Very new to this world

[SpaldingGrey]

Hello everyone.

As my title indicates, I have recently been diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea and I'm only a few days away from my final appointment to determine my pressure and I'm getting anxious.
A little background, I have been silently struggling with, what I now know is, OSA for about 7 years now. I've been steadily gaining weight since ~2009 with no explanation, just the knowledge that I was fat, I was always tired, and I had no energy to even put gym clothes on, not to mention actually go to the gym. Initially, I was under the impression that I was just experiencing extreme depression/anxiety, in addition to the fact that I was in high school, and that those things were causing my other problems. I went to therapists and talked about my mommy issues, but at the end of the day, I still wasn't sleeping.
It took until I shared a hotel room with my mother and father this past Christmas to realize something was wrong. See, my father has been using a CPAP since 1993 and has a fairly vast knowledge relative to OSA and other related subjects. Long story short, he woke up an hour before me and witnessed me having multiple events a minute as I struggled to stay asleep. As soon as I could, I visited a sleep center and had a home study done, to find out that I did, in fact, have OSA in spades. my AHI is high, but not extreme at 21, but my Oxygen levels were very concerning. On multiple occasions, it dropped below 50% with the average being 71%.

I know many people (just from my experience reading online) take their results as discouraging, but i'm trying to take it as the best possible solution. There's something wrong with me, but it's something that can be fixed. However, even with the results, the waiting has made me doubt the effectiveness of the treatment. I'm putting a lot of pressure (ha) on this working for me as I have spent my whole life hearing about my father's success story.

Last week, when visiting my father, he suggested I try on some of his masks (that he has ~300 of because he has been doing this for decades) because we have similar facial structure, the only difference being me having a shorter nose. I tried his nose pillows, the nose pillows with the mouthpiece (yikes, how do y'all deal with that?), a full face, a large nasal with one of the forehead brace things (too much hardware for me, I felt like I was trapped), and my personal favorite, the Resmed N20. I popped that one on and the seal was amazing and I was such a fan that I passed out in the middle of a sentence and was woken up 2 minutes later, I guess to not mess anything up since I still don't know my pressure, and I am not exaggerating when I say that it was the best two minutes of my life.

Okay so I realize this is a long story essentially saying nothing, I just wanted to introduce myself to this forum (as the reddit forum is currently pretty hostile for some reason) and get some feedback from you guys about your first few weeks with your xPAP.

I'm currently dealing with Insurance hoops to get the final titration study done, but cross fingers/send vibes/pray/whatever you do so that I can get this study done as soon as possible. I want to sleep so badly.

Thanks in advanced!

[SpaldingGrey]

ok, whoops. I thought that this didn't post the first time, but it looks like it did. They're both me. Apologies.

[Pugsy]

I was going to remove the not logged in duplicate post but I see DH has already posted in that thread...oh well, hurts nothing to have duplicates sometimes and not much I can do about it now. If I clean it up and remove it that means I have to remove his post as well.

But here is the other thread so people will know both people are you.
viewtopic/t115538/Extremely-new-to-this ... nosed.html

and here's what I said in the other thread so people won't come behind me and type the same stuff

Welcome to the forum.

You might want to take some time and do a bit of reading and preparation
https://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/what- ... me-part-i/

and this one is good
http://adventures-in-hosehead-land.blog ... -with.html

and make sure you understand which models of machines offer full efficacy data and the ones that don't ....you want a full efficacy data machine.
Start here and check out the other pages at his website
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference

And yes...it is nice to have a name and face as to why we feel so bad and it's fixable.

[linuxman]

Welcome to the forum. While you're waiting for sleep study and CPAP prescription, you'll might want to start looking through the various sticky threads. It's good that you don't have equipment yet, because there are preferences there if you want to be more involved in your own therapy. Some machines are more advanced in what data is collected, and you'll want to get one of these "full data" machines if at all possible. With those machines you can use some third party software to analyse your therapy and make changes if needed. Generally speaking pressure and other settings are not changeable by the end user, but if you're game..you can get into the provider settings and take control. It's up to you if you want to do that or not. I'd recommend that you do, because generally speaking you're sent home with an auto-adjusting machine or one with a fixed pressure determined during a titration study, then left alone for potentially long periods of time (when you could be taking control and improving therapy).

[OkyDoky]

I just wanted to say welcome and that it's good to have the backup support of your father.

[magentapolkadots]

Welcome,

I remember how happy I was to be diagnosed (almost 9 years ago) . I was exhausted for years but it was always attributed to fibromyalgia. It was just part of life (I thought). PAP therapy gave me my life back. Looking back I don't know how I managed to raise my children, hold down a job and otherwise be a semi-productive member of society when I was so incredibly sleep deprived. Starting therapy was a bit rocky. I felt better immediately but had machine issues, mask issues, aerophagia issues... So it took a lot of trial and error to finally get to a place where therapy hummed along smoothly night after night. This forum saved me time and time again. Sometimes I needed to post a question, but more often than not I learned so much just from reading the threads.

So I'm glad you're here.

[Therapist]

I'm putting a lot of pressure (ha) on this working for me

the waiting has made me doubt the effectiveness of the treatment

the seal was amazing and I was such a fan that I passed out in the middle of a sentence

it was the best two minutes of my life

Try to keep your emotions on an even keel - not overly optimistic and of course not at all pessimistic.

Many people have some problems learning to use CPAP and adapting to sleeping with CPAP. But, it's rare to have a problem that can't be solved with help from the forum and your medical team. You sound like a person who will work through any problems and become successful.

[bmanley]

Welcome to the forum. You are ahead of the game by coming here and trying to learn more. And very good to learn before you get your equipment. I didn't and got stuck with a basic machine that helped but I've never felt rested in the morning. Without more data from a good machine it's hard to figure out what is going on. Hopefully getting a new machine very soon and maybe get some better rest. Learn all you can before you get your equipment so you can get the best stuff to help you

[Therapist]

I'm only a few days away from my final appointment to determine my pressure and I'm getting anxious.

Did you get your prescription and machine?