to your situation too.
What follow is an edited version of what I told that other poster. The edits reflect the fact that you have started CPAP therapy some three weeks ago and that you have apparently been set up with a
PR Remstar System One PRO CPAP with C-Flex Plus.
Being diagnosed with a
serious medical condition that you were unaware of is, by definition, a lousy day. And it's not uncommon to have anger over such a diagnosis. No one likes being dealt a bum deal. And finding out you have OSA is, indeed a bum deal: Just like being diagnosed with diabetes, severe high blood pressure, moderate to severe arthritis, and host of other things. Less of a bum deal than being diagnosed with significant heart disease, cancer, COPD, parkinson's disease and a host of other things, though.
So some anger is understandable.
And there is nothing that seems natural (particularly at the beginning) about sleeping with a mask on your face. [And note to Ldrakekat: I know you're three weeks into therapy. But that really is still "the beginning." More about that in a later post.]
But---your surgeon has done you a big favor: He is a surgeon who genuinely understands the very real risks that folks with OSA face during any kind of surgery requiring anesthesia---during the surgery itself and
after the surgery---both in the recovery room and after being moved to a regular room---particularly if strong, narcotic-based pain relievers are used. And so he's chosen (wisely) to not operate on folks who may have undiagnosed OSA. Hence, because he's in a position to do it, he requires screening for OSA and documentation that the OSA is being properly treated before he's willing to operate. He probably also requires his OSA patients to bring their CPAP with them to the hospital too.
You see, the not-so-funny thing about OSA is that is it thought to be as common as type II diabetes (based on epidemiology studies), but because the diagnosis requires an expensive full night lab test instead of a rather inexpensive blood test, OSA remains seriously under diagnosed: It is simply not routinely tested for by GPs, unlike diabetes and HBP and a host of other common chronic conditions. But untreated OSA has a host of nasty effects on the body and raises the chances of developing several serious conditions as co-morbidities. Among them are: HPB that is resistant to treatment, diabetes, congestive heart failure, stroke, and a changing metabolism that makes it both easier to gain weight and harder to lose it.
And the treatment of OSA seems bizarre: And hence, there is a very negative stereotype about both patients with OSA and the treatment of OSA. So folks receiving an OSA diagnosis often go through a (sometimes long) period of denial: They really hope that there is some way to avoid "sleeping with that d**m mask" for the rest of their life. Or folks have serious problems with unresolved anger about the diagnosis: "Why do I have to have this d**m disease? I don't want it. And sleeping with the mask makes me feel like a freak." [I know that I had serious unresolved anger problems for a long time during my adjustment period. Heck, I still have some residual anger that sneaks out every time I have a bad night---either with my insomnia or with my treated AHI being high enough for me to feel it.]
And since you were asymptomatic before the diagnosis that makes the diagnosis feel all that more unreal and unfair.
But facts are what they are. And you have to play the hand you are dealt in life. And, unfortunately, that means that if the OSA card shows up, you also get an automatic welcome into the hosehead club.
The good news---which doesn't seem good at first---is that OSA can be treated and treated very effectively through the use of CPAP. And that, for all the trouble and expense of CPAP therapy, it uses a completely benign substance (room air) to essentially eliminate the apneas, which in turn can prevent the co-morbidities from developing or delay their developing in the OSA sufferer.
But to make CPAP work, it takes a real commitment on the part of the new CPAPer: Attitude is part of it---the willingness to do something that's not particularly pleasant at the beginning for a very long term health benefit; old-fashioned stubbornness can be useful if applied to
making the therapy work instead of being used to feed the denial or anger at the diagnosis; and a realistic hope that things will (eventually) get easier---that putting the mask on every night will literally become a habit that doesn't bother you much more than brushing your teeth before bedtime.
Things seem surreal to you right now. You know the short version of your diagnosis: You are having serious breathing problems at night. These breathing problems occur on average 30 times per hour and last at least 10 seconds per event. That means that you are not breathing normally for at least 10 seconds out of every 120 seconds of sleep. And these near constant breathing problems are leading to severe problems with your blood oxygenation levels: 80% desats are serious and every time one happens, it damages your body in some way. But this short version is not enough to make the situation real to you. You need to find out the LONG version of the story: Get a copy of the sleep study report---both the doctor's dictation and copies of the summary data and summary graphs. With this information you will find out exactly how all these arousals that you have no memory of genuinely affect the
objective quality of your PAP-less sleep.
And even though you sincerely hope that you will not have to use the CPAP at some point after the surgery, start preparing yourself for the possibility that the surgery (what ever it is) will not fully resolve your OSA problems. So---it behooves you to learn how to use the fact that you have a full data machine (The PR REMstar System One
Pro with C-Flex Plus) to tell you whether CPAP is doing its job of allowing you to breath better while you are sleeping. Understand your DME's mask exchange policy. Insist on getting a mask you can stand. If the current mask isn't working out, exchange it for another mask. (And another after that if need be.) Post any problems with adjustment here with an indication of the nature of the problem in the title: No matter how odd or bizarre you think the problem is, somebody on this board will have faced the problem before. And can likely provide useful tips on how to fix the problem.
Best of luck in adjusting to CPAP so that you can indeed have the surgery in a timely fashion
