Newbie would like to hear success stories, please.

Copying a pasting from my thread about my situation here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=186082&p=1443982#p1443982

Wanted to post an update of my situation, since seeing a ton of UARS help posts with no resolutions listed was a little nerve-wracking.

I am 5 months into PAP therapy and it is awesome!! Absolutely night and day. I saw Dr. Gold on Long Island who I love. He prescribed me a resmed airsense 11, pressure 4-8. I have EPR set to 3 which helped me get used to it. I use an n20i mask which has been great as a side sleeper. Took me two masks to find one that I liked. I have been thinking about maybe trying nasal pillows. Dr. Gold was adamantly anti full face mask. It took maybe a week or 2 to get comfortable with PAP therapy, and I think a big part of that was my mask. The first mask I used was an n30i - as a side sleeper, I was basically crushing the tube that runs down the side on the side I sleep on, which limited airflow and made me feel like I wasn't getting enough air.

I started to feel a difference a few weeks - a month in. As an auxiliary benefit, my ADHD and anxiety are gone (I am off SSRIs now - Dr. Gold and others believe that sleep disordered breathing can create anxiety/depression/executive functioning issues with the brain, and the more I read into it the more I agree with him and his peers who share that opinion). My testosterone levels are back to normal - they were incredibly low, especially given the fact that I'm a 24 y/o male, and my heart rate has gone down. No more random feelings of a super fast heart rate.

I am considering getting MMA surgery (many of Dr. Gold's patients do as a permanent fix) so I won't ever need to use PAP therapy again, but I don't really have an issue with my CPAP and don't really want to deal with a surgery like that if I don't have to. Maybe that will change after I spend more time with my CPAP.

If you have UARS or are in a similar situation, feel free to reach out for advice etc!

Hello I am success story . I’ve been using cpap since June 2013. I just had an appointment with my sleep doctor today and according to my printout my results have been really good. I am currently 45 years old soon to be 46. My advice for everyone is to keep using it and it will work.

Now that I've come across this thread, I'm posting my story here in the hope that it helps somebody else:

viewtopic/t188275/CPAP-journey--18-months-in.html

I have had a bit of success (improvement) in the past six months by using a new type mask. Large Leaks are down as well as AHIs and Flow Limitations. I am now looking to convert OSCAR Statistics data to graphs to better track improvements. I find the Overview bar graphs too busy for me to use.

ejbpesca 17 years user of CPAP

I have been using an auto-bipap for 18+ years. Consistently I have AHI of less than one. It still makes me smile when I see 0.0 on my data screen.
Bragging? Yes, but also encouraging others that it does happen, even after all these years. For me it just took finding the right mask, right machine and right pressure.

Catnapper - Joanie

Depending on how you define "success"... I might be one of those rare people who had a complete turnaround the very first day. A newer, happier, more energetic me. And it has remained consistently so in the two months I've been on it. I now can't imagine sleeping without it, that's how bad I don't want to go back to the old me, not even just for one day.

However, I'm still adjusting to the actual machine, mask, etc. I'm on my 4th mask and so far it is the best, or rather, least worst. I'm still fooling with the tension and comfort, sometimes waking up being annoyed with it, either it's too tight and bothering my skin or too loose and leaking, maybe throwing air up into my eye and worsening my dry eye. I've had to go to using drops and gels on my eyeballs every night. But apparently it's not leaking enough to report, because my "high leak time" is always zero.

The machine's electronic algorithm is incomprehensible. The one on the display doesn't exactly match the one that uploads onto my phone and that really bothers the exacting engineer in me. For example, the display will tell me my score is 100, then the upload will say 94. Things aren't off enough to matter really, the machine might be calculating things two different ways: One for the morning display, with the goal of encouragement, and another way to upload for insurance compliance. But why? A score of 100 with a smiley face no less when the real score is only 94 feels like a participation trophy instead of honesty, if that's what they're doing.

Then there's the whole question of how and how often to wash what, I've still not set up the recurring supply delivery because I was going to settle on a mask first. So it's just all these tasks added to my life to keep up with the contraption I'm still struggling with. I guess it will eventually settle into a routine but I'm not there yet.

But the most important thing is it's working, and working well. I'm averaging 6 1/2 to 8 hours of sleep every night and 0-1 get up to pee, waking up energentic and happy. Before I would sleep 4-6 hours and pee 1-3 times a night, then wake up feeling horrible wishing I weren't even alive. So yes, it's a success.

I would consider myself a success and you will too. I've been using a CPAP machine for 40 years. I couldn't sleep without one. I started off with severe sleep apnea. The first machine I had sounded like a truck idling next to me. Now, they are so quiet you wonder if they're on. The hardest adjustment for me was the mask. I've tried a bunch of masks. It took a few years to find one that worked and I was happy with. Just don't give up. I'm sure by now you haven't. I haven't run any marathons, but the CPAP did allow me to get a full night sleep, wake rested, and stay awake all day. Good luck with yours.

Greetings!

My history: In my late 50s, and have been a loud snorer for decades. In my 20s I did a sleep test and the technician said "you don't have sleep apnea, you just snore really, really loudly!" So I went on through life thinking everything was good.

But over time, I started to wake up more frequently to urinate, which I attributed to normal male issues. When I got home from work, I would fall asleep in my easy chair most every day. I am active, I exercise somewhat regulary, am not overweight (much), and play golf several times a week. But my energey levels declined and I found myself going to bed earlier and earlier, and not wanting to get up.

In the past few months things got worse. My mouth would be so dry durining the night that my tongue would stick to my mouth. Quite regularly I was waking up gasping for air and out of breath with a racing heart. Less commonly I woke up during the night with a THROBBING headache, that pretty quickly resolved with deep breathing, almost hyperventilating. So, I decided to take action, based on the gasping and headaches....the rest of the symptoms I did not recognize as potential apnea symptoms.

I didn't want to go back to a sleep center and go thorugh all of that time and expense again - I was pretty sure I had sleep apnea and I wanted to get a CPAP machine. So I searched the web and read a few reviews, then ordered my sleep test ring from happysleep.com. After 3 nights of wearing the ring and recording, I scheduled my online consultation, and the doctor reviewed my results: severe sleep apnea. I was blowing 59 events an hour and my oxygen level was dropping into the 80s. There was my answer! When we first reviewed the severity scale, I thought it said I did not have apnea because it looked clear. Then I saw my "red dot" on the far rigth of the severity scale.

The same day, I logged on to cpap.com and put together my first order, knowing nothing about CPAP equipment and accessories. The doctor suggested Resmed, so I went with the Resmed 11, an f20 mask, and heated tube. I quickly recieved my order and assembled it all and went through the coaching and testing at my kitchen table. My unit was set at 5-15, EPR off, and auto humidity and tube temp.

Then came the night! I strapped my mask on and felt a bit uncomfortable, even a bit clausterphobic. I put some headphones and the music was calming, and I nodded off to sleep. An hour or two later I was awakened by what felt like a leaf blower inside my mask, puffing my checks out and my first mask "blowout!" I ripped it off, calmed myself back down, and repeated the process, nodding off to sleep again. The senario repeated itself a time or two, but generally I flt that I slept fairly well between leaf blower episodes.

When I woke up and the sun rose I was elated to have made it throught the night, and I was breathing smoothly through my nose without a leaf blower in my face. My nose bridge was sore, but I felt better rested than I had in ages. I got up, made my coffee, and checked my fitbit.....It reported a better night's sleep than I'd had in ages, if not ever. Total sleep time was up, and deep sleep and REM were double my normal. The My Air app posted a score of 88 with 8 hours of useage, and only 6 events per hour!

Night two was not as good, as the feeling of clausterphobia was worse, and the leaf blower was brutal. My nose bridge was really sore. That's when I sought out this board, and read voraciously the great ideas and advice here. First, I tweaked the settings, and knocked the top number down to 10, and turned on EPR with level 3. I also ordered a couple of different size and style mask.....I bought the memory foam F20, and also bought an F30i to get the mask completely off my nose.

SInce then, I have been alternating mask types every couple of nights, though the F20 will ultimately be my mask, I believe. My nose is getting used to it with the memory foam, and the pressure of it is more comfortable to me.

My AHI, while not zero, is usually below 10, or "not elevated." I have adjusted my level back up to 5-15 to get the full benefit as I have gotten used to the pressure. I am more rested, I no longer fall asleep in my chair, there is no gasping or headaches, and each night it becomes easier and more comfortable to mask up. There have been several unexpected benefits....instead of getting up 3-4 times per night to urinate, I don't get up at all. Never. I had no idea that was a symptom of apnea! Also, I used to frequently have nighttime indigestion, and that too has vanished.

The CPAP has been life-changing, and I wish I had done it years ago. Thanks to everyone who has posted and offered their advice and wisdom here .