three months and doing great

Hi Friends,

I haven't been around for a bit and wanted to post and let you all know I am here and doing great. You may or may not remember; I had so much time between my diagnosis and my titration study that they gave me an apap set wide open. I immediately started working with it to get my ahi down and found that 10.5 at the low with 15 at the top worked great. I rarely hit above 13 but if I had a glass of wine more than my usual one at dinner, I needed that 15 top range.

Well, I finally had my titration study and follow up with the doc. He told me that I should be set at 11. I wasn't surprised because the tech had told me I was doing great at 10. When I told my doc about adjusting my own settings he said that sounded great and to keep it at that instead of switching it to a straight cpap mode at 11.

We also talked about how I was still waking a lot at night. He asked how long I was sleeping and I was in bed about ten hours a night total, though not all asleep. This was a huge reduction from pre-treatment when that ten hours still needed to be topped off with a two to three hour nap. His suggestion was that I was still sleeping longer than necessary and try getting out of bed earlier. I did that and within a week I have been sleeping like a baby. Well, not really. Babies get up frequently. I am now sleeping very well and only wake once in a while, some night, not at all.

My husband has had to get used to all this. He has told me on more than one occasion that he was worried about me because I was so quiet in my sleep! He has found that he can feel for the air vent flowing to make sure I am doing fine and then he doesn't have to wake me to see if I am still alive! He reports sleeping better now too. He is really happy to have me back again and our lives are getting better and better. We went out to a concert recently. That was something we hadn't done in many years simply because I was too tired to leave the house that long. If I did it before, I would take a week to recover the lost sleep (or what I thought was sleep but was actually constant waking up gasping for air with an ahi of 61.4).

I am still not "well". I finally have energy to heal from all the things I had related to OSA. I am beginning to exercise regularly again and hope to start dropping weight soon. I do notice that I can follow conversations again and not fade in and out like I had degenerated to. I still don't have enough energy to do all the things I did 10 years ago but maybe that will come with time. It has only been three months after all. I have a lot of sleep deficit to catch up on and life to keep living.

All in all, this cpap machine has been a gift of life to me. I just bought a new machine to have as a backup after my machine broke one night and I had to sleep without it. I never want to do that again, EVER! It took a bit to save up the extra money but I pulled it off and am glad I did.

Life is good again.

Glad to hear that you're getting this all figured out. You're doing GREAT!!!! Keep up the good work!

When I told my doc about adjusting my own settings he said that sounded great and to keep it at that instead of switching it to a straight cpap mode at 11.

Hooray!!!! You got a good Doctor to help you with this! I hopr you realize how lucky you are!

Brenda

crossfit wrote:

All in all, this cpap machine has been a gift of life to me.

Life is good again.

Cfit, WOW, sooooo good to hear a success story.
You're doing it.
Yes, you are lucky that you have a doc that sees you taking
charge and supports that.

Good luck in your new exercise program.

Yes, indeed, life is good again.

Great success story Crossfit! I'm a couple months behind you and making big improvements too. Posting these stories is a big help to those starting out!

Best Wishes,

Georgio

Hooray!!!! You got a good Doctor to help you with this! I hopr you realize how lucky you are!

I definately know how lucky I am. I have heard many of the horror stories here on the forums. I have had an easy time of it in comparison and I feel it is a combination of an excellent doctor (who runs his own DME so that he can give everyone the machines he wants without them being jacked around), and the advice and information on these forums which helped me to know what I needed to do to be a proactive patient.

Hey crossfit - great to hear your progress!

On the hubby note - mine got so used to the machine sound, that one day I got up in the middle of the night (couldn't sleep), and about half an hour later he came looking for me - said he woke up and didn't hear the machine going, and thought I had died!

Hope your recovery gets better and better!