CPAPtalk.com

jnk... wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:42 am

esel wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:38 am

Oh boy I do that twice a year and I still haven't got used to it.

I didn't know bloodletting was still a thing.

Actually I am donating my blood two times a year but just cannot get used to the darn horse needles they use. (gigantic needles)

But the way I got bloodletting every month for a polycythemia (increase in red blood cells). I got checked for all sort of possible defects, working environment, nothing and after 2 years it was gone !?! ...

The only way I could see CPAP use over a prolonged period of time then sudden disuse being a problem would be with the brain, and lack of safeguards put in place to not let you sleep deeply that would have been taken away after years of treatment... That's not to say any of us should stop using our CPAPs or that I think were "addicted" to our machines... I'll admit I am addicted to breathing... sorry it's just the way my body works.

Cpap dependency arguments dont make much sense to me... it's like saying you lost a leg and are using crutches instead of a prosthetic... that doesnt make you addicted to crutches... but you may still fall on your face if the crutches are taken away suddenly.

XPAP devices simply pressurize the air we breathe in order to provide a bracing effect like timber braces in a mine shaft. The the extra pressure inside the airway vs thr lower overall pressure outside the airway helps to maintain that airway. Were still breathing on our own with out any prompts from the XPAP... I dont see how simply increasing the airway pressure would have any effect on decreased drive to breath.

One might be able to argue that for more advanced machines that do actually trigger a breath or try to breath for a patient, that these machines in the long run could be an issue... but that is outside the scope of my exsperiance.

For the vast majority of PAP machines there should not be any way for most of the issues brought up by the OP to occur.



It's my opinion that after prolonged use of CPAP that suddenly stopping its use could be rather more dangerous but only because the condition that the PAP is treating is most likely still present and if you have been successfully treating that condition for a long time, your brain may not be on guard like it was before, waking you up, or not letting you sleep deeply... and you might exsperiance worse apnea symptoms then before it was being treated... but that's just my opinion. You should still use your machine all the time every time.

Rest well

Gryphon

camper wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 03, 2019 9:15 am

. . . do you folks know where to look for more info on interpreting CPAP results, for beginners?

The beginnings of the recognition of the value of flow tracings, back when everyone in the emerging industry was a beginner, is interesting. Uncle Rapoport is a guy who reads flow tracings (or squiggly lines, as I like to call them) for fun and entertainment on his days off. So let him explain them in the following video. Note particularly his mention of "sustained inspiratory flow limitation," something I believe is often overlooked when making pressure decisions for some of those people with so-called "mild" OSA, or even UARS, or neither one, but who have especially bad sleep when their airway narrows just a bit:

https://youtu.be/SJ7cDggUJks?t=1512

My overall take on that is that the world is not divided up into "those with OSA" and "those without OSA"; the world is divided up into "those who benefit from PAP therapy by getting better sleep with optimized pressure(s)" and "those who do not."

The test is not the disease.