First Post - My Newbie Success with the S9

[Kyndcookie]

Hi all - I really love this forum. I was diagnosed with obstructive apnea over a year ago. For reasons I won't get into I ended up using a concentrator alone to keep my blood O2 up. Long story short after many months of suffering during the day including random daytime sleep I lit a fire under my MD's butt and was prescribed CPAP. Being a forum hound the first thing I did was search and find cpaptalk. I'm really glad I did, as I learned quite a bit about different machines, masks, issues and how to deal with my DME (Pacific Pulmonary). I have to say, the anecdotes were right on. I put together a tick list of questions and called my insurance provider to find out what I could get, then immediately called my MD and specified what gear to put on my prescription. I followed this up with a quick and friendly call to Pacific and they "pre-ordered" exactly what I wanted.

Now, I have only been using my S9 Autoset (with H5 and Climateline, thank you) for a week, but it has been the single best therapy I can imagine. Literally the next day I had energy, didn't fall asleep once, was able to just feel rested. This was such a foreign state of mind that it felt strange...I'm now in a period of what I feel is recovering from must have been at least 2 years of poor sleep. I'm now sleeping 8-9 hours a night, and after the first 2 nights I have pretty much slept without interruption (despite the nagging need to pee!). I'm not sure how long it will take to recover fully, but I'm glad I'm on the way. I count myself lucky that I got the right gear for me the first time out. I know that's uncommon.

I have no frame of reference, but I can only assume the S9 is a revelation for new users like myself who were very apprehensive, even fearful of the CPAP experience. Aside from some scary clausterphobia from my full facemask I had *zero* problems with the therapy. Maybe I'm lucky. No aerophagia, just a dry mouth and tongue.

My heart goes out to those who have trouble adjusting. I would say keep with it, the good days are worth the trouble!

[apneawho]

You are so blessed to have taken to therapy like a duck to water. I have been using cpap for 2 months. I have great numbers and have adjusted well to wearing my mask all night, but I am still tired most of the time. Wishing you continued success and praying even just a little of your success will rub off on me!

[tangents]

Good for you Kyndcookie! Your attitude will help you through any obstacles you may have, along with the good people on this forum. It takes a little while to recover from the sleep deprivation - so be as good to yourself as you can in the meantime.

[Kyndcookie]

Thanks! I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. I'm afraid of psyching myself out after reading of people's therapy getting worse over time...

[Perrybucsdad]

Glad to have heard your story. Just curious... do you know why your AHI was before the CPAP and what is it now?

[Carl LaFong]

Welcome and great to hear your experience and the fact that you took control of your therapy. I'm a relative newbie and my experience is similar to yours: significant improvement on day (or night) one. Hopefully as you pay down your "sleep debt" you'll feel even better as you go along. Yeah, you'll have great nights and not-so-great nights,but that's life.

My heart goes out to all those who have struggled, but I firmly believe there's a solution to every problem.

"Recovery" is a great term. That's where we all are.

[Pugsy]

Congratulations and welcome to the forum.

I am a little pea green with envy because I still can't share your level of enthusiasm but I have other issues that the CPAP machine can't fix but in some areas I have improvement. I wish you continued success and good health.

[Kyndcookie]

Glad to have heard your story. Just curious... do you know why your AHI was before the CPAP and what is it now?

Unfortunately I don't know my pre-treatment AHI. Being a newbie I'm just now learning what AHI is. I do know that my AHI for the last two nights have been 3.4 and 3.9. I just downloaded ResScan 3.13 and will be uploading info from my card for a better look.

Translating all that and really configuring my machine is my next big goal...

[apneawho]

This is one of the things that make sleep apnea and cpap therapy so curious. I routinely have AHI <1 every night for 2 months now and I do not feel the improvement that you report. I am still waiting for that burst of energy and feeling like I am not pooping out after lunch.