Missing a night - lesson learned!

[teresamichele]

I've been on CPAP for about a month, maybe a bit more. I'm one of the lucky ones - I was diagnosed with an AHI of just over 60, which is fairly severe from what I understand, and I had no problems adjusting to CPAP. I slept the whole night with it the first night and while there has been a few slip ups (unintentional naps on the weekend without the mask, etc), for the most part I've been using it 100% of the time I'm sleeping.

Well, last Saturday my sister called and asked if I'd like to come over and spend the night, since we were having a family get together on Sunday at her house, which is actually my grandmother's house. It was actually a get-together for my birthday as well as my step-mother's birthday.

I said sure and since I don't have a car, I took the bus out. About 10 minutes from her, I realized I had brought my CPAP...and left the cord at home. My sister doesn't have a car either and I knew my grandmother wouldn't be willing to drive me back into the city, so I was sort of stuck. I didn't have time, since it was fairly late at night, to go home and come back. So, I decided to go one night without it. I was really upset, but I didn't see a lot of other options. I wasn't sure it would matter that much - I mean, it was one night.

I should have remembered how much better I felt after one night and realized one night could have a big impact.

I have to tell you - I have never felt so horrible in my life. I've had a flu that had me off work for over a week and I think that might have actually been better. I was headachey, stuffed up, had a sore throat from the stuffy nose, and of course, I was exhausted. I managed about 4.5 hours and my snoring was so bad my sister could hear me at the other end of the house. I was in a foul mood - which is great when your family is coming over and it's your birthday so you're the center of attention and you just want to go to bed, but you know you can't since the sleep isn't going to do you any good. I was miserable. All of this from one night of missing it!

I've caught up on my sleep - it really only took Sunday night, though I feel better today than I did yesterday and I'm more focused - but I will NEVER do that again if I can avoid it.

On the plus side, I guess I know it's working!

[raggedykat]

I know exactly what you mean! I missed one night and realized how much better I was feeling when all along I thought that not much had changed. I won't do that again.

[Kiralynx]

Wow, does that sound familiar! I'd been on around 6 months when I had a respiratory infection, and couldn't use my nasal mask. I got a full-face over-nighted to me.

Since my diagnosis came about because the pain from my 24" incision wasn't going away, it probably will come as no surprise to find out that when I went to crawl out of bed that first xPAP-less morning, I screamed because not only was I exhausted, I hurt worse than I did the morning after the surgery!

Glad you're feeling better!

[jweeks]

I know exactly what you mean! I missed one night and realized how much better I was feeling when all along I thought that not much had changed. I won't do that again.

Hi,

For some odd reason, I had an off night a week ago. I didn't do anything different from night to night to night, but last Monday night I had an AHI over 10, where as 1 to 2 is normal for me. On Tuesday, I felt like I was on the wrong planet or something. I felt like I was living in a bubble, and my reaction time was very slow. Putting together a coherent thought was impossible. Again, I have no clue what went wrong that night. I might have rolled over onto my back for much of the night. My co-workers have came to the conclusion that the only logical explanation is that I must have been abducted by aliens while sleeping. That makes about as much sense as anything these days.

-john-

[weebl]

Last night was the last sleep on my trial CPAP, and I am taking it in today to the sleep clinic for the download and report from my week of using it. From the very first night I used it last week, I noticed a huge difference in how tired (or rather, not tired) I was in the morning. I'm now dreading giving it back this afternoon, since after I get the report and 3 other documents, I need to submit them to my extended health insurance company for a preapproval. On top of that, I found a supplier based in another province that will sell me the same set up for $1,682 versus $2,100, but of course it will take about 1 week from the order date on top of the 2 to 5 business days for preapproval. Makes an over $160 out of pocket difference to me that way (only covered 80% to a maximum of $2,000). Not looking forward to going without the CPAP for a couple of weeks.

My trial unit is a ResMed S8 AutoSet Vantage, with the HumidAire 3i and Mirage Quattro mask. Not sure what exactly the sleep clinic was proposing, but they said it was the newer version of this, which could be the ResMed S8 AutoSet II, with the H4i and Mirage Quattro mask which the other supplier has quoted me on (I'll find out for sure today). Nice thing about this other place is they are also a brick and mortar operation, and have said they would provide support for the unit; in fact, they are in a city where I have friends and family, so I tend to go out there once a year if not more often, and they welcomed me to go in to analyze the data at anytime.