Newbie and surprisingly compliant

[HerdingDogRescuer]

Hello All,

A newbie to the board and a newbie to the wonderful world of Sleep Apnea, as a patient that is. As background I was a Registered Respiratory Therapist for 20+ yrs. I'm still in medicine, just now via Clinical Informatics. I used to do sleep studies as an RRT and did the home care thing for a few years, years ago. With that background I was quite familiar with OSA. I treated it for a living, among other things. But when it came to ME having OSA, I was in denial. I saw symptoms and ignored them or told myself, "if I just lose a little weight...". Well, I am active and not losing a lot of weight and having issues with getting sick a lot.
Over the last several years my snoring was getting worse and my wife was reduced to sleeping with ear plugs. I had a full polysom about 3 yrs ago that was negative for apnea. Due to health issues I decided to have one again and it showed that I had significant hypopneas and desats to 86%, but only 1 actual apnea during the split night study.

Well, got my Resmed S9 APAP last week. It's been surprisingly easy going. I am using a swift nasal mask and tolerating it fairly well. According to my machine, I've been wearing it about 7.5 hours a night, my AHI is low (<3 2.1 last night) and my pressures are roughly about 8.6 ish. The biggest issue has been cold air blowing on the tip of my nose. I use a heated wire circuit, but even maxed out at 86 degrees I would still feel the air on my nose tip. Solution: duct tape I just tear a little piece of duct tape and put it on the tip of my nose and abracadabra, no problem. Nasal congestion was also an issue in the beginning, but I use Afrin at night. Yes, yes I know I have heard the warnings on that. I actually had nasal surgery 2.5 yrs ago and got the cane from the ENT for using it. Well his surgery result dwindled over time. Afrin on the other hand has been helping immensely and I only use it at night. I'd rather use Afrin than get another multiple thousand dollar surgery, where I risk death. So my recipe for good sleep...APAP, duct tape and Afrin.

I've been enjoying reading posts and hopefully I can offer hope and help to other folks who are new and struggling.

Cheers,

HDR

[Foggy1]

Sorry you had to join the club, but welcome! Sounds like you are resourceful and adjusting well.

[echo]

welcome! you might want to try medical micropore tape on your nose rather than duct tape.

[HerdingDogRescuer]

The duct tape is what was on hand. I have some medical tape, but the DT is working fine. The DT is block air, so it is serving it's purpose and it's a lot cheaper than the medical stuff.

[Todzo]

Afrin - not a sustainable solution.

I think you would do well to study how high respiratory control system gain plays into sleep apnea

[Bill44133]

Welcome to the forum. I love the idea of duct tape on the nose. I am glad you found cheap solution.

Now that winter is kicking in and the temperatures have dropped I have noticed that the air the machine is blowing at me is cold and I am not tolerating it to well.
I am used to keeping my house temp at 60 degrees but I have had to bump up the thermastat up to 66 and that is more tolerable.

I wish you well.

[HerdingDogRescuer]

Afrin - not a sustainable solution.

I think you would do well to study how high respiratory control system gain plays into sleep apnea

Thanks and I have been researching that. Afrin is a temporary solution. Weight loss via diet and exercise is the main plan. I slept much better when I was 30 lbs lighter.

[HerdingDogRescuer]

Welcome to the forum. I love the idea of duct tape on the nose. I am glad you found cheap solution.

Now that winter is kicking in and the temperatures have dropped I have noticed that the air the machine is blowing at me is cold and I am not tolerating it to well.
I am used to keeping my house temp at 60 degrees but I have had to bump up the thermastat up to 66 and that is more tolerable.

I wish you well.

Thanks! I keep my bedroom quite cool too. My DME sent me a larger nasal mask, so my nose is not as close to the hole and it seems to help. I just took a nap with it today as a test run. (just came via FEDEX this morning). Looking forward to using it tonight.

[Todzo]

Afrin - not a sustainable solution.

I think you would do well to study how high respiratory control system gain plays into sleep apnea

Thanks and I have been researching that. Afrin is a temporary solution. Weight loss via diet and exercise is the main plan. I slept much better when I was 30 lbs lighter.

I would be interested to know if the majority of your hypopneas were hypercapnic or hypocapnic.

I really do believe that all with OSA should be assigned a dietitian and personal trainer for at least three years. I think that you are on a right track with learning much more about eating well and moving well. I used to think I knew how to eat well but I now know, after using a dietitian for a couple of years and continuing my own studies, that I am only beginning to know how to eat well. Things have improved as I have moved into the area of a truly active lifestyle. In our case I think that very active lifestyle would be recommended. Much of what I do is low level (joint maintenance) but your post is reminding me that I need to move back toward doing a bit of 85% maximum heart rate interval training and that running is good to heal the brain.

Dr. Stasha Gominak has noted that many of the areas of the brain that deal with respiratory control are sensitive to D3 levels. Those who are working with the D3 hormone (A.K.A. Vitamin D3) (e.g. Dr. Stasha Gominak, Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D., Vitamin D Council) seem to be finding that the very low side of the “normal” range of 30-100 ng/L produces a range of symptoms including OSA, pain, and infection. All believe that a level lower than 50 ng/mL is not good and Dr. Stasha Gominak recommends 60-80 ng/mL for good health. I tend to struggle with hypocapnic breathing and often need to work hard to breath eucapnically. I find that it is much easier to re-establish eucapnic rates after a time of working to raise my D3 levels. I believe that you would find the Gominak and Holick videos useful.

Are you using SleepyHead yet?

[HerdingDogRescuer]

Afrin - not a sustainable solution.

I think you would do well to study how high respiratory control system gain plays into sleep apnea

Thanks and I have been researching that. Afrin is a temporary solution. Weight loss via diet and exercise is the main plan. I slept much better when I was 30 lbs lighter.

I would be interested to know if the majority of your hypopneas were hypercapnic or hypocapnic.

I really do believe that all with OSA should be assigned a dietitian and personal trainer for at least three years. I think that you are on a right track with learning much more about eating well and moving well. I used to think I knew how to eat well but I now know, after using a dietitian for a couple of years and continuing my own studies, that I am only beginning to know how to eat well. Things have improved as I have moved into the area of a truly active lifestyle. In our case I think that very active lifestyle would be recommended. Much of what I do is low level (joint maintenance) but your post is reminding me that I need to move back toward doing a bit of 85% maximum heart rate interval training and that running is good to heal the brain.

Dr. Stasha Gominak has noted that many of the areas of the brain that deal with respiratory control are sensitive to D3 levels. Those who are working with the D3 hormone (A.K.A. Vitamin D3) (e.g. Dr. Stasha Gominak, Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D., Vitamin D Council) seem to be finding that the very low side of the “normal” range of 30-100 ng/L produces a range of symptoms including OSA, pain, and infection. All believe that a level lower than 50 ng/mL is not good and Dr. Stasha Gominak recommends 60-80 ng/mL for good health. I tend to struggle with hypocapnic breathing and often need to work hard to breath eucapnically. I find that it is much easier to re-establish eucapnic rates after a time of working to raise my D3 levels. I believe that you would find the Gominak and Holick videos useful.

Are you using SleepyHead yet?

Not using Sleepy Head yet. Will download today to start monitoring. Take 5000 of D3 a day. I have been historically low. Have had a cold last few days. Took Nyquil last night and my AHI on the S9 jumped from 2.7 to 11+!!!!! So lesson learned there. Cold medicine does NOT help you, or me at least, sleep better.

[Denial Dave]

when you get a chance, add your equipment, mask and pressures to your profile

I suspect that those that have higher pressures are the ones that have the toughest times acclimating to wearing a mask & CPAP. Managing leaks at pressures under 10 are much easier to deal with than when pressures exceed 14

[HerdingDogRescuer]

when you get a chance, add your equipment, mask and pressures to your profile

I suspect that those that have higher pressures are the ones that have the toughest times acclimating to wearing a mask & CPAP. Managing leaks at pressures under 10 are much easier to deal with than when pressures exceed 14

Getting there. Jeesh, I just joined yesterday and haven't downloaded Sleepy Head yet. Just figured out how to access my machine features a couple of days ago. I've been seeing avg pressures of 8.6-8.8.