My new story

[BrandyMB]

Dont know why my posts always come up as "Guest" But Ive been around here off and on for a while. I'm posting this and hopefully it will post as who I really am.. Sorry..
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im now finding out that OSA is wrecking my health. I have tried xPAP off and on for years and never could get anywhere with is. Now Im to the point where its gonna be a do it or else scenario. My sleep has been so shot, I would fall asleep for 1 to 2 hours at a whack every night waking up feeling worse when I laid down. Sometimes I would take 1.2 an Ambien and that would get me out for 3 hours and then back to the ritual for the rest of the night. I had a home sleep study last week. Funny how much info the Dr can get from the little headband unit. I wound up with an AHI of 12 and an overall RDI of 25, and it said I snored scary loud. I dug out my BiPAP and set it up last night and used a nasal pillow mask I had from the VA. Set the machine to 10/6 as the Dr said. Watched tv for 2 hours wearing the mask to get used to it..Then came nity nite time. Could NOT fall asleep, struggled and then around 1AM I took 1/2 an Ambien to get me over the hump. Now the surprise to me. I slept from 1-7AM steady, woke up and back to sleep till 8:30AM. I woke up still feeling lousy but have never slept that long continuously in several years. When my wife left the house at 5:30, she said I was totally quiet and not raising the roof as usual.

My questions: Is that normal and a good thing? I'll only use the Ambien for a short time to help me get used to the apparatus. And how long will it take before I feel better? I've felt crappy for quite a while.

Thanks.. and Merry Christmas and Blessings to all.
Brandy

[jweeks]

Brandy,

Have you had a sleep study in a hospital, or one with 24 channels of data? There are limitations to what a home sleep study can do. If you have a very routine case, it can do a pretty good job. But if you have anything more complex, these home study units might miss it completely. CPAP doesn't work on a sliding scale. Rather, it is like a light switch. You can have things 95% right and still get 0% help, and often that last little 5% tweak makes all the difference in the world.

-john-

[Mr Bill]

BrandyMB, welcome and you are not alone. Some people find it very hard at first to adapt to masking up. I have copied a few links below which were my responses on this topic to others. Long story short, it takes time for our sleeping mind to decide that the mask and machine are safe. It takes time for our sleeping brains to accept and then embrace the new air delivery. Then over a period of time, for me at least, we start sleeping the deeper sleep that really restores us. I wish there was an easy way to measure what stage of sleep we were in throughout the night without being wired up. You may find that as you get some desperately needed sleep, that you then have insomnia because you are getting more sleep than you were getting before and it becomes difficult to get over that hump to achieve longer sleep. Look on your prescription, there may be an entry about your "sleep efficiency". Mine was 24%. So if I logged 8 hours in the sack I was getting two real hours of sleep. When I got my machine, I got stuck at 4.5 hours a night for months. Maybe it was because, that was twice what I had been getting before. It seemed impossible to get more and then gradually, I got more. So, keep posting, I think you got a good result and hopefully you will see rapid improvement. But do not give up. Don't Give Up.

Re: Avoiding going to bed, panicky and fearful
viewtopic.php?p=635044#p635044

Re: I can't fall asleep, nothing works.
viewtopic.php?p=618709#p618709

Re: Very New User feeling so overwhelmed....
viewtopic.php?p=616781#p616781

Re: Is there a CPAP Honeymoon Syndrome??
viewtopic.php?p=614562#p614562

Re: 3rd night on cpap
viewtopic.php?p=594908#p594908

[apneawho]

Hi Brandy,
Your story sounds very common. We are all different, but your story is not unusual. It may take time to get used to the mask and sleeping with cpap but if you persist in your efforts, you will soon find yourself not wanting to sleep without it. Ambien is prescribed for many folks who need help with insomnia. There are many other reasons for insomnia besides sleep apnea so using cpap may not improve those other things. As to feeling better and how long it takes, this seems to be a very individual thing. Some folks feel better from the get go and some of us are still feeling lethargic after months of good, effective therapy. I hope you will be one who has a quick improvement.

[BrandyMB]

Well, last night I slept with the mask from about 10:30 till 5:30, woke once (it was still on me) and slept again till 6:30, with the help of 1/2 Ambien. I felt lousy when I got up. EV showed me with an AHI of 8.0 and some leakage. I do remember dreaming so I musta went into REM at some point. Maybe I have to adjust the nasal pillows if Im leaking, and I remember waking and my mouth was shut, but I could have had it open some through the night? I guess I just tighter a bit and soldier on..?
Brandy

[ameriken]

Soldier on...yes. One needs to be very proactive and assertive with cpap. It takes work and commitment and I think many folks get frustrated with it and just quit. Bad idea. So yes, keep soldiering on and I think you'll eventually get into a routine where you can sleep every night, and even to the point where you can't or won't sleep without it. Since my first night in June, I would put the mask on about 15 to 20 minutes before bedtime to warm myself up so to speak, but I've noticed recently that now when I put it on, I instantly get tired and turn over to sleep. My body and brain automatically associate the mask as time for beddie-bye.

It does take time to feel better. For a lucky few, the results are literally overnight. For a happy bunch more, it's a few weeks. But I think for a good percentage of us, it can take months. Whatever you do, stick around the forum daily, read about the experiences of other, participate, and even pay it forward by sharing your experiences and encouragement to other newbies. Do that and you'll find it just gets easier and easier and better and better. Even when you don't feel good or even if you don't feel like it's working, you've got to recognize that when you are sleeping with your cpap you are breathing again and thus have curbed the damaging effects that apneas have on your body. But when you quit cpap, you not only can feel bad but you also are not breathing and therefore will continue to silently damage your mind and body. Whatever you do, keep going and don't ever quit.

Good luck!

(BTW, if you don't login when you get to cpaptalk, your post will show up as 'guest', so be sure you're logged in when you post. You'll know you're logged when you see your username at the top right of your screen under the chat button).

[burlyblack]

I have been on CPAP for 12 years, and also suffered insomnia. Been on numerous sleep aids prescribed by an MD. For 11 of those 12 years with the sleep aid drugs I was able to sleep till noon each day and still get up groggy and unrested. Not untill my last sleep study with a different Doc, it was suggested by him to go off sleep aids completely and try melatonin. Well now I have a life. I sleep soundly for 7-8 hours, get up clear headed, rid of that hangover feeling, and not 100% rested but a lot more rested than I was. For me melatonin works a 1000% better than all the chemical sleep aids I was on. The problem in the house is that I sleep so sound that I do not hear the dog whimpering to go out. My poor wife has to attend to that.LOL

[BrandyMB]

Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate it. I just had a visit with my primary care doc and went over my last blood work and had a discussion. I asked him how my RBC was as im always tired and achy. He said my RBC wasnt low, but HIGH. He said its in his opinion that I was either dry when I took the test (not hydrated well), or that because of the long long term OSA and the associated nightly O2 desaturations and lousy sleep, my body has made more RBC's to carry the O2 in me which was available. He thinks being on xPAP will may just reverse some of this and make me better. I certainly hope so. I have been feeling crappy now for about 3 years. Kinda like to see my next birthday too.

Anyone else have a similar diagnosis?

Thanks,
Brandy