How has CPAP changed you?

[oak]

would like to hear how CPAP has changed your life. big ways or small changes.

[Todzo]

It drove me to greatly increase my medical knowledge.

[ems]

It hasn't changed me... which is why I stopped using it for many months.

Now I'm taking a Migraine med and my PC said that between the med and using the machine every night, I should see a significant decrease in my headaches. Have been using the machine consistently for a few weeks now and have noticed less headaches, and when I do get a headache it's not as intense. Hopefully, this pattern will continue.

[LSAT]

It stopped my snoring which made my wife happy....other than that no change.

[Stormynights]

I don't endanger people when I drive.

[RogerSC]

Yeah, the snoring thing, happier wife, which means that I'm happier *smile*.

And lower blood pressure, less stress on my whole cardiovascular system. More energy for exercise, which helps me feel even better.

On the other hand, I got this alien sitting on my face all night *smile*, life is a balance.

[jazzer4]

It truly got me my life back!
No more dreams that my husband was drowning me, or someone had a pillow over my head.
No more nights afraid to fall asleep.

I was brain dead, sticky notes everywhere.
Could barely remember my neighbors name.

Soooooo much better now.
I'm really a success story.

[pbriggs]

well, after only a few weeks I can say
1. most important - the wife sleeps better and is happy.... happy wife makes happy day
2. I sleep better just about every night - I use to wake frequently every night - sometimes I would wake startled and other times I would just wake
3. I am not as tired as I was before - I used to struggle to stay awake in long meetings at work, and even at night to watch a movie with the family. Now I am not having so much trouble, I can even watch an entire movie and still be awake. Okay, some meetings are still really hard to stay awake for - but that is just the meeting and not me so much this time. Driving home in light traffic is easier. In Michigan the limit on the highway is 70 and most days I drive 80. At that speed it only takes a few seconds for your life to change. In the past a light traffic day was a long drive home (i drive ~80 miles a day)
4. My sinus appear to be better than before. With the moisture and filters, I feel that my allergies are much better. We have cats and I think the filters is helping to filter out all their "stuff" and I feel much better.
Off the top of my head - that was a few

[Todzo]

In my little case I carry my tablet in is a little green box known as a Burro. It carries four AA batteries and has a USB connector. In use it does not keep up with heavy tablet use, but will do a slow charge if the tablet is in sleep mode. It extends the life of the tablet battery buy about 20%-30%. Since I already have the chargers and use NiMH batteries a great deal this has been a good choice for me.

CPAP for me has been a bit like the Burro. It extends what I can do in a given day a bit. After I learned to watch my own CPAP data and deal with obstructions it helped a bit more. After I learned to check for the related breathing stability issues and have started to learn to deal with them it helps a bit more.

Obstructive Sleep Apea had taken this "very happy to work since I was 14" man and put him in shelter. I went from $50k/y to shelter in about three years. I had no idea what was wrong but it was becoming clear that my abilities were compromised.

It was not a doctor who told me what the problem was. A shelter bunk mate did that. I had literally been threatened with death several times for my snoring (sleep is precious in shelter). The bunk mate needed only his ears to tell what the problem was.

The Polysomnogram showed AHI=52 with a lowest blood oxygen level of 55%. Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) with extreme hypoxia! I was probably running very close to a heart attack or stroke.

So perhaps the first thing that CPAP did was to save my life.

With some knowledge of OSA I was able to get through a commercial cooking course and begin work. Even with CPAP I have not been able to work more than part time since. It is, at best, a partial fix.

[chunkyfrog]

Metaphorically, I was circling the drain, both mentally and physically.
APAP put in the plug and added bubble bath.
I'm clear-headed after many years, I feel alive, and life is fun again.

[SleepyToo2]

It hasn't changed me... which is why I stopped using it for many months.

Now I'm taking a Migraine med and my PC said that between the med and using the machine every night, I should see a significant decrease in my headaches. Have been using the machine consistently for a few weeks now and have noticed less headaches, and when I do get a headache it's not as intense. Hopefully, this pattern will continue.

ems, I encourage you to keep using the machine every night. In addition, make sure that you take magnesium citrate (or other well-absorbed magnesium salt), and vitamin B2. The combination of all of the above has reduced my migraines to rare and not severe events (previously almost one/week). Impossible to say which treatment has been most responsible for the change, so I keep doing all three! This has been the biggest change for me.

I am now convinced that many "diseases" are associated with dietary components. That may be too much or too little. I now believe that it should be rare that we actually need a pharmaceutical product to manage many of our diseases.

[letsride]

From 4 hours in bed to 7.5 nightly ~ I'm now a sleep addict.
Completely rested!

[STL Mark]

Well the headaches that my doctors were treating with migraine medicines no longer happen. My remaining pills need thrown away since they are three years old. Many of the effects on my body of sleep apnea were emotional. For 20 years I ignored and denied sleep apnea as a cause for my symptoms. While that was going on jobs and a marriage were lost.

I can only wish I had those years back, but they are gone now. If others can learn from my mistakes rather than repeating them they will be in a better place emotionally and physically soon. My therapy is going quite well, my treated AHI levels are consistently under 1.0 and I feel like a new man. I actually find "donning the mask" a feeling of comfort now. I can cover up my head and doze off to sleep without concern for how I will feel when I wake up. Emotionally and physically I am feeling better than I have in over 20 years.

[SteveGold]

It changed my life. I was working a dead-end job, barely hanging on, incapable of maintaining a relationship, losing my friends. I knew that I'd changed but I didn't understand how. I thought maybe you just turned 30 and stopped feeling everything.

Now music can move me again, my mind is more nimble, and I feel like myself for the first time in about a decade. It's not a panacea, but I feel more in control of my life and more capable of enjoying it. Wearing a mask is a very small price to pay for such a reward.

[BlackSpinner]

Believe it or not but I don't bite peoples heads off as much anymore.
I have my life, my brains, my emotions and my art back.

Cpap therapy turned my life from an old Black and white TV with bad reception to a digital cable HD 50 inch TV.