No CPAP, Great Night's Sleep

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Hammer wrote:Ya know there is some really good information & some very helpful people on this board, but there are a hell of a lot of trolls who go into attack mode anytime a contrarian point of view is posted. There isn't a doctor out there that will tell you every single treatment works for every single person for any condition. Some honest doctors will even tell you that sometimes the treatment can be worse than the condition. That's where I am right now and why I came to this board, but even with all the assistance CPAP just may not be right for me. If you can't handle that, I'm sorry. You keyboard cowboys, living in middle America with nothing better to do than blast your holier than thou opinions need to get a life!

You obviously came here for help....It sounds like you are being negative to any advice you are getting. I agree that you seem to be looking for reasons to stop the treatment.

I am curious....how many hours of sleep are you now averaging with cpap? Still the 5 or 6 that you mentioned in your first thread?
How many hours of sleep did you get without the cpap?
And do you have copies of your sleep study results? I don't have time to go back and look in all your other posts but what I am wondering about is how low your oxygen levels went.
I saw where you said you had "severe" OSA but I didn't see a number AHI for that "severe" and I didn't see anything about how low the oxygen levels went.

It's one thing to bail on therapy if the OSA is very mild and the oxygen levels don't drop much and another thing to bail when the OSA is "severe" and the oxygen levels dip into the toilet.

You have had insomnia issues in the past and the machine can't fix insomnia issues if those issues aren't related to the OSA no matter how much we want to put all our issues in the sleep apnea basket.
Of course we don't want cpap therapy to make the insomnia issues worse....which maybe has happened in your situation.

Common side effects of untreated apnea: multiple trips to the urinal at night,
Erectile dysfunction, to name only two.
Color me not surprised he is grumpy.

It really is NOT for everybody.
I turned my CPAP off 10 days ago.

If CPAP works for you and makes your life better then it is a good thing.
If it makes you miserable then it's not.
Only the apnea sufferer him/herself can be the judge of that.

Hammer needs to figure that out for himself and not be berated for not trying hard enough.
Some things just aren't worth getting used to.
Quality of life matters.

Guest wrote:It really is NOT for everybody.
I turned my CPAP off 10 days ago.

If CPAP works for you and makes your life better then it is a good thing.
If it makes you miserable then it's not.
Only the apnea sufferer him/herself can be the judge of that.

Hammer needs to figure that out for himself and not be berated for not trying hard enough.
Some things just aren't worth getting used to.
Quality of life matters.

I think the issue is that this is a forum to help people with sleep apnea get the right treatment they need. It isn't simply a place for smiles and rainbows. Anyone here with experience will try and help find the right treatment, not just hold hands and sing around a campfire. I believe that is why someone comes here and says "I want to quit" the response (which I see as completely appropriate) is DON'T!

If you don't think CPAP is for you and you want to quit, ok, fine, your loss BUT if you post about it here, expect for people to try and get you to change your mind. No one is going to respond with "That's wonderful Hammer! Oh my god, you got a good nights sleep? That's amazing! You know what, be happy, quit, if you feel good then continue on that path brother."

No. They aren't your cheerleaders, here to stroke your ego at any turn. They are a support group, here to keep you going, to find that treatment. Some are "ruder" than others, as in life, everyone has a different personality but all of them made one thing blatantly clear, they want to HELP, they want to help people with sleep apnea. Quitting treatment is never helping anyone, so no one here will ever support that.

I guess my question is, Hammer, what response did you want or expect?

As a rookie here, take this with a grain of salt, Hammer - and I apologize in advance for the lack of brevity. While it may seem a bit like harassment from some, I'd encourage you to weed through everything and seriously consider the straightforward technical advice being offered.

I was diagnosed with mild and moderate OSA (two separate in-home studies) after being forced by my spouse to get help due to excessive snoring. I delayed the doctor's request to start APAP for a few months, thinking "this is mild, I'll wait until it's really necessary - I feel fine now". Then, symptoms began manifesting rather suddenly, over the span of about a month: headaches, nausea and dizziness, lasting all day and night. Frightened, I finally went on APAP, where I proceeded to feel MUCH WORSE. With an AHI averaging < 5.0/hr, and sPO2 low levels continually dipping into the low to mid 80's, for an average of 20-30 minutes per night. I was at my wit's end.

Long story short, a few different sleep doctors / different types of machines and two years later, I'm now starting to feel the effects of therapy recovery. During the summer and fall of 2016, I'd spent Friday-Sunday (taking Friday off work due to extreme fatigue) and every night after work laying in bed, non-functional. This past month, I've just finished a one-week family vacation that included miles of biking, swimming, and walking several miles a day, and a 60-hour work week comprised of a physically and mentally demanding production start-up.

I never, ever, would have made it this far without this forum and the fantastic technical knowledge-base compiled by everyone here, my wonderful pap equipment, months and months of endurance, and the angelic patience of my spouse. I still don't really feel great, but I can get by now. I've also found a pretty good sleep doc after almost 2 years of searching, and I'm feeling a little better every couple of months or so.

Not all OSA is created equal and probably most aren't as complicated or difficult to treat as my particular case. But by commonly accepted medical definition, my condition is actually considered quite benign.

Best of luck with your choice, I hope you're able to analyze which direction to take very carefully before deciding.

C=Adapt - could you have incidentally gotten Meunier's or vertigo around the same time as your OSA (if you had it) developed? Nausea and dizziness are not usually symptoms of OSA.

Julie wrote:C=Adapt - could you have incidentally gotten Meunier's or vertigo around the same time as your OSA (if you had it) developed? Nausea and dizziness are not usually symptoms OSA.

Julie, thanks for bringing up Meniere's. I was never checked for that - had spent a small fortune on just treating the OSA, including an ENT who never brought that up (and I was quite ignorant at the time). My dizziness and nausea have almost completely disappeared, but I have developed some minor tinnitus, which I know to be a symptom of Meniere's.

However, the severe dizziness and nausea happened while I was on APAP, and was worse while on the machine. If I took a few days off the machine, the symptoms would subside, only to re-appear when I went back on it again. I don't have those symptoms anymore on ASV, but perhaps Meniere's was present coincidental with starting APAP? Can Meniere's go away without treatment? You've got me thinking I should make an appointment with a different ENT, but I don't want to over-react.

And sorry for hijacking this thread, Hammer, I'll start another if this appears it's going past another reply.

How's your BP (C-A)? Cpap can lower it enough so that if it was already low, you could have felt dizzy on wakening, but the nausea...?

Hammer wrote:Ya know there is some really good information & some very helpful people on this board, but there are a hell of a lot of trolls who go into attack mode anytime a contrarian point of view is posted. There isn't a doctor out there that will tell you every single treatment works for every single person for any condition. Some honest doctors will even tell you that sometimes the treatment can be worse than the condition. That's where I am right now and why I came to this board, but even with all the assistance CPAP just may not be right for me. If you can't handle that, I'm sorry. You keyboard cowboys, living in middle America with nothing better to do than blast your holier than thou opinions need to get a life!

My only response here is - if you already made up your mind and did not want alternative points of view (which you view as contrarion or questioning) then why would you post the question? Most here feel this is a life prolonging pursuit we are on.

However, if you truly feel it is no longer needed, that is your personal decision the same as my decision is to continue using mine despite the issues I have at times.

My recommendation, if you want to hear it, ask for another sleep study (even an at home one would suffice). Difference between believing you are getting a better nights sleep now and having tons of AI's you are unaware of.

But, again, just my measly 2 cents.