A success story to encourage others

[GeorgeCleveland]

Well after 18 months since being diagnoses with severe obstructive sleep apnea I have finally gotten it under control. I am posting this because of how hard this was and I hope to give some hope to others logging on here for the first time.

I had horrible sleep for years..... night terrors, thrashing in bed, waking every hour to have to use the bathroom, never feeling rested EVER. I finally went to see a sleep doctor in November of 2016. I thought he was going to diagnose a psychological sleep problem. Something had to be wrong with me mentally because this was crazy. He sent me for a sleep study and without going into massive details I had severe sleep apnea. My AHI at the test was 50.2. I am not overweight, eat healthy, do not smoke, no drugs, light alcohol use, lots of exercise, etc. I was not happy with the diagnosis.

Then the h@ll on earth of trying different masks started. For months I went from mask to mask but could never fall asleep. I even tried taping my mouth shut. After laying in bed until 6:00 am I would give up so I could get some rest for work. I then went to a ENT surgeon. He noticed that I had a severely deviated septum and extraordinarily large turbanites. So then that surgery happened and was rough because I think I bled constantly for four days.

Now it was time to go back to mask fun trying new ones, new pressures, new sleep positions. By this time, I was going crazy dealing with a bad hospital system. Think how you would feel about waiting for an appointment for months, sitting in the waiting room for an hour only to be told they forgot to download your machine information so come back in a month. So.... it was time to switch doctors. The new guy seemed nice and was close to my house.

Finally I settled on the ResMed Dreamwear for a mask. It felt good and they said I kept my mouth shut during the test. Then I fell asleep one night for an hour. Now this was after being in this for a year. Then, I stayed asleep two hours the next week. Then I started swallowing air and waking up in major pain. My body adapted and that went away after a week. Next, the hose tangles started and were dealt with. Finally I started to see results. I started using Sleepyhead too and having the information helped me. I discovered a glass of wine before bed destroyed my sleep, I discovered having the room temperature above 70 degrees destroyed my sleep, etc.

So now I am sleeping the ENTIRE night with it on. I have been doing so for a few months now. Sometimes I wake up maybe once, but then I go back to sleep. The night terrors have stopped completely. (Turns out the doctor noticed that all dealt with my body dying from lack of O2.... getting strangled to death, drowning, etc.) My life has completely changed for the good.

Long story short (too late I know) to anyone on here starting out this does work eventually. It seemed like it never would and it was literally the hardest thing I have ever done. I cannot even imagine trying to go to bed without my mask now. My quality of life is totally changed for the better. I am not resentful of the mask at all. Oddly enough, I feel grateful for it every morning I wake up rested. My AHI is now 1.6. That is a 1.6 AHI down from 50.2. So if you are having trouble starting out stick with it. Sticking with this was the single best thing I have done for myself in the past ten years. Good luck.

[mesenteria]

Hard to argue with anything there. I'm happy to see this, and your own account of it. Bravo!!

[Scluvsrain]

That’s awesome!


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[BTS]

Great to hear, keep it up ... 1.6 is pretty damn good ... I know I was thrilled getting on my current machine bringing an AHI of 50+ on BiPAP down to under 5 on ASV and the feeling is amazing so I know what that's like... All the best in continued success...

[D.H.]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I adapted the first week and the improvement was quite dramatic. My baseline AHI was 52; I'm running below 1 now.

Part of the reason was that the idea of not being able to sleep was completely alien to me at the time. As far as I was concerned, that was just not a possibility.

[itsjustme8]

It's great to see a story of success. I'm at work and feel so tired and needing a nap. It's only 2:30!!! Ugh

[Captain_Midnight]

I do love success stories; and, so do a whole lot of folks who don't know if they might have OSA and what to expect if they do.

Good on ya!

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