New and getting serious about treatment

Angry J · Post by **Angry J** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:53 pm

hello all,

I am new to this site. I have been consuming as much information about OSA as possible over the last few weeks. i was in the process of getting treatment for this issue until I adrubtly lost my job. I was terminated a day before my SS was schelduled. Unfortunately, I must now wait till my insurance gets picked up by my employer. It should be around September 1st. Since I got married I was never aware of how bad my sleeplessness is. Now I do believe I have isolated the problem and think a cpap machine will cure my OSA.

A little bit about me. Keeping in mind I have never had a sleep study I can tell you what my experience is. I have been told that I snore at about 130 decibels. Really loud. This is partially alleviated when I sleep on my side. I am a violent sleeper. I have wild flailing legs and arms. I labor to breath most of the time and stop sleeping quite frequently while I am sleeping. I scares the heck out of my wife to watch this happen.

I do have incredibly vivid dreams. I almost always remeber them. Unfortunately, I am usually in some dire need of help or dependence upon someone/something else to escape the peril I find myself in. I always wake up just before I get harmed. It is an incredible way to start the day. I think in the last 20 years I have felt rested after a nights sleep maybe a half-a-dozen times.

My brother and mother have both benefited from cpap machines. I have been told by my Dr. that I have a small throat opening and a deviated septum. I have been looking in outright purchasing a CPAP machine to expedite the treatment. I am getting desperate. I am falling asleep any time I sit still for ten minutes. What would be a good starter machine for me? What could really been done wthout insurance? I am trying to find answers. Please send help.

Titrator · Post by **Titrator** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 7:35 pm

Hi Angry J,

There is hope out there. The good part is you have narrowed the posibilities to sleap apnea. It is possible to treat sleep apnea without a sleep study, by using a self adjusting cpap machine.

I am a huge advocate of the traditional sleep study, because it gives so much information about your vital signs as well as your sleep patterns. But, if you cant afford one and you want to get started.. Go with the self adjusting machine.

The best self-adjusting cpap on the market is the Respironics Remstar Auto w Cflex.

We sell it with and without a heated humdifier. Here is a link to it on https://www.cpap.com

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... ifier.html

Regards,

Ted
cpap.com

momexp5 · Post by **momexp5** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:17 pm

If it weren't for the deviated septum, if I were in your shoes (without insurance), I might spend a hundred bucks or so for the time it would take to lay it out with a primary care doctor, and see if you could persuade him (with your impressive knowledge, that you get here by reading the forum) to write you a prescription for an auto pap and then you could monkey with it yourself.

You can't buy insurance somehow before starting this process?

Thing is, it *does* suck to wait.

The deviated septum is a wrinkle. My ENT told me that CPAP would have done me no good before I got my sinuses fixed - although I guess some people use a full face mask if they can't breathe through their nose - but before I started CPAP, I had my enlarged turbinates removed and my septum straightened, and I went on allergy treatment because of all the inflammation from that.

If you need septoplasty, you're really going to want insurance. :/

Ionizer · Post by **Ionizer** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:22 pm

You might skip the sleep study. Ask your doc for a Rx for an auto. Explain your insurance problem. Job loss. If he is decent he'll give you the Rx. What could it hurt. Never heard of anyone overdosing on a cpap.

Other plan is a bit deceptive. Borrow a Rx from your mom or bro. Order from cpap.com. Or let them by a spare and loan it to you. Gasp, hey desperate times mean desperate measures.

The vivid dreams puzzle me. Do you wake feeling frozen. Paralyzed. Might be some narcolepsy also.

I'm no expert. In fact my wife says I don't know nuttin.

Radiate

Ionizer

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:37 pm

The deviated septum is a wrinkle. My ENT told me that CPAP would have done me no good before I got my sinuses fixed

I guess it depends on how bad someone's sinus trouble and deviated septum (and turbinates, for that matter) are.

snork1 was getting very little good from cpap until he had some massive roto-rootering.

But I guess there are many, many people with just a deviated septum who do fine on cpap. It's nicer, of course, to have a fully open snout, but if air will go easily through at least one nostril, the treatment can work.

It's very common for me to have one nostril or the other get stuffy when I lie down. That's with a heated humidifier, too. Sometimes just turning over will clear the semi-stopped up nostril and the other one will take over the job of being the stuffy one. Yet the treatment works fine for me, every night, all night.

Everyone's mileage varies. If there are serious problems getting air through the nostrils, they should be checked out thoroughly. I don't think a mildly deviated septum would cause a problem with cpap treatment, but I'm no doctor. Infected congested sinuses sure could be a problem, though.

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:44 pm

I do have incredibly vivid dreams. I almost always remeber them. Unfortunately, I am usually in some dire need of help or dependence upon someone/something else to escape the peril I find myself in.

Remembering them vividly sure sounds like you're being jolted awake. Probably by apneas, imho. Many people sleep through their apneas, with the brain finally rousing them just enough to get a bit of muscle tone back in the throat to open it for a breath. They often don't wake up enough to be aware of it.

Your apneas, on the other hand, may be knocking you awake enough to be aware of dreaming and remember the dream...vividly. For OSA sufferers, apneas and hypopneas are usually more numerous during REM sleep, when most dreaming occurs.

Just a two cent non-medical opinion.

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:50 pm

Gasp, hey desperate times mean desperate measures.

Ionizer, I agree.

A borrowed cpap (and no sleep study) was what I started with and used for several months until I got an old family doc to simply write me an Rx for an autopap. No one else in my family was on cpap - that I knew of.

Later I found out that my uncle who lives in the same town(!) had been on cpap for ten years and had two machines that he hardly ever used!!! Ten minutes away from me, all that time while I was figuring out ways and means! LOL!!