Share Your Diabetes Story: How did CPAP impact you?

[johnnygoodman]

Howdy CPAPtalkers,

We are working on a CPAP.com Newsletter on Diabetes and Sleep Apnea. We are looking for CPAPers with Diabetes to share their stories for the newsletter. We'd like to know if you treated your diabetes or Sleep Apnea first, what impact one had on the other, how you you think the Diabetes industry's approach to treatment compares with the Sleep Apnea industry and anything else you are willing to share.

If you are comfortable, please feel free to post to this thread. If you would rather keep it private for now, please PM ashleythompson, who is a new member of the CPAP.com team you'll be seeing a lot from shortly!

Johnny

[roster]

Diabetes professionals approach: Educate the patients and put the patients in control of monitoring BG levels and adjusting medications, insulin, diet, and exercise.

Sleep professionals: Mushroom approach - Cover them with manure and keep them in the dark.

[BleepingBeauty]

Diabetes professionals approach: Educate the patients and put the patients in control of monitoring BG levels and adjusting medications, insulin, diet, and exercise.

Sleep professionals: Mushroom approach - Cover them with manure and keep them in the dark.

Right on, Roachclip - err, I mean rooster!

(Showing my age there. Does anyone else remember that phrase from Cheech & Chong? Watch nobody respond, and I'll feel as old as I obviously am...)

[robertmarilyn]

Diabetes professionals approach: Educate the patients and put the patients in control of monitoring BG levels and adjusting medications, insulin, diet, and exercise.

Sleep professionals: Mushroom approach - Cover them with manure and keep them in the dark.

Now I understand what someone on this forum means by the big NOT A MUSHROOM at the bottom of her posts. Her avatar is a cat and I wasn't sure what the mushroom statement meant, esp when it was obvious to me she was a cat . Now I know!
mar

[sagesteve]

Don't worry Bleep...I'm right there with you!! Remember the line fom Cheech when he said...I have "airpeece" and everyone ran the other way?! He kept saying, rolling the r: "I have airpeece...no no haaairpiece" God they were funny. I STILL order a "Penis Colitus".

[JeffH]

I remember roach clips well. Being from rural Oklahoma, we used the kind that were small electrical clips.

Like these...LOL



Oh, and I have diabetes too. Was on cpap about four or five years when diagnosed with diabetes. Was probably mouth breathing alot of the time and also still had a deviated septum in the first several years on cpap. Also, an old Sullivan plus V machine and Adams headgear.

[BleepingBeauty]

Now I understand what someone on this forum means by the big NOT A MUSHROOM at the bottom of her posts. Her avatar is a cat and I wasn't sure what the mushroom statement meant, esp when it was obvious to me she was a cat . Now I know!
mar

Thanks for pointing that out, mar! That signature always confused me, too. "I am not a mushroom" is what I think it says. Makes perfect sense now.

And thanks, Steve and JeffH for confirming that I can still remember some things. We used electrical clips, too. In a pinch (no pun intended), a bobby pin would do. Ahh, memories of the Big Bambu.

Sorry, Johnny, but I can't contribute anything to the thread's intended discussion. No diabetes. (Yet, anyway.)

[6PtStar]

Wow, this thread is going downhill in a hurry!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think I am interesting enough to put in a newsletter but I was diabetic (and all the other Old Fart diseases) since about 1992. Way before Sleep Apnea (12/06). Don't know whether it was the cpap or a combination of things but the amount of insulin that I take each day is almost half of what it was before cpap. Really wish I would have been diagnosed sooner maybe it would have made more of a difference. My wife complained about the snoring and stopage of breathing for 15 or 20 years.

Jerry

[cflame1]

I started treating the OSA prior to the diabetes.

[bman44]

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2006 and diabetes last month.

[BlackSpinner]

I don't have diabetes yet but my mother does (and my grandmother and uncle did) plus I had it during my last pregnancy so it feels like a sword over my head.
When my mother was diagnosed she got workshops on every detail of her condition, referrals to support groups and specialists. When i was diagnosed with OSA I got a 1/2 hour overview of the machine, no check lists, no helpfull hints, no support line, no referal to groups.
As her condition changed she got more information, more training, more support. I am still trying to get an appointment for my issues.

[araminta]

I was diagnosed w/ borderline diabetes 2 years ago.
And diagnosed w/ sleep apnea last year. Started cpap just a few months ago.
So it's too soon to actually tell the impact.
However when I had blood work done a few weeks ago, my #'s were much improved.

[Lilmstrdseed]

This topic really caught my interest. I started the sleep studies in November 08 and found out I had moderate sleep apnea the end of December 08. At the same time I went in for a regular blood check up and found out I had type 2 diabetes. Started the medication and checking my glucose levels January 14th and the following month on Feb 20th received my first cpap machine. So this year sleep apnea and diabetes hit me at the same time. I was tired all the time and have a very hard time working an eight-hour shift. I had a feeling I had sleep apnea because I've been taking naps for years when no one else in my family ever did. The diabetes surprised me, though.

Like others on this post, I feel like I have control of my diabetes care. I have a diabetes educator helping me understand what I can and cannot eat and the glucose meter really keeps me in control. But the sleep apnea care has been very frustrating. I was given the basic M Series Plus, which gave me no information of what I did during the night. I'm 100 percent compliant, but I wanted more than that! After my six-week visit with the doctor's assistant, I complained I was snoring and she ordered me an apap. She said insurance wouldn't pay for it but the dme surprisingly said it's paid for under the same code so we'll just switch. Now, I'm at the point where I want to change the lower pressure, as she has it set with 4 as the minimum and 14 as the maximum, but not sure if I want to get into the clinicians menu without notifying the "professionals." I just want a break from the doctors and the dme.

But back to the diabetes and sleep apnea, I think a newsletter would be great! Because I was diagnosed with both within a month of each other, I often wonder if I'm tired because of my glucose level or because my AHI was 4.1 last night and it needs tweeking. I'm still feeling like a newbie with both. The forum helps tremendously with my cpap questions and the diabetes educator is helping educate me. And it's my gut feeling that I had sleep apnea and it caused the diabetes and not the other way around. But that's just my feeling:)

[ttg]

I was diagnosed with type II diabetes in ~1995 and have been fortunate to continue to be in very good control (persistent A1c of 6.1) on oral meds for the last several years. I was diagnosed with OSA in March and have been on CPAP since April 6th. I have already noticed waking BG level's to be roughly 15 points lower on average since starting CPAP. I am nearly certain insulin resistance has improved since average BG's have been lower in general but I don't want to jump to any conclusions on this point yet until more time passes on CPAP and I have my next A1c test. I've read a lot about the linkage between diabetes and OSA, which I never knew existed prior to 2 months ago.

I continue to be amazed about everything I am learning about the ill-effects of OSA and its impact on so many things...

[judway]

I started the CPAP therapy 03/31/2009. On 04/28/2009 my A1c test was 6.9. My blood sugar levels are now between 85 and 105. I was not very diligent in measuring my blood sugar before the CPAP therapy was started, but as I remember, they were previously running between 100 and 120. The A1c test seems to indicate that could be true. I feel that so far the CPAP has probably substantially reduced my sugar levels. I take 10 mg glipizide daily. My next A1c test will be in November.