I believe I am addicted.........

[WhoDatSleeping]

to my CPAP!!!!

Yesterday, I had to go on a short business trip and did not take my CPAP. I thought one night would not make that big of a deal.
Boy was I wrong! I did not rest at all and felt like crap!!!

Learned my lesson.

How many of you take your CPAP with you when you travel?

[newhosehead]

I know what you mean. The first time I was going to be away one night only so I didn't take it. Yes, I learned my lesson also. Where I go, the machine goes.

Jeanette

[Wulfman...]

to my CPAP!!!!

Yesterday, I had to go on a short business trip and did not take my CPAP. I thought one night would not make that big of a deal.
Boy was I wrong! I did not rest at all and felt like crap!!!

Learned my lesson.

How many of you take your CPAP with you when you travel?

It didn't take me long to find out I was addicted (to oxygen), too.
I don't travel very often these days, but when I do, it's like my American Express card........I never leave home without it.
In fact, when we have gone on trips by car (I don't fly anymore), I take TWO of everything.


Den

[redjoe]

I've only just completed 2 weeks, but I've already bought a battery and charger. Based on what I've experienced so far, I never want to be without my APAP again.

[archangle]

I wonder to what degree do you really become dependent?

i.e. Once you've done CPAP for a while, does your apnea become worse in the sense that it will do you more harm if you can't use CPAP than it would have if you had been treated.

Or as Alfred Lord Tennyson would have said, "Is it worse to have CPAPed and lost than never to have CPAPed at all? "

I know I'd probably have a heck of a lot harder time falling asleep if nothing else. Would I have worse oxygen deprivation, etc.?

How many people are able to ever get off of CPAP once they start?

[marl64]

I've only traveled once since starting but my machine went with me. Has anyone taken theirs on an airplane? Any tips?

[Janknitz]

I wonder to what degree do you really become dependent?
i.e. Once you've done CPAP for a while, does your apnea become worse in the sense that it will do you more harm if you can't use CPAP than it would have if you had been treated.
Or as Alfred Lord Tennyson would have said, "Is it worse to have CPAPed and lost than never to have CPAPed at all? "
I know I'd probably have a heck of a lot harder time falling asleep if nothing else. Would I have worse oxygen deprivation, etc.?
How many people are able to ever get off of CPAP once they start?

CPAP is treatment, not a cure. A cure is something like taking an antibiotic--you take it and your infection goes away. A treatment is something that relieves the symptoms of the disease. For example, a diabetic takes insulin. Insulin does not CURE diabetes, it treats the symptoms. If a diabetic stops taking insulin, the diabetes will become life-threatening. Likewise CPAP. So you don't "become dependent on it" Nor does it "cure" you. It treats your apnea, but only when you use it.

What we become "dependent" on is feeling much better than we did before CPAP, even if we did not realize at the time just how badly we felt. And since it takes a night or two without CPAP to lose all the positive effects of your last treatment, if you think you feel bad the first night without CPAP, imagine what a week will do! Unless you allow yourself to become used to feeling rotten all over again.

Use the CPAP, every time you sleep, wherever you are. Don't leave it home--a trip is when you want to feel your best, not your worst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WhoDatSleeping]

I've only traveled once since starting but my machine went with me. Has anyone taken theirs on an airplane? Any tips?

I would like to know about taking on the airplane as well!

Please share.
Thanks

[newhosehead]

I've only traveled once since starting but my machine went with me. Has anyone taken theirs on an airplane? Any tips?

My last trip was a while ago..right before Thanksgiving actually and they just sent it through the scanner and did not say a word, did not want to take it out of the bag, anything. In fact, in San Jose, when it came out of the scanner, the man said, "Sleep Apnea, huh?" and smiled. That was an especially easy trip. I have had no issues so far but I have not travelled internationally with it yet; that may be a different story.

Jeanette

[BlackSpinner]

I wonder to what degree do you really become dependent?

i.e. Once you've done CPAP for a while, does your apnea become worse in the sense that it will do you more harm if you can't use CPAP than it would have if you had been treated.

You end up losing some of the "High altitude" adjustment that your body has made to adapt to the low oxygen levels. Also your body has forgotten to how to deal with the bad sleep so you feel worse then before - of course that could be subjective - it is quite amazing how you forget bad stuff (otherwise no woman would have more then one child)

[linagee]

I took a nap once without my CPAP. (I wasn't at the house and didn't have it packed with me.)
I had this horrible suffocation-type nightmare and I woke up sweating.
(It was kind of like there was this area where if you went there it was known to have a toxic gas, but there were these oxygen stations for safety. I almost made it to the nearest one, but it was too late and I died, gasping and reaching for the station just at arm's length. I think that is the first time I've ever died in a dream.)
That has been my only time sleeping in non-compliance and that was about 4 months after starting treatment. It is not an experience I would like to repeat.

[JayR_1945]

I've taken mine everywhere including car camping, ....running it off an inverter connected to the car battery. I have a battery and inverter at home that will run it for about 3 nights. And I keep my old CPAP machine as a spare at my sisters house, in case of emergencies. I really like that level of security. I would not leave home without it.

By now, the Airport in-security folks are generally up to-date. All you should have to do is point to the words "medical device" on the label and they can't refuse it. They like to see it in it's original, approved carrying case, though I'm not sure if it counts and an addition bag. It's best to check.

An addiction? The respiratory system is a very potent motivator. Try holding your breath for about a minute and see if your brain doesn't go "crazy" telling you to "fix that problem". Well, for an untreated apnea patient, that is what is happening many times throughout the night. And, anything you do that improves life and especially breathing will likely become compulsive.

Yes, I suspect many of the things they call "addictions", especially CNS stimulants are rooted in the breathing circuits self regulatory feedback system. But that's another story and maybe better off discussed somewhere else. I only do legal things.

[Tired Linda]

Oh yeah. Two weekends a month, I stay with my disabled father and care for him while his live-in caregiver has the weekend off. I was late and in a hurry one Saturday morning and forgot my equipment. Never again. I now have a back up machine (and supplies) stored in my car.

I can't even lie in bed and read or watch tv without my mask on...I start getting this awful anxious feeling and my mind just races. As soon as the mask is on and I get that first hit of air, that creepy feeling goes away and I feel comfortable and cozy. I'm usually asleep within minutes of lights out. Before therapy, it used to be that I'd find any excuse to stay awake until I was so exhausted I couldn't keep eyes open.

[chunkyfrog]

--addicted to my machine like I'm addicted to food, water, oxygen.
If I had a broken leg, would I be 'addicted' to crutches?
I believe I had apnea many years before I was diagnosed; and will be (barring a MIRACLE) the rest of my life.
I was not designed to live as long as I have. --To heck with that!
I'm using all the tools I have to live a long and healthy life; and my apap is a very important part of that.
Getting off it is not an option--unless I am in a hurry to die.
(and I hear there are easier ways to go.)

[boognish]

I'm flying to D.C. for a week long business trip in a couple of weeks, and I'm planning on leaving the CPAP at home. I guess I'll report back how I did sleeping without it for a week.