So - I need to figure out how this applies to me and if my cardiovascular symptoms are improving. I can fairly easily track my own blood pressure to see how it progresses (which isn't bad anyway) but I'm not sure if there is a way to track my insulin resistance to see if I'm improving in those areas or not. I'm much more concerned with insulin resistance improvements. Any ideas?
You have hit the nail on the head. The issue IS insulin resistance, which I think many doctors are beginning to understand is the underlying cause of most cardiovascular disease. Insulin resistance = inflammation=cardiovascular disease. I think where CPAP dovetails with that is that interrupted sleep and poor oxygenation at night have a DIRECT impact on your hormones, including leptin, ghrelin, thyroid, and INSULIN. So if your sleep is disrupted from a poorly optimized APAP setting it makes sense that carries a cardiovascular risk, as does a poorly optimized CPAP setting that's not handling your apneas well e.g. I need a lot more pressure in REM sleep than lighter stages of sleep, and the APAP responds to that need. In the days of wide open settings on APAP it makes sense that sleep was disrupted or not adequately treated, but a well-tested range can keep your AHI in check without disrupting your sleep. In my personal opinion (I'm not a doctor and don't play one on the internet) I doubt very much a properly set up APAP range can cause any increase in cardiovascular risk.
As far as seeing how your insulin issues are progressing, head to Walmart and purchase a Relion Blood Glucose meter and test strips. I only recommend this brand because they are the least expensive test strips. Blood glucose meters are like printers, the meters are low cost or free, the strips are outrageously expensive.
Then learn to check your blood glucose levels when first waking up, before meals, 1 hour after meals, and 2 hours after meals (you only have to do it this often until you see patterns emerge). If your blood glucose levels fluctuate a lot or go high after a meal (140 should be the limit, but even 120 will show that your body is slow to respond to insulin) or go very low after a meal making you feel shaky, angry, hungry (hypoglycemia), then your insulin resistance is an issue. You can learn to "eat to the meter" see
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/flyer.pdf from the Blood Sugar 101 website (great website, BTW).
Keep in mind the meter tests blood glucose, not insulin resistance. There is a good laboratory test to measure insulin resistance known as a C-Peptide test, but very few doctors know enough to run that test. They will want you to do a fasting blood glucose level and an oral glucose tolerance test, but those test GLUCOSE, not insulin and may not really help you track insulin resistance PARTICULARLY if you are limiting carbs to keep control of your insulin levels. Your own home testing can give you a very good idea about how your insulin is functioning and how well your cells are responding to the insulin. If your blood glucose levels are too high or too low, there are problems. A good range should be around 80 - 85 when fasting and between meals, less than 120 after a meal, and returning to your pre-meal baseline (pre-prandial) within 2 hours of a meal.
IMHO, APAP made it possible for me to treat my apneas so the quality of my sleep is better and that allows me to use dietary intervention to improve my insulin resistance. If you don't do one without the other, you are fighting your own body every step of the way. So congratulations for understanding that both are crucial and that there are things YOU can do.
The book
Grain Brain by neurologist Dr. David Pulmutter tells you what lab values you should be shooting for if you can get your doctor to run them (HbAIC, hsCRP, fasting blood glucose, etc), and helps explain the role of blood sugar/insulin resistance in stroke, Alzheimers, etc. Another good book on the topic is
Wheat Belly Total Health by cardiologist William Davis which talks in more detail about the cardiac issues and covers many other topics as well.