Does Recuperation Hurt?
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Country4ever
- Posts: 1373
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:22 pm
I'm removing the mistaken post
Sorry! I moved this to where it was supposed to go in the first place.
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Last edited by Country4ever on Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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countrygent
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:00 am
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
Thanks I'll try and access the clinicians menu tomorrow and see what numbers come up ... of course the DME pocketed the instructions for the machine but I googled the model number and somebody has kindly posted the control instructions for the S8 online.
The doc told me my AHI number from my PSG was 34 - which I gather is in the lower severe range.
No meds - I resisted being put on SSRI's - trying to cure myself by every lifestyle and self-help approach any sensible person would try - diet, rest, exercise, positive feedback ... etc.,... and things were getting progressively worse.
Because I was/am active in sports, body mass index of 22.5, I didn't present as an apnea candidate and getting the diagnosis was difficult. Add in a number of lifestyle triggers like a stressful job, busy life, and I don't blame my GP for his lack of diagnosis - he's a great doc that we have known for decades and I presented like a typical middle age stress-anxiety burnout.
My gut tells me I'm just going through a double process of learning to sleep again as my sleeping had become so fractured, and the beginnings of recovery from prolonged untreated apnea and all its side effects. I'll give the CPAP a few weeks, maybe try to sleep with some ambien or similar.
The doc told me my AHI number from my PSG was 34 - which I gather is in the lower severe range.
No meds - I resisted being put on SSRI's - trying to cure myself by every lifestyle and self-help approach any sensible person would try - diet, rest, exercise, positive feedback ... etc.,... and things were getting progressively worse.
Because I was/am active in sports, body mass index of 22.5, I didn't present as an apnea candidate and getting the diagnosis was difficult. Add in a number of lifestyle triggers like a stressful job, busy life, and I don't blame my GP for his lack of diagnosis - he's a great doc that we have known for decades and I presented like a typical middle age stress-anxiety burnout.
My gut tells me I'm just going through a double process of learning to sleep again as my sleeping had become so fractured, and the beginnings of recovery from prolonged untreated apnea and all its side effects. I'll give the CPAP a few weeks, maybe try to sleep with some ambien or similar.
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Perchancetodream
- Posts: 434
- Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:41 pm
- Location: 29 Palms, CA
Do give the therapy time to work. You probably have a huge sleep debt from all those undiagnosed and untreated years to pay back.
Other than the night of my titration, I have not woken up feeling like a new woman. But every day there has been some slight improvement. The longer I have been on the therapy the greater that daily improvement has been.
Today I know that I am better than I was when I started this in August. Heck, I feel better today than I did yesterday.
And along the way, it seems that I have become more aware of the pain from my arthritis, but part of that may just be that so much of the mental fog that accompanies untreated OSA has lifted and that has increased my overall awareness.
Susan
Other than the night of my titration, I have not woken up feeling like a new woman. But every day there has been some slight improvement. The longer I have been on the therapy the greater that daily improvement has been.
Today I know that I am better than I was when I started this in August. Heck, I feel better today than I did yesterday.
And along the way, it seems that I have become more aware of the pain from my arthritis, but part of that may just be that so much of the mental fog that accompanies untreated OSA has lifted and that has increased my overall awareness.
Susan
"If space is really a vacuum, who changes the bag?" George Carlin
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Country4ever
- Posts: 1373
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:22 pm
Oh SHOOT! That last ramble of mine was supposed to go on another post!! How did it get here? It had nothing to do with your topic Countrygent, and I apologize that it somehow ended up here!
Hahaha.......you must have thought I was nuts to write that here!
Sorry! I'll try to move it.
Hahaha.......you must have thought I was nuts to write that here!
Sorry! I'll try to move it.
_________________
| Machine | Mask | |||
| ||||
| Additional Comments: Resmed HumidAir 11 for humidifier | ||||
-
Country4ever
- Posts: 1373
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:22 pm
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countrygent
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:00 am
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
Oh I may have a little SAD too - a few years ago I bought a lightbox and it seemed to help a little. But the main help may have been the feeling I was doing something constructive - some kind of placebo, self-determination effect. Apnea was my secret nemesis.
Light therapy was in the pile of failed strategies of coping - lets see - painkillers, vitamins, too much alcohol, coffee and sugar, exercise, sleep regimes, sleeping pills, modified diets, meditation, counselling, self-help books. Nothing was preventing an inexorable slide into worse and worse physical health, accelerated aging, and persistant depression. It was almost all the apnea plus a little bit of natural aging, I'm convinced now.
There is little doubt in my mind most of my continuing complaints as a rookie CPAP'er with a few nights of broken CPAP sleep relate to adjustment and the secondary complications and effects of prolonged untreated OSA.
My starting point was pretty bad, as the apnea was compounded by stress and anxiety which were in turn fueled by failing energy, poor performance, lack of an understanding of why I was falling apart, etc.,.
I was down such a deep hole before I am not emotionally upset I am not recovering instantly now. Recovery is the least of my worries in the sense that I think I'm at a normal difficult spot, it is the whole situation and outfall of both the undiagnosed apnea, the decline into exhaustion and difficulty getting compliance and sleep that is daunting right now. Just the chance of recovery is a huge and continuing lift. Night and day even though I find myself worn to a thread, I have hope for tomorrow. But fear and loathing of my responsibilties is a weight on top of overwhelming tiredness.
Now my main adjustment challenge to the CPAP is getting more sleep - sixteen days in and I am dragging by mid-morning, the afternoons are a fog, I can hardly eat, and after dinner I'm looking at the clock by 7:30 wishing it will zoom forward so I can make it to a suitable bedtime. I'm almost dead by about 9 pm, fight to stay up to 10, instantly asleep but then wake two or three times in the next few hours and then can't sleep past 3 or 4 am. I am sooooooo dog tired.
On waking my head feels clearer than it was before I started CPAP, but I am exhausted trying to get by on just four or five hours or so of sleep. Falling asleep is a snap, but seem to wake up repeatedly to fight the mask, hose, hissing air ... gaaaaakkk. Thank heavens the inflammatory pains seem to have subsided.
Probably the pain was some stress-type healing feeling in getting sleep without lowered oxygen levels, or without the suffocation/drowning adrenalin of the persistant apneas that was causing me pain in the initial few days. I no longer feel poisoned like I did before CPAP. But my HI number remains high so I'm not getting ideal therapy either - back to the DME today to get off the initial APAP and try a fixed pressure.
Keeping up at work is a continuing challenge with so little sleep. Major source of worry. Money is at the root. What a bore and constant challenge.
The collective wisdom "stages" posts under the yellow lightbulb helpful in telling me it is not abnormal for some new CPAP'ers to go through this exhaustion/unsettled/adjustment stage - I was untreated for so long I guess my body just isn't used to oxygen and lower-apnea sleep.
Hope this stage doesn't last too long because it is no fun at all. I am one sad puppy just now and adding to the dubious joys of being me today are my pathetic contributions to family Christmas. How I just want to crawl into a hole and hide from reality until my little problems vanish.
My long-suffering spouse has been wonderful as I am not pulling my weight in so many ways and something as simple as buying Christmas presents is a real challenge. I am a zombie plodding through the constant pressing tasks of showing my clients, business partners and family I care and all of them are in my thoughts constantly. Making decisions leads to moments of blank stupidity. My brain is not functioning normally - I understand on a new level why they use sleep deprivation to interogate people - your function deteriorates to some kind of addled state of mind.
Even small tasks are so hard. Not being the support, provider and protector I want to be for my family is very hard to accept and humiliating. Failure in my own eyes. I was an unstoppable master of the universe for so long ... this experience is a minute-by-minute heaping helping of humble pie.
Forgive the wallowing in self-pity. I'm stupid with fatigue and my emotions are raw. I shall continue across the valley of bitter exhaustion towards the hills of CPAP happiness. Writing helps me sort my thoughts and is another therapy I have used to try and keep some perspective.
Light therapy was in the pile of failed strategies of coping - lets see - painkillers, vitamins, too much alcohol, coffee and sugar, exercise, sleep regimes, sleeping pills, modified diets, meditation, counselling, self-help books. Nothing was preventing an inexorable slide into worse and worse physical health, accelerated aging, and persistant depression. It was almost all the apnea plus a little bit of natural aging, I'm convinced now.
There is little doubt in my mind most of my continuing complaints as a rookie CPAP'er with a few nights of broken CPAP sleep relate to adjustment and the secondary complications and effects of prolonged untreated OSA.
My starting point was pretty bad, as the apnea was compounded by stress and anxiety which were in turn fueled by failing energy, poor performance, lack of an understanding of why I was falling apart, etc.,.
I was down such a deep hole before I am not emotionally upset I am not recovering instantly now. Recovery is the least of my worries in the sense that I think I'm at a normal difficult spot, it is the whole situation and outfall of both the undiagnosed apnea, the decline into exhaustion and difficulty getting compliance and sleep that is daunting right now. Just the chance of recovery is a huge and continuing lift. Night and day even though I find myself worn to a thread, I have hope for tomorrow. But fear and loathing of my responsibilties is a weight on top of overwhelming tiredness.
Now my main adjustment challenge to the CPAP is getting more sleep - sixteen days in and I am dragging by mid-morning, the afternoons are a fog, I can hardly eat, and after dinner I'm looking at the clock by 7:30 wishing it will zoom forward so I can make it to a suitable bedtime. I'm almost dead by about 9 pm, fight to stay up to 10, instantly asleep but then wake two or three times in the next few hours and then can't sleep past 3 or 4 am. I am sooooooo dog tired.
On waking my head feels clearer than it was before I started CPAP, but I am exhausted trying to get by on just four or five hours or so of sleep. Falling asleep is a snap, but seem to wake up repeatedly to fight the mask, hose, hissing air ... gaaaaakkk. Thank heavens the inflammatory pains seem to have subsided.
Probably the pain was some stress-type healing feeling in getting sleep without lowered oxygen levels, or without the suffocation/drowning adrenalin of the persistant apneas that was causing me pain in the initial few days. I no longer feel poisoned like I did before CPAP. But my HI number remains high so I'm not getting ideal therapy either - back to the DME today to get off the initial APAP and try a fixed pressure.
Keeping up at work is a continuing challenge with so little sleep. Major source of worry. Money is at the root. What a bore and constant challenge.
The collective wisdom "stages" posts under the yellow lightbulb helpful in telling me it is not abnormal for some new CPAP'ers to go through this exhaustion/unsettled/adjustment stage - I was untreated for so long I guess my body just isn't used to oxygen and lower-apnea sleep.
Hope this stage doesn't last too long because it is no fun at all. I am one sad puppy just now and adding to the dubious joys of being me today are my pathetic contributions to family Christmas. How I just want to crawl into a hole and hide from reality until my little problems vanish.
My long-suffering spouse has been wonderful as I am not pulling my weight in so many ways and something as simple as buying Christmas presents is a real challenge. I am a zombie plodding through the constant pressing tasks of showing my clients, business partners and family I care and all of them are in my thoughts constantly. Making decisions leads to moments of blank stupidity. My brain is not functioning normally - I understand on a new level why they use sleep deprivation to interogate people - your function deteriorates to some kind of addled state of mind.
Even small tasks are so hard. Not being the support, provider and protector I want to be for my family is very hard to accept and humiliating. Failure in my own eyes. I was an unstoppable master of the universe for so long ... this experience is a minute-by-minute heaping helping of humble pie.
Forgive the wallowing in self-pity. I'm stupid with fatigue and my emotions are raw. I shall continue across the valley of bitter exhaustion towards the hills of CPAP happiness. Writing helps me sort my thoughts and is another therapy I have used to try and keep some perspective.