Newbie :)

Hi

Just joined these forums so thought I'd say hello. I'm Sean, I'm 43 and I live in Middlesbrough, UK. I've had sleep issues for some years, I've taken Melatonin (3mg) nightly for a long time to help me switch off. It wasn't until I moved to the north of the country a couple of years back that I was able to get any useful help, in the form of an overnight sleep study. Unfortunately this was inconclusive and an educated guess was made at periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) for which I was prescribed a 75mg nightly dose of pregabalin. This seemed to work and I had the first decent night's sleep for a long time.

After a year the effect started to wear off, and the dose was increased to 100mg. Six months later it had to be increased to 150mg and I expressed my concerns to my GP that the period between increases was getting smaller and the drug less effective, in turn my sleep was deteriorating again. This led to another overnight study a couple of months ago, which in turn led to a diagnosis of mild to moderate sleep apnoea, with an index of 16.

I spent a week with a Resmed S9 Auto machine with a Quattro FX full face mask, and it was determined that a pressure of 12 cmH20 was required at which point I was given a Resmed S9 Escape. I have since come to learn that this machine is low end and records very little data, which I found a little disappointing being a geek and all. But hey ho all provided free by the NHS so can't complain.

I have now had this machine for three weeks, and I have yet to feel any benefit from it if I'm honest. I struggled for a bit with being a side sleeper, which was forcing the mask to one side and causing it to leak. After a few adjustments to the headgear and learning to sleep right on the edge of my pillow I have been getting to grips with this issue. I was then inflicted with a huge spot on the side of nose, right where the mask sits (and possibly caused by it). This made it difficult to wear the mask for a few days. Currently I have an issue with itching under the mask, which is waking me up and, being a full face mask, I have to go through the rigmarole of turning off the machine, undoing the lower clasps and lifting the mask up to scratch.

I am persevering however, I'd like to give it a good go before I decide it's just making things worse. I've looked into a CPAP pillow, which has cut outs for the mask to help with side sleeping, although at £60 I'm a bit loathe to spend the money as yet. I have just bought a Pad-A-Cheek liner for the mask which I'm hoping will help with the itching I'm currently experiencing.

Those cpap pillows with the cut outs are pricey.
I don't know if you have something like our WalMart where you live but if you have a large discount store that sells memory foam bed pillows you can make your own cpap cut out pillow for a lot less money. Get a cheap memory foam pillow and use an electric knife to cut out the holes for your mask to lay in while you are on your side.
It will at least give you an idea if the cut outs help your mask problems and won't be so hard on your wallet.
Over here that cpap cut out pillow is around $60 but at WalMart we can get a cheap memory foam pillow for less than $20...sometimes around $12.

Welcome to the forum. Should you ever want to get a full data model machine....you can get one that will work with the existing humidifier from some place like secondwindcpap.com...they will ship to the UK. Check them out. Gently used low hour machines as well as new open box machines.

Thanks for the welcome

I believe that Walmart own Asda in the UK, although it's not the same sort of shop. I was considering making my own CPAP pillow to see if it helped, I just wasn't sure how the material stood up to being cut up.

A full data logging machine would be nice, just to see what's going on, however in the UK the machines are supplied by the NHS if you are diagnosed with sleep apnoea so they don't cost us anything (not directly anyway). I believe that in order to continue to be treated and looked after by the NHS you need to use the equipment supplied. I will look into the cost of a second hand machine though using the site you mention and ask my specialist next time that I see him

The memory foam pillows are easy to cut. Electric knife makes it really easy but it can be done with a box knife.

I know about the NHS and how they do things. I also know several people in the UK who said "screw the NHS" and opted to get their own full data machine.
If you do well and feel great....sleep great and feel an marked improvement then you may not really need to evaluate your data because you don't seem to need to fix anything.
But if you don't do well then you have nothing to evaluate to see why you may not feel so great.

No rush to decide about the machine just yet though. You may do so well that it doesn't matter to you that you can't get confirmation with the software reports.

I mentioned secondwindcpap.com because it's probably the best source for a full data machine in your situation.
Online retailers like cpap.com can't ship ResMed stuff to the UK...so you have to find someone that will and secondwind will do it...those UK guys I know that said "screw the NHS"...that's where they got their full data machines.