100th post - just for newbies

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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reolhlains
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Location: Australia

100th post - just for newbies

Post by reolhlains » Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:46 am

Well - it seems I've managed to clock up 99 posts on here during my journey, so I might try to make the 100th a bit different!
It might be a bit of a long post - so here's the summary:
- I was terrified of CPAP;
- I read this forum daily for months;
- my AHI was pretty low at sleep study (less than 5), but I knew that was a one off;
- I felt rubbish - totally rubbish all the time;
- I was moody - I would try and find any excuse I could to have a day time nap;
- nights out were almost impossible for me, unless I could get an hour or so's nap before going out; and
- something needed to change!!
I did a one month trial of CPAP - and after my first night, my life changed!!

Here's the long bit!!

I think it's been pretty much five months since I've logged into the forum - lots and lots has been going on in my life, CPAP has become a 'non-event' for me.
Back tracking to when I first joined the forum about 3 years ago, pre-sleep study. I knew I had some form of sleep apnea (well, turned out I didn't technically have sleep apnea), but I had a strong feeling CPAP was about to become my closest bed partner!
And I wasn't wrong - I was the most scared, ridiculously out of thought proportioned person there has ever been with the thought of CPAP - I know why, I can trace it back to when I was at school and our local newspaper did a story about a guy in our class' father who had started being treated with cpap with a "very rare disease that causes him to stop breathing in his sleep" - stop breathing bold and underlined. I remember the headline well.
That was almost 30 years ago and I was about 12. Kinda amazing (and strange!) why I remember it so well! It stuck in my head. Did I ever think I'd have that "very rare" disease...!
I tried everything to avoid CPAP - but getting myself in the right frame of mind to just do a one month trial has been one of the best things I've ever done in my life - maybe the best thing. It quite literally changed my life overnight.
Maybe I was lucky - I took to it quite easily. Trying CPAP at the Drs room, I realised after about 10 seconds that, yes, I probably can sleep quite easily with this.
That was nearly a year and a half ago.
I now couldn't hardly imagine not sleeping with my CPAP machine :wink: !
I had some ups and downs along the way for sure - and I'm slightly reluctant to write this cause I don't want to 'jinx' my run of good luck!
18 months in - I don't even check my AHI any more - I know if I had a good sleep or not (very very rare that I don't have a good sleep now). If I do check, it sits at just under 1 (like 0.7/0.8 etc.).
I don't hardly think about it - yes, it's a bit of a pain (I do a lot of travel for work, so I am always having to pack and unpack my machine, take it through airports etc.) - but beyond that, I don't really think too much about it.
When I go to bed, I fall asleep within like 2 or 3 breaths - almost ridiculous! The machine seems to help me get to sleep now - how ironic is that!!
I don't use ramps - have my pressure setting differential down to like 1cm or something - never see Drs (it's not even on my health record that I use CPAP) - and, generally, CPAP is just the best thing that I have ever done in terms of changing my life.
I'm back to being me - fun, funny, hard working, life and soul of social events - sleep sound for like 6hrs a night - it's just awesome!!

So - purpose of my post. If even just one person who is reading the forum slightly worried about their journey reads this and if it pushes them into getting a sleep study and a CPAP trial - then I will feel most awesome!!! There were a few members on here that got me on track - I have never ever met, spoken to, or even know who Pugsy is - but waw you have done sooooooooo much for me and my family (perhaps without knowing) - you are truly just amazing! Someone else told me "man, you are really sick" - that stuck with me and forced me to really consider treatment - again - wow - I am sooooo grateful!!! Someone else told me I'd get to the stage where I'd even want a spare battery for my machine so I could sleep if ever there was a power-cut - of course, we had a power-cut a few weeks ago at night and wow, how much I wished I'd had a battery!! I really need to get two machines - one as a back up and for travel. That's the next thing on the list.

CPAP has quite simply being awesome for me - yes, I still think it's slightly ridiculous going to bed hooked to a hose, but hey - it works, I love it and I am never ever going to do without it!!!

Thank you everyone who helps on the forum - making huge differences to peoples lives. And I really hope this little post might go some way to helping someone in the same way I got some help!!

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chunkyfrog
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Re: 100th post - just for newbies

Post by chunkyfrog » Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:14 pm

Thank you, for your thoughtful contribution.
Before starting, most of us had no idea that this weird,
slightly kinky getup could make such an awesome difference in our lives.

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