ANOTHER NEWBIE (WHO'S ACTUALLY AN OLDIE!)

[rolpalmer]

I'm so thrilled to have found CPAP.com & this forum. Just ordered some CPAP parts form CPAP.com & wish I'd found them a long time ago - what a resource! Just wanted to log on a say hello.

I was 1st diagnosed with OSA several hundred years ago, but back then it was apparently not understood nor taken very seriously. Makes me wonder if it had been treated seriously back then how much different my health might be today.

My family doctor referred me to a sleep specialist 5 years ago after I was in the hospital to have a pacemaker implanted & the RN working the graveyard (sorry, in this context, that's a bad choice of terms!) shift asked me if I realized I had sleep apnea. She'd apparently been watching me repeatedly stop breathing, waking up, etc. over & over again all night.

The specialist did a sleep study, confirmed her diagnosis & prescribed a CPAP machine. The 1st time I tried using it I woke up with what felt like the Mother of All Head Colds. So bad, in fact, that I couldn't even go to work that day. A heated humidifier was added to my CPAP machine (why didn't they have me start out that way?) & that helped considerably, though I really have never tolerated CPAP well. I'm obviously a mouth breather, so with a nasal mask, I wake up in the AM & my mouth & throat are very dry & sore, tongue feels like it's swollen to about the size of a baseball bat, etc., etc.

I've been on disability for the past 3+ years, with congestive heart failure, COPD, atrial fibrillation, & blah, blah, blah. Maybe with all the otherr issues, I had a tendency to discount the seriousness of OSA. Dumb mistake! I was so shocked to hear about the death (at 43 years old!) of the Green Bay Packers' brilliant all-pro defensive end Reggie White a few weeks ago, and then to learn that it was attributed to respiratory failure caused by sleep apnea - Oh My! If OSA could kill a world-class athlete like Reggie, who just retired in 2001 after another all-pro performance the season before, what does that tell those of us who are normal run-of-the-mill humans diagnosed with OSA?

So getting serious about my CPAP therapy, tolerating it better, etc. has just moved to the front burner. I no longer have insurance that'll cover another sleep study, and the durable medical equipment providers I've had to work with in the past are idiots at any rate, so I'm trying to identify on my own what'll help without spending a fortune to do it.

Any advice for a mouth breather? Experience with full face masks? Has anyone tried Fisher & Paykel's new oral mask yet?

Thanks. I'm delighted to be a part of this new community & I'll sure appreciate your advice.

[Procrastinator]

rolpalmer,

Most people with sleep apnea are mouth breathers because they are constantly gasping for air. I put myself in that category, until I started using my CPAP (only two nights). I seem to keep my mouth closed and my mask only covers my nose. If I open my mouth it feels like I just launched a rocket out of my windpipe. There are a lot of masks that can help you and some people in the forum wear a chin strap to help them keep their mouth closed, others have recommended some full-face masks that have have given them some success. I am sure you'll receive some great advice to point you in the right direction.

Being a Philly native I like to think of Reggie as an Eagle, but I received a lot of calls from friends and family after he died, pushing me to have a sleep study. Sleep apnea is a nasty piece of work and I drew some of the same conclusions after hearing about Reggie. I was overseas at the time and sleep apea was never mentioned in any of the coverage of his death.

I am not sure you have much of choice without having another study. Some people on the site are familiar with Medicare and may be able to provide some guidance on helping you get the study paid for.

I hope you find the answers you're looking for and I am glad to see that you are serious about treating the problem.

Best of luck and welcome to the forum.