Poll On Changes In Energy/Well Being After CPAP

[Goofproof]

Nothing scientific about it, our bodies are all different, as or our medical problems. Any study on it would be a waste of time and money, sounds like time for the government to bring our billfold out.

It's what they do best! Comparing Apples & Oranges, while trying to make Tomato Juice. Jim

[BlackSpinner]

All our bodies are different and so are our OSA symptoms. Being tired or having no energy is only ONE symptom. There are many more which you don't see.

The mental alertness and mood changes the first few weeks can be very subtle which is why I tell people to keep a journal. Your mind forgets "pain" very quickly (otherwise everybody would be an only child!) Also when you live in a swamp of exhaustion for long it becomes normal and you don't see the issues anymore and you won't remember the discomfort that was everywhere once it starts to lift. Only when you can go back and read your journals do you see just how awful it was.

You may never get back to the energy level you you hoped you might have but when you read back you can see "another day down the drain, the headache was just to bad to do anything. Why do I bother to try?" then " Things seemed a bit brighter today, inspite of the low grade headache I got a project finished" then "I redid the project X, what was I thinking when I started this? I have a headache but it is the first one in days"

[mommydear]

Still waiting to see more improvement. It seems to be getting better slowly.

[PoolQ]

Confused as to why this is so difficult. At some point since starting CPAP I did indeed come to think that I had more energy and my well being was actually positive. Can I estimate exactly when this happened, of course not, but it did indeed happen and I know about when I became aware of it.

The question is very simple: About when did YOU say YOU were significantly better? Or has it not happened for you? I personally took more than 90 days, but I am never typical with anything.

[Wulfman...]

Oh, for god's sake.

And what in the world is wrong with this poll?

Everything is subjective to the individual and their therapy......including,
the severity of their OSA/CSA/MSA,
their method of treatment,
how long they've had it,
how long it takes to pay off their "sleep debt",
how much sleep they're getting after being on therapy,
their level of taking control of their own therapy (including how well they're monitoring it),
other health issues (many of which may be caused by Sleep Apnea),
how soon they find their optimum therapy settings (this is a BIG ONE),
etc., etc., etc.

In other words, it's basically meaningless.
And, could leave some users feeling inadequate if their therapy "success" is taking longer than others.


Den

.

[Heart Jumping]

Oh, for god's sake.

And what in the world is wrong with this poll?

Everything is subjective to the individual and their therapy......including,
the severity of their OSA/CSA/MSA...

...yet people speak about those things all the time. I guess those are on the "OK to talk about list"?

their method of treatment,
how long they've had it,
how long it takes to pay off their "sleep debt",
how much sleep they're getting after being on therapy,
their level of taking control of their own therapy (including how well they're monitoring it),
other health issues (many of which may be caused by Sleep Apnea),
how soon they find their optimum therapy settings (this is a BIG ONE),
etc., etc., etc.

And how long it takes them to experience changes in energy too. Cool, glad to see you're on board.

In other words, it's basically meaningless.

And, could leave some users feeling inadequate if their therapy "success" is taking longer than others.

Or it could give struggling users great hope by seeing that others saw benefits after many months and they are not alone.

[BlackSpinner]

Or it could give struggling users great hope by seeing that others saw benefits after many months and they are not alone.

There is a very very very long thread for that already.

[otrpu]

I don't mind polls, scientific or otherwise. Can still remember the feeling after my first night at home on CPAP, I had never felt so refreshed than I did waking that first morning. That was using an RemSTAR+ "Brick" and a horrible FFM. Used that machine from 2003 till 2015, (guess I don't like change much). My sis gave me her no longer needed ResMed S9 "Brick" and I experienced an even more refreshed feeling after using this much newer machine, that didn't sound like a vacuum cleaner. Now, I'm on a roll, don't fear change. . .embrace it. Now using a ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset w/Oxi. And again, The best feeling just keeps getting better. Looking forward to my next newer machine.

Cheers,
otrpu

[andycole]

I cannot say that I have seen any improvement as yet - 4 months and still trying.

[chunkyfrog]

It's too bad not everyone has a lot of early positive feedback.
Mine helped keep me on track, even through a series of sorry masks.
Machine data can be essential, not only for motivation in the absence of "feeling better",
but also for the information needed to optimize therapy.
It should be a crime to dispense a brick! Many of us feel it could be malpractice.

[LSAT]

Some people don't feel fulfilled unless they author something....but...it's too late.... this is already out there. Now everyone can vote twice.
It may make some people feel better.
viewtopic/t109280/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1 ... w=viewpoll

[OhHelpMe]

In other words, it's basically meaningless.

I guess the OP was looking for something specific, and now he is trying to justify the poll with some lame rationalizations.

It's OK to be a newbie and ask naive questions. But he might ought to search for polls on the same subject before starting another one.

[LSAT]

WOW!!!! i GUESS i WAS WRONG....There is a lot of interest........480 views and 10 votes

[teachcsg]

A lot of the patients I setup will usually say they dont feel any 'big' change but more of a gradual increase in energy / alertness etc.. I have had quite a few that say they didn't feel anything but kept wearing it to comply with MD orders. Then about 1 month into it they go on a weekend trip and decided not to take the cpap with them and then they realize how tired or 'crappy' they feel the first night without it! So, even though they did not feel a 'big' surge in energy all at once, not wearing the cpap made them realize how much difference it really was making. Quite a few of these stories over the years...

[Pugsy]

Then about 1 month into it they go on a weekend trip and decided not to take the cpap with them and then they realize how tired or 'crappy' they feel the first night without it! So, even though they did not feel a 'big' surge in energy all at once, not wearing the cpap made them realize how much difference it really was making. Quite a few of these stories over the years...

Well you can add my story to your list.
When I first started therapy my biggest unwanted symptoms that went away were the nocturia and the killer morning headaches...really couldn't see much of a difference in overall energy levels but I knew cpap therapy was working because the nocturia was gone and the killer morning headaches were gone and while I still wasn't sleeping as well as I wanted (other health issues unrelated to sleep apnea were at work) I kept at it because just the absence of the nocturia was well worth it to me.

Fast forward 3 or 4 years and I had been pretty much 100% compliant except for extreme circumstances (like a stomach bug) and I went on a little trip and forgot the long hose and didn't realize it until way too late to do anything about it but sleep without the machine until the next day when I would go hose hunting.
That night reminded me rather brutally just how bad I could/would feel if I didn't use the machine.
I realized that overall I had been feeling a lot better than I thought I was when I compared to how I felt after that one night without cpap.