One Year Ago...

One year ago, I posted my first message to this board.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35319&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

One year ago, I was still 21 days from having my Bipap Auto SV.

One year and another 999 messages (I just don't seem to know when to shut up) later, things have come a long, long way from my not even knowing which mask I used the night of my titration. (Well, at least I'd learned enough from browsing here to go up to the sleep center and try on masks before the titration! And I knew enough to make sure I got a fully data capable machine.)

Without the great people of this Forum, this could have been a year of stress and frustration. I learned CSDB, AHI, AI, HI, leak rates, and more. I acquired software and card reader to check my progress -- and using those tools, I was able to determine that I did not need EPAP = 10, MinIpap = 10 and MaxIpap = 14, but an EPAP of 6, MinIpap = 10 and MaxIpap = 14.

I learned tips and tricks for handling leak rates, and invented my own chin support.

I learned lab-ratting, which appealed completely to me, since, as a cook, I follow a recipe as given the FIRST time. And then start tinkering.

In short -- the wonderful people of this Forum have made my success as an xPAPer possible.

Thank you... all of you. And thanks to Mr. Goodman for hosting this strange, wonderful, organic place.

Happy hosing!

glad we could help

Wow, that is so cool! Did you plan it that way--1,000 posts on your first anniversary! I love it!

Congratulations and I'm glad things are going well for you.

Kiralynx, I really enjoyed reading your 1st post. I'm just about where you were a year ago (a newbie waiting for my appointment, and RX for equipment), and it's so inspiring, to know you've come this far in one year.

Congratulations, and thank you for your informative and welcoming posts.

I just can't seem to get those high post counts,no matter what forum I'm on...

Spreading myself too thin I guess.

Good for you,hanging in and posting to get good results and help out along the way.

Congrats on having such an accomplished year. Your attitude toward mastering this (and the other health challenges you've mentioned) has been, no doubt, key in your progress. Good to have you around.
Kathy

rubymom wrote:Wow, that is so cool! Did you plan it that way--1,000 posts on your first anniversary! I love it!

Congratulations and I'm glad things are going well for you.

I didn't precisely plan it that way... just answering messages as I came to them. Then it dawned on me that I was coming up on my anniversary, and I was t h i s close to the milestone message, so I decided to make my anniversary post the 1000th one.

This Forum has made it possible for things to go as well as they have.

5aces wrote:I just can't seem to get those high post counts,no matter what forum I'm on...

Spreading myself too thin I guess.

Good for you,hanging in and posting to get good results and help out along the way.

Heh. I just don't know when to stop talking.

I was trying to count my posts over on a mailing list and gave up after 2-3 thousand. (The list doesn't have a message counter.)

I've learned so much from this group!

KatieW wrote:Kiralynx, I really enjoyed reading your 1st post. I'm just about where you were a year ago (a newbie waiting for my appointment, and RX for equipment), and it's so inspiring, to know you've come this far in one year.

Congratulations, and thank you for your informative and welcoming posts.

Katie,

Just think what you have to look forward to next year this time!

Glad the messages are of help. I can never repay those who have given so generously of their time to help... but I can pay forward by helping pass on what I've learned.

Bet you will, too!

kteague wrote:Congrats on having such an accomplished year. Your attitude toward mastering this (and the other health challenges you've mentioned) has been, no doubt, key in your progress. Good to have you around.

Kathy,

Well, as I said in one of those multitudinous messages, I had two options in all this: I could bemoan my fate, or I could dig in and make it work.

NOT having it work wasn't an option.

I was lucky to have friends, online and in person, to helped me through the emotional stresses of the cancer surgery. (And, boy, did I need their support! The question in my mind through all of it -- and which probably won't quiet down until I hit the five year mark -- was "How can my body betray me like this?"

And then, when I got hit with the apnea diagnosis, it was again a betrayal by my body for foisting this... this... issue on me, and by my medical practitioners who missed it for over seven years. ThenI found friends here who helped me optimize a treatment I originally feared, and yet came to accept.

Heck, the RT was shocked when she found out I would have slept the whole night my first night with my machine if she'd turned the blasted alarms off! Newbies just don't DO that!

I count myself really fortunate.