Help Daytime Fatigue

I have been on CPAP for about 3-4 months and have found no relief. I find myself on certain days even more tired than I was before using CPAP. I find myself exhausted to the point that I could self standing up on some days and just want to go home and take a nap. I have tried 2 different FFM, 2 nasal masks, 1 nasal pillow mask without much success. The only one I found semi comfortable is one of the nasal mask but I wake up and toss and turn at night usually because of leaks. I've tried adjusting it tighter but then it hurts the back of my head and I usually get headaches. I'm to the point that I just want to throw the thing away!!!! I've gone through 2 sleep studies with the last one in November and the still couldn't determine the exact cause so they wanted to do a 3rd one but I said no. So the doctor said that we might go ahead and set your air pressure to 11. Any ideas, suggestions. Thanks!!

Well your first move should be to upgrade to a machine that actually shows you what is happening at night in stead of the piece of crap they sold you.
Then you will be able to see exactly what your AHI and leak rate is an tune your therapy accordingly.

Your machine offers nothing in the way of data to even see if therapy is remotely effective. All the doctor can do is guess. Who knows, you might have huge leaks which will seriously impair therapy.

Any way that you can get a data capable machine so you can check your data and get an idea what is going on?
If not, you are flying bind and limited to guessing.

This isn't good news for me. I wish I would have known this before the sleep study doctor gave me this one. My insurance paid for the first one but I wonder if I could return it to the sleep study place or do some type of exchange (dreaming right). What would you recommend that I use for a machine? Thanks.

phx1hab wrote:What would you recommend that I use for a machine? Thanks.

At a minimum this one

https://www.cpap.com/cpap-machine/respi ... -plus.html


this one would be ideal. APAP can be used in CPAP mode so like 2 machines in one and can be especially useful when trouble shooting what pressure needs might be.

https://www.cpap.com/cpap-machine/respi ... -flex.html

Staying with Respironics would enable you to use the same humidifier and not have to go through that expense again.

There is software available so you can see in depth what is going on. You really need it since you aren't doing well, it might be ineffective therapy and it might be from some other reason but you have to start with evaluating therapy before you go looking at other things.

If your take a stroll through the PR System one Plus, the Pro and the APAP, you will see not a huge difference in price. You were given the standard " DME can make more money by supplying the cheapest machine". All it will tell them is how many hours you have used the machine so that insurance will pay for it.

If they won't swap it out, would your finances permit your purchasing one on your own and delegate the Plus as a back up machine? Some good deals at cpapauction can be found.