Two Years Later......

Hello CPAP friends,

The purpose of this post is to share the major changes in my life following CPAP therapy and hopefully motivate new users. Prior to CPAP therapy I experienced two nasal septoplasty surgeries over a ten year period because of severe blockage, the second was sucessfully performed by a world reknown surgeon. For the first time, I was breathing freely through my nose and with my mouth closed but unfortunately I was still irritable, sleeping in my car during lunch and slaping the back of my head on the freeway to stay awake. My doctor refered me to a sleep disorder specialists and I under went a sleep study which revealed I have severe OSA.
Two years later......
Positive changes in my quality of life were gradual and in some cases over a long period of time. The first year I had to learn how to make adjustments to my equipment for comfort. I was authorized by my physican because of my technical understanding (Test Engineer), so please don't try this without your doctors permission. My sleep pattern increased from 6 hours to 7.5 hours with one interruption a night because my nasal pillows were getting a very small leak and making me thirsty, problem solved. Since treatment, I no longer struggle to get out of bed to go to work and with increased brain activity I am enthuastic to learn new skills to improve job performance ( my boss gave me an outstanding job appraisal). As I became confortable with my CPAP I organized a family camping trip for 5 days so I learned how to make a portable battery system, the camping trip was great and I'm planning on another one this year. The last couple of months something happened to me that has not occured in probably 15 years, I started to dream, I'm not an expert on the stages of sleep but I would say this is probably good news. My family has noticed that I am less irritable and my communication has improved with my teenage boys. Sometimes I do feel a little bummed out that I have to be hooked up to a machine, but I remind myself what the doctor said, "it's no different than someone taking medication" Hang in there and keep reading the posts!

(Max looks for a "like" button, can't find one here, so says...) Thank you very much for sharing that.

What a great post!
Thanks so much for sharing this--I'll definitely remember this when I'm having an "I don't want to!" sort of night.
Happy dreams to you!

Great post and I know it will give the new users hope that things will get better.

KnightDreamer wrote:Hello CPAP friends,

The purpose of this post is to share the major changes in my life following CPAP therapy and hopefully motivate new users. Prior to CPAP therapy I experienced two nasal septoplasty surgeries over a ten year period because of severe blockage, the second was sucessfully performed by a world reknown surgeon. For the first time, I was breathing freely through my nose and with my mouth closed but unfortunately I was still irritable, sleeping in my car during lunch and slaping the back of my head on the freeway to stay awake. My doctor refered me to a sleep disorder specialists and I under went a sleep study which revealed I have severe OSA.
Two years later......
Positive changes in my quality of life were gradual and in some cases over a long period of time. The first year I had to learn how to make adjustments to my equipment for comfort. I was authorized by my physican because of my technical understanding (Test Engineer), so please don't try this without your doctors permission. My sleep pattern increased from 6 hours to 7.5 hours with one interruption a night because my nasal pillows were getting a very small leak and making me thirsty, problem solved. Since treatment, I no longer struggle to get out of bed to go to work and with increased brain activity I am enthuastic to learn new skills to improve job performance ( my boss gave me an outstanding job appraisal). As I became confortable with my CPAP I organized a family camping trip for 5 days so I learned how to make a portable battery system, the camping trip was great and I'm planning on another one this year. The last couple of months something happened to me that has not occured in probably 15 years, I started to dream, I'm not an expert on the stages of sleep but I would say this is probably good news. My family has noticed that I am less irritable and my communication has improved with my teenage boys. Sometimes I do feel a little bummed out that I have to be hooked up to a machine, but I remind myself what the doctor said, "it's no different than someone taking medication" Hang in there and keep reading the posts!

KnightDreamer,

Congratulations on your success and for the great post! If you haven't posted your story in the 'Newbie would like to hear success stories please' thread located with the other pinned topics at the top of the index page, you should.

John

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