When did you start feeling noticably better?

[wandererrob]

I've been suing the CPAP since mid-April and while I do find I usually am waking up a bit easier, though not at all easily mind you, I'm nowhere near feeling "like a new man" as several folks I know (doctors included) had suggested.

I will say this. I took a few nights off from the CPAP to (sorry if this is TMI) let a zit under my nose heal. It was right where the mask sits and wasn't healing. 3 days without, I felt ok, but day 4... I felt like a zombie. OK, so this thing IS doing something. But when can I hope to actually feel like a normal, awake, alert human being? I know there's no set time of course, I'm just curious as to how long it took others to really feel good again.

[BleepingBeauty]

I've been suing the CPAP since mid-April and while I do find I usually am waking up a bit easier, though not at all easily mind you, I'm nowhere near feeling "like a new man" as several folks I know (doctors included) had suggested.

I will say this. I took a few nights off from the CPAP to (sorry if this is TMI) let a zit under my nose heal. It was right where the mask sits and wasn't healing. 3 days without, I felt ok, but day 4... I felt like a zombie. OK, so this thing IS doing something. But when can I hope to actually feel like a normal, awake, alert human being? I know there's no set time of course, I'm just curious as to how long it took others to really feel good again.

I'm still working on it, 19 months later. But my situation is not typical, so don't freak out that it might take that long for you. How long it takes depends on various factors and is a very individual thing.

You don't mention whether you have the software and a card reader to view your data in detail. If you can't see what's going on while you're sleeping, you can't make any changes to achieve more effective treatment. Perhaps you're experiencing high mask leaks or high AHI numbers; unless you access your data, you won't know. (I'm not familiar with your machine and have no idea how much information you can get from the machine, itself, without the additional software/reader. Are you at least checking the info you can get from the machine?)

[Snorebert]

For me, it was a process, not an event. My lengthy post (and somewhat boring) viewtopic/t43120/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42 ... 51#p379251 tells my story. Back in February, when I went on a four day trip without CPAP, by day three I was a total disaster even though I was not yet a "new man".

[Ruby Vee]

I've been suing the CPAP since mid-April and while I do find I usually am waking up a bit easier, though not at all easily mind you, I'm nowhere near feeling "like a new man" as several folks I know (doctors included) had suggested.

I will say this. I took a few nights off from the CPAP to (sorry if this is TMI) let a zit under my nose heal. It was right where the mask sits and wasn't healing. 3 days without, I felt ok, but day 4... I felt like a zombie. OK, so this thing IS doing something. But when can I hope to actually feel like a normal, awake, alert human being? I know there's no set time of course, I'm just curious as to how long it took others to really feel good again.

I started on April 13 and have not missed a night. I'm still waiting for the day when I spring out of bed, feeling like a new woman (a new man would be highly unlikely and would undoubtedly freak my husband out completely!) but I do feel somewhat better. I'm sleeping through the night most nights, and I no longer dread going to bed and bouncing up and down all night. My sleep doctor told me I'm doing GREAT because it took him over six months just to sleep through the night. So I'm thinking everyone is different, and maybe the improvement is so gradual that you won't notice it until you look BACK at how awful you used to feel.

[BlackSpinner]

I have been on it now for 2 months and for me it was like someone opened the curtain and let the light in from the first day. At first it was just mental and emotional but it is slowly becoming physical.

The biggest change has been mental for me. Every thing now looks half full instead of half empty. The posibilities are back again.

For example - there was an arts conference in the next city held in june. I wasn't going to go, couldn't be bother to send a cheque in for it. Two weeks after I started cpap I thought "Bloody hell why haven't I made arrangements to do this it is only an hour away by bus!" so I made the arrangements, and went and had a ball.

[wandererrob]

You don't mention whether you have the software and a card reader to view your data in detail. If you can't see what's going on while you're sleeping, you can't make any changes to achieve more effective treatment. Perhaps you're experiencing high mask leaks or high AHI numbers; unless you access your data, you won't know. (I'm not familiar with your machine and have no idea how much information you can get from the machine, itself, without the additional software/reader. Are you at least checking the info you can get from the machine?)

I don't have a reader, but I do check the data on the machine daily when I get up. My AHI is usually in the rage of .8-1.8ish, occassionally I'll see a blip into the mid 2's, all hypos no apneas (according to the machine efficacy data anyway), which as I understand is pretty good. Today I had a really tough time waking up. My machine said my AHI was 2.64. Leak rate was .28L/s.

My leak rates are typically between 0.1-0.2L/s, sometimes lower, occassionally higher. I'm pertty sure that's still high, but it's a huge improvement over the full-face mask I had. I know I'm still getting mouth leaks though because I'll occassionally wake myself up because my lips are going pthpthpthpthpthpth and that's with a chin strap on. I'm not suer what else I can do about that.

I did spring out of bed my first 2 days on CPAP, but never since. I'm hoping that will become the norm someday.

[LinkC]

I no longer dread going to bed and bouncing up and down all night.

There are SO many come-backs to that and NONE of them can be said in polite company!

But, to the point: It was about 2-3 weeks, when I first got my mask leaks under control. Didn't have data-capable then, but I knew each day how I had done the night before, just by how I felt. And still do. I've made a game of predicting my AHI by how I feel. (I didn't say I was GOOD at the game yet...but I'm practicing!)

[BleepingBeauty]

I don't have a reader, but I do check the data on the machine daily when I get up. My AHI is usually in the rage of .8-1.8ish, occassionally I'll see a blip into the mid 2's, all hypos no apneas (according to the machine efficacy data anyway), which as I understand is pretty good. Today I had a really tough time waking up. My machine said my AHI was 2.64. Leak rate was .28L/s.

My leak rates are typically between 0.1-0.2L/s, sometimes lower, occassionally higher. I'm pertty sure that's still high, but it's a huge improvement over the full-face mask I had. I know I'm still getting mouth leaks though because I'll occassionally wake myself up because my lips are going pthpthpthpthpthpth and that's with a chin strap on. I'm not suer what else I can do about that.

I did spring out of bed my first 2 days on CPAP, but never since. I'm hoping that will become the norm someday.

It sounds to me like your therapy is pretty effective. FYI, I've read here that the Resmed machines tend to score and report more hypopneas than other machines; many users cut that hypop number in half when adding it to the AI score to result in a "truer" AHI.

As to the lip-flapping you describe, the only other option I know of to avoid that problem is taping your mouth or using something like Poligrip strips to seal your lips shut. But a leak rate of .28L/s translates into 16.8L/m, which is a low leak rate, AFAIK. The problem is that it wakes you up, when the point of therapy is to give you a good night's rest.

Just remember that you've probably had undiagnosed sleep apnea for a long time, and it takes some time to make up the deficit. For some, the effects of good therapy are almost immediate; for others, it takes weeks or months to feel a marked improvement. For many, the improvement is so gradual that it's not apparent and only becomes apparent after some time has passed; then you can look back and realize how much better you now feel.

Keep at it, Bob. You'll get there.

[ozij]

Rob,
If your machine knows you're using a Mirage Activa, then your leak rate is high. I would suspect mouthleaking affects the way you feel. The flow wave changes when you have a mouthleak -- which may make it difficult for the machine to figure out what's going, and may make your results unreliable as well.

On Resmed machines with a Resmed mask correctly defined in the setup, your leak rate should really be close to zero. Unlike other machines, when a Resmed reports for a Resmed mask, it refers to an internal table, and subtratcts the expected leak (intentional vent rate) from the total - it reports only the amount you leak above the expected rate.
O.

[BleepingBeauty]

Keep at it, Bob. You'll get there.

Oops! I called you Bob. Sorry about that.

[BleepingBeauty]

Rob,
If your machine knows you're using a Mirage Activa, then your leak rate is high. I would suspect mouthleaking affects the way you feel. The flow wave changes when you have a mouthleak -- which may make it difficult for the machine to figure out what's going, and may make your results unreliable as well.

On Resmed machines with a Resmed mask correctly defined in the setup, your leak rate should really be close to zero. Unlike other machines, when a Resmed reports for a Resmed mask, it refers to an internal table, and subtratcts the expected leak (intentional vent rate) from the total - it reports only the amount you leak above the expected rate.
O.

Thanks for posting that info, ozij. I have no familiarity with Resmed machines, so I probably shouldn't post what I think about their leak rates in comparison to what I know about Respironics machines in that regard.

I continue to learn something new here every day.