Should I stick with it or quit?

[boognish]

For one night

I have a big meeting with my boss tomorrow afternoon, and I've been contemplating whether to continue with my treatment as I have for the last three nights or to skip my treatment tonight, so I can go back to my normal fogginess, instead of dealing with the new symptoms that I detailed in my previous thread (dizziness, muddled thoughts, tingling).

I'm completely torn, so I thought I'd create a poll and see what the consensus of the board was.

[robysue]

Explaining my vote:

Taking the night off may well make it much harder to mask up the next night. And then the next time you "skip" it, it becomes much harder yet. Just my personal opinion, but even now, six and a half months into this not so pleasant adventure, I'm literally afraid that if I do not mask up tonight, I won't find the courage, stamina, and whatnot to mask up tomorrow night. Fear is powerful motivator for me, and I fear going back to square one of learning how to sleep with the mask. So I continue to mask up each and every night partly out of fear that if I don't do it tonight, I'll likely quit for good in the not so distant future. And I can't afford to do that.

[Pugsy]

You are asking members who joined to sort through issues of using the machine and wearing a mask to give you a pass on not wearing it for one night??
Oh boy. That is asking a lot.

If you had been using cpap a little longer I would tell you to skip tonight just so you would see how bad you could actually feel without it...teach you a lesson of sorts. I have seen people mention this very thing, didn't realize how bad they felt till they went without the mask and machine.

I am not in your shoes and I don't know the extent of the other issues you are experiencing and I don't know if they are even related to cpap use. So I don't know which is the lesser of the 2 evils at this point.

I do know that the damage being done to your body without cpap won't give you a break so neither will I.
Continue the treatment vote from me.

[lantz]

What is the issue....the pressure or the mask?

I have a two nasal masks and a nasal pillow Mask and use the pillow 99 percent of the time. I try to use the nasal masks occasionally for a change but find them terribly obtrusive and uncomfortable...

[Guest]

What is the issue....the pressure or the mask?

I have a two nasal masks and a nasal pillow Mask and use the pillow 99 percent of the time. I try to use the nasal masks occasionally for a change but find them terribly obtrusive and uncomfortable...

I'm not sure what the issue is. I just know that I've been more tired and just generally out of it since beginning CPAP treatment. I haven't really had a problem keeping the pillow mask on (aside from last night); I just have felt lousy the next day. But, the people have spoken, and I've never been much of a quitter anyway, so I suppose I'd better just stick it out and hope it gets better.

[Pugsy]

I just have felt lousy the next day.

I do understand where you are coming from.
Truth be known I probably would have said the same thing back when I first started therapy. I know that I sure didn't see any improvement. I look back on some of my old posts and I wasn't feeling better into 2 weeks of therapy. It was only after I got the software that I could see what was wrong and work on it.

When you have time let's sit down and take a look at your reports and see if we can spot things that need work to help you out. If you don't have a copy of your sleep study and/or titration study, get copies. It helps to know what you actually had when we compare to what you are seeing now on the reports. It might be something simple.. you never know till we look and see.

[tschultz]

For one night

I have a big meeting with my boss tomorrow afternoon, and I've been contemplating whether to continue with my treatment as I have for the last three nights or to skip my treatment tonight, so I can go back to my normal fogginess, instead of dealing with the new symptoms that I detailed in my previous thread (dizziness, muddled thoughts, tingling).

I'm completely torn, so I thought I'd create a poll and see what the consensus of the board was.

I vote for not stopping it. I guess I've been rather lucky in that I adjusted to the mask and CPAP quite well. If it were me I would not drop the usage after making it this far, I do think the tenancy to not go back, especially with not seeing great results, may be too great.

I'm sorry to hear that you are not seeing great results but wonder if you've tried keeping a detailed log of not only your settings and data, but also how you feel upon waking in the morning, and perhaps even how you feel before going to bed. I do know in my case the AHI did not tell the whole story, I did find a correlation with the usage of EPR and how rested I felt even with very similar numbers. I found that with the higher pressures I needed that if I turned EPR off I was not as rested, almost as if I was fighting the machine but not aware of it if that makes any sense. Now 3 months in I have been able to keep EPR at only 1 and this seems to be a good compromise for me with decent numbers and feeling rested. With the sleep log, and a few different sets of settings I was able to see a pattern that helped me optimize my treatment. Now 3 months into things (2 really effective months and the first month getting things under control) I am definitely seeing some positive improvements in my health and how I feel.

[chunkyfrog]

My suggestion: start out with it and keep it on for a few hours.
(Don't beat yourself up, because you're still getting adjusted--many of us have had similar experiences. Start a bit early, if you can.)
If you're still not asleep after, say 3 or 4 hours, finish up without it.
My first week I left it on for four hours minimum, then 'slept' without it for the rest of the time.
After a few (very few) nights, I didn't wake up to take it off--and my daytime headaches disappeared.
Not everyone adapts as quickly; you may have to work on it--but it will be worth it.

[Emilia]

After 7 months of 100% compliance, I went a night without the mask a couple of nights ago.... I had some dental work done and had agonizing TMJ pain that meant using ice packs and trying to grab a bit of sleep here and there overnight. I did manage to sleep for about 4 hours without the mask, but I paid for it..... so tired the next day. Granted, I may have also been exhausted from stress, pain, and fractured sleep, but I detected some of what I remembered pre-therapy as well.

Last night, the pain had subsided and I was back on the mask..... slept like a baby for 7.5 hours!!

You must be tenacious and keep with the program. I suspect there are some other issues not being addressed. I don't remember if you have the software and are monitoring your therapy to see what is happening. If not, it would be beneficial to do that asap.

[jaclfclfcjac]

If you quit it, remember,you are depriving your organs of oxygent That hit home to me. My H2O readings were 68% and I stopped breathing 350 times on my first over night test.
Each "not breathing" moment was counted after 10 second. 350X10/60 So approx. 1 hour of my night sleep was spent not breathing. There are people lots worse than me too. That made me wake up to using the CPap every night.

[Breathe Jimbo]

Do you really think you would be better prepared for the meeting if you get less oxygen to your brain and the rest of your body than with CPAP? Think about it.

[Starlette]

Excellent point Breath Jimbo!

[boognish]

You'll all be happy to know that I used the CPAP, went to the meeting, and thoroughly impressed my boss.

[idamtnboy]

You'll all be happy to know that I used the CPAP, went to the meeting, and thoroughly impressed my boss.

Super!! That's great!! Always good to read of positive experiences. This has to be a real boost for your own morale.

[boognish]

You'll all be happy to know that I used the CPAP, went to the meeting, and thoroughly impressed my boss.

Super!! That's great!! Always good to read of positive experiences. This has to be a real boost for your own morale.

It is, and I'm starting to feel better in general from the treatment (I think).I don't know what the tingling in my noggin was all about the first few days, but it seems to have gone away, and I'm feeling more rested overall.