Glad i found you

I just found this group while looking for something else online, never even occured to me there would be a cpap group. Guess I should have known, there's a group for everything.

So here's where I'm at. I am a 38 year old male, semi good shape, smoker, father of 2. About 18 months ago I vistited my doctor complaining of alwasy being tired, just seemed to have no energy, and was finding it harder and harder to concentrate at work. He sent me to a sleep clinic, and I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. They gave me a cpap, although at the time they felt it wasn't going to be enough, but worth trying before surgury.

Well, I hated it. Seemed to make a slight improvement in my sleep, but was very uncomfortable, and left me with blisters across the bridge of my nose after just a few days use. I used it maybe a week or two, then gave up. I was already scheduled for surgury, so I figured that would fix it, so no need to worry about the cpap.

Well i had my surgury about 8 weeks ago, and so far, I feel no better than before. I seem to be moving air better, but I still wake up every morning feeling like crap, and work is getting no better. My wife says my snoring is exactly the same.

Went back to the doctor for my follow up. There may be a further surgical procedure he can do to improve things, but in teh mean time, suggested I do some research and possibly go back on the cpap. Why did I go through this surgury again?

So here I am, told to go back to using something I could barely tolerate before. So while doing my research on sleep apnea dental devices, I found you guys. I'm hoping if I'm going to have to use that infernal machine, maybe I can pick up some pointers from you all so i can tolerate the thing. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Greetings Hockeydad,

Welcome to the forum. We are here to help in any way we can.

So many times, local DME companies give you poor fitting masks, and cpap machines without even instruction.

Here we are all about making the experience better, more comfortable, and helping people learn to be more compliant to cpap therapy, via the modern technology that is available.

There are lots of masks on the market. Some of the most popular is the Resmed Mirage Activa, the Puritan Bennett Breeze Sleepgear with nasal pilows. and a host of full face masks.

Please let us know how all of us can be of help to you.

Regards,

Ted/Titrator

So many times, local DME companies give you poor fitting masks, and cpap machines without even instruction.


First off, as a newbie, what does DME mean? I'm assuming you're talking about the medical supply company, and I agree, they are a pain to work with, that was one of the reasons I gave up on the cpap. I called them to ask about the mask leaving the blister on my nose, after 5 tries, I finally got a reply to "wear a band aid". So I have a machine, just need to figure out how to find the right mask for me.

Funny, I opened the little video on this site about how to measure for a mask, first time I'd seen that. How is they fit me for a mask without taking those measurements?

Hi Hockeydad,

Being a hockey dad you shoud be used to bandaids on the nose. HA!

Seriously, there is no reason for you to stop using you're cpap because of a bad mask. There are many alternatives out there. (I'll post links to a few of them below).

You've got that right about DME = Durable Medical Equipment Supplier.

The site where you watched that video, cpap.com, is where I bought all of my equipment. They are very helpful and knowledgable (and also great people). They also have a toll free help line that they answer till 10PM CST. Imagine that from your bandaid promoting DME.

Keep at it and you'll get it figuired out... there's always hope.


Link: Resmed Mirage Swift
Link: Puritan Bennett Breeze

DME stands for Durable Medical Equipment.

We have used our fitting guide and video to fit many a mask. It is homegrown of course.

Ted