Re: Newbie would like to hear success stories, please.
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 10:40 am
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!
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!