The efficacy of CPAP therapy

[loggerhead12]

I've been on CPAP since July 24, 2017. My pre-treatment diagnosis was severe OSA with AHI over 120. What drove me to get tested was waking up on my office floor at work. I had no recollection of closing the door or laying down. I read in a thread yesterday that maybe those with the most severe OSA issues adapt the quickest. That was me. Since starting CPAP, BP is down 40 points without medication, AHI hovers around 1.0, I never get up at night any more, and my weight is down almost 100 lbs. My doc says I almost certainly dodged a stroke in the two years since I started. They never explained why my mom had a stroke in 1970. She was around 40 and famous for snoring. CPAP wasn't a thing then.

Since that first night I haven't slept a single hour without CPAP - until a couple of weeks ago. We were driving to Colorado and planned to camp one night. Every other night was in a hotel and I would be able to use my usual rig. I read CapnLoki's battery post and had a whole setup in my Amazon cart, but before pulling the trigger talked myself out of it. It was ridiculous to spend that much money and go through that much hassle for just one night. How bad could it be?

Bad. I slept maybe 30 minutes at a time. I got up five times to go to the bathroom, which sucks even more when you're in a sleeping bag. The campsite had a "no noise after 10pm" rule. My wife and kids, in different tents 40 feet away, say I violated it brazenly the entire night. I woke up with a dry mouth and a wicked headache. After packing up I sat in the truck for about 4 minutes waiting for my wife to get back from the bathroom. Fell asleep behind the wheel at 9am. Yep, just like old times, except I wasn't actually driving this time. No wheel time for me that day. I tried the blood pressure booth at the CVS next to the gas station that morning - 170/140. It took four days to get back to my now-normal 120/70. Every time I sat down for the next two days I fell asleep.

All of this to say there is no amount of money I won't spend to avoid doing that ever again. I don't care if I only use it once a year, or once ever, next time I'm buying the battery. If it means I have to use a Honda generator as a pillow I will not sleep without CPAP again. I'm also rethinking my home setup. If the power goes out for a night or ten I will be ready.

CPAP works. No CPAP is not an option.

Side note - the higher the elevation, the higher my AHI when using CPAP. I was under the impression that these machines compensated for altitude, but maybe not enough. Must research that.

[Pugsy]

Side note - the higher the elevation, the higher my AHI when using CPAP. I was under the impression that these machines compensated for altitude, but maybe not enough. Must research that.

Which category of event increases with increased altitude?

[ChicagoGranny]

ImRealPleezApproveMe

I'm so sorry for your experience. You may have done some people a big favor by writing it up here. Thanks. I ApproveThee.

Side note - the higher the elevation, the higher my AHI when using CPAP. I was under the impression that these machines compensated for altitude, but maybe not enough. Must research that.

The manufacturers' writings I have seen say they are approved up to 9500 ft. elevation. It's not that they won't work well, but they haven't been tested at higher elevations. Testing is expensive.

I really need to get a backup system myself. Twice when power was lost for a night, Gramps and I went to a local hotel. We'd both be in a real pickle if the roads were also blocked.

[loggerhead12]

Which category of event increases with increased altitude?

It seems like the hypopneas were up the most but OA increased as well.

[loggerhead12]

I'm so sorry for your experience. You may have done some people a big favor by writing it up here. Thanks. I ApproveThee.

I picked my username during the Great Spam War of 2017 when it took days to get mods to approve new users. Now it doesn't make sense but changing it isn't a huge priority.

The manufacturers' writings I have seen say they are approved up to 9500 ft. elevation. It's not that they won't work well, but they haven't been tested at higher elevations. Testing is expensive.

The highest elevation was actually the night I couldn't use it, around 8,500 feet. The next three nights were between 6,000 and 7,000 and were the unusually high AHI's. Now that I write it out it might have been residual effects of not using it that one night instead of the elevation. Who knows?

[Pugsy]

Normally these machines do very well even above the 9500 commonly used limitation for auto adjusting for altitudes. I have used a machine at over 12K feet and the AHI didn't really change.
The exception might be when someone has an increase in central apneas at the higher altitudes and that not because of the machine at all but instead the body's reaction to the altitude.
Since your events don't seem to be centrals we can toss that out.
Perhaps just the fact it was not your normal place to sleep, not normal bed, not normal pillow and maybe just didn't sleep as well in general. Maybe the prior night stress with no cpap carried over a bit. I doubt it was related to the machine not dealing with the altitude though.

[alexander]

Thank you for for sharing. Sounds like a stressful night, and also the following days. I hope you feel better now.

I believe there is something called UPS (not the delivery company), which is a machine that can power anything when there’s power outage. They might be heavy and expensive – at least they used to be. But maybe that’s something you should have at home.

[gv280z]

UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply were heavy bricks of a battery about 14" long designed for servers in the event of a power outage.

Luckily for us battery tech has progressed nicely so you can carry a 12 volt 30,000 milliamp hour battery in your satchel to run a cpap for a day or so.

And yes, thank the higher power of your choice for cpap (and all the folks that had to take the arrows for us to advance modern cpap tech to the level we take for granted) I used to take naps at gas pumps with my truck door open while working. I say I'll just rest for a bit here b4 I get out and pump gas.

DOH!

[zonker]

UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply were heavy bricks of a battery about 14" long designed for servers in the event of a power outage.

Luckily for us battery tech has progressed nicely so you can carry a 12 volt 30,000 milliamp hour battery in your satchel to run a cpap for a day or so.

And yes, thank the higher power of your choice for cpap (and all the folks that had to take the arrows for us to advance modern cpap tech to the level we take for granted) I used to take naps at gas pumps with my truck door open while working. I say I'll just rest for a bit here b4 I get out and pump gas.

DOH!

yes, isn't it just amazing how much we will lie to ourselves when it comes to health issues? and we think that's just the way it is or we are just getting older.

SO glad i have my cpap and i never want to sleep without it.

[palerider]

12 volt 30,000 milliamp hour battery

Ugh... 30,000 1/1000ths of an amp.

Why not just say "30AH"?

Regardless, that works out to around 108 WATThours... or just a tiny bit more than one night's cpap.

[gv280z]

Im an old r/c guy, think in MAH.

[loggerhead12]

My ideal setup is starting to take shape. I'm thinking a decent Respironics machine from Craigslist to avoid the inverter a Resmed would need, plus the cable to use it with a battery is cheap. With the Capn's gear I can plug it into whatever size battery bank it takes to get the job done. With the right one I could sleep in my hammock all week.

In case of a long-term power outage at home I can put a generator right outside my window. It'll annoy the neighbors, but that will make up for the 5 million lumen LED front porch lights they leave on all night every night.

[Jas_williams]

My ideal setup is starting to take shape. I'm thinking a decent Respironics machine from Craigslist to avoid the inverter a Resmed would need, plus the cable to use it with a battery is cheap. With the Capn's gear I can plug it into whatever size battery bank it takes to get the job done. With the right one I could sleep in my hammock all week.

In case of a long-term power outage at home I can put a generator right outside my window. It'll annoy the neighbors, but that will make up for the 5 million lumen LED front porch lights they leave on all night every night.

As your used to using a Resmed machine stick with that, and get a 12-24v converter they work well but are more pricey to buy initially

[palerider]

Im an old r/c guy, think in MAH.

Don't buy into the marketing BS, the only reason they use 30,000 mah is because it sounds way bigger than 30 ah.

[palerider]

My ideal setup is starting to take shape. I'm thinking a decent Respironics machine from Craigslist to avoid the inverter a Resmed would need,

Resmeds don't need an inverter. They need a dc-dc converter, which is a wholly different thing.