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How many of us who have a backup plan for home use (batery, generator etc) take it with when we travel?

I was visiting my sister and her family over new year, and there was a huge storm and the power went down. I didn't think much of it until I went to bed, and realised that I had no power to run my CPAP. I had the DC cable in the bag though and was rummaging around the house in the dark (I was the last to go to bed) trying to find my car keys, so that I could park it outside the bedroom window, and connect to it's battery when my brother-in-law woke up and connected me to his back system*. If I had been anywhere else, I would have battled to get anything sorted out that night.

We've had a couple of storms at home too - I have used battery power for three nights out of eight...

His backup system consists of a wind generator charging 4 250+ ah batteries and driving a 48V inverter. It supplies his computer, TV, and lights in most rooms. He had disconneted the inverter earlier that night, as he wanted to save the batteries - there were about 30 people staying overnight, and with the public holiday, no-one knew when the power would come back, and the wind generator can't keep the batteries full on it's own. He has spent a fortune on the whole thing, and is planning to upgrade the wind generator from a 500w one to 2000w. Tim the Tool Man Taylor would be proud of him.

Darn, now you have me worrying about power outages while staying in a hotel.

Made me remember that the first two times I stayed in a hotel in here, there were power outages overnight during the first night. The first hotel stay was the job interview one, so it was annoying to find that the alarm clock in the hotel had no battery backup....and I had to scramble in the morning.

Strange thing is that I know I asked in my interview if power outages were a common thing here. They said it wasn't....but it seems to happen too often to me, and power quality has been worse. They did say that the first power outage I experienced was because a garbage truck backed into a power pole that morning. Don't know about the second time....

There was only one other time, and that was in a Kansas City hotel....it happened while I was in the hotel restaurant, and was back before I was done. I heard that on a subsequent night they had guests in hotels to the west evacuate to the lobby to watch for funnels. It was during that week that I woke to hear that an F4/F5 had struck back home. Had to keep telling myself that no news was good news...since news would be focused on the path it had cut through the city and not on what was missed.

The Dreamer.

I wanted to give a brief update of a few recent events in the TAPIII saga.

I did a couple of nights wearing the TAPIII and with a 4.0-4.5 setting on my apap to see if there was a change. It definitely appeared that the TAPIII was having a positive effect. However, I was rolling onto my back, despite wearing a small freebie backpack stuffed with a pillow. Supine (laying on back) sleeping is when I had far and away the most events (apneas/hypopneas) during my sleep study.

So, I was determined to effectively sleep on my side. I have a MUCH LARGER backpack. It has straps and things that go across the front (though not a metal frame, LOL). It also has huge padded straps that your arms go through. I stuffed it full with a bunch of stuff till it was packed very full. I set my machine to 4.0-4.5. I woke several hours later with one of those huge padded straps cutting into my neck in a lot of discomfort. My mask was askew as well. I adjusted it all and went back to sleep for a while. Though I stayed on my side, I did not have a good night ! I had a very short night and a lot of neck pain and jaw pain from twisting my neck and jaw in an awkward position. I went for a massage which helped a little.

I continued to sleep with the TAPIII after this and each night the jaw pain got worse. This morning it was really, really bad. I was hoping that it would subside as I slept with the TAPIII in. I think I need to rest my jaw and either dial the TAPIII back or not wear it. I think tonight I won't wear it and then I'll dial it back a bit and try it.

I was doing very well with the TAPIII. It was quite comfortable until this happened, some pain that occured with adjustments but did not persist if I dialed it back and waited a few days. I really like sleeping with it in since there's no mouth taping, I've had good leak lines, some nearly straight on my nightly reports. It was like the best chin strap in the world and stopped my teeth grinding, too. Chin straps can cause jaw pain and are not as effective in keeping my mouth closed. Though I have been using the cpap with it, I look forward to getting my sleep study and not using the cpap with it to see if the study shows it works.

Clearly, I need to find a comfortable way to side sleep. Part of the problem is that I have the top part of my mattress raised to raise my head for GERD and keep slipping down. So, I'm sleeping on my side but kind of bent up . When I think of all these gyrations, I find it hilarious, BTW. My mattress is propped put by putting large cushions under it. I get into bed wearing a huge backpack stuffed to the gills with pillows, etc. I am wearing a cpap mask. I am wearing a TAP III device. Once the pain goes away I'm going to lower the head of my bed and try something for side sleeping. I think that may help.

I'm still enthusiastic about the TAPIII. I see all this as a temporary setback, and will report my progress as it occurs. If someone else wants to go this route, it may be helpful to read about the setbacks, too.

Rose,

From a fellow night backpacker, thanks again for keeping us informed as I am interested in the TAP.

Hey, buy a mattress designed for exclusively side sleeping.

rooster wrote:Rose,

From a fellow night backpacker, thanks again for keeping us informed as I am interested in the TAP.

Hey, buy a mattress designed for exclusively side sleeping.

What a riot. I'm sure that would do the trick .

I didn't use the TAP last night and the pain is largely gone. I'm going to go another night and go back to it tomorrow. I've come to see that OSA treatment is on ongoing process. Things are continually changing, whether you use the TAP or cpap. Always more adjustments.

This weekend I was successful with side sleeping all night. Hooray!!! I used a large heavy cardboard shoe box, one that was heavier and wider than the kind regular shoes come in. It fit the small freebie backpack with small shoulder straps (not the heavily padded straps of my good backpack). I stuffed the shoe box with polar fleece to keep it from collapsing, so it's not too heavy). It was comfortable (relative to the horrible night described above). I could not roll on my back. Halfway through the night I woke up and changed sides. My autopap was set at 4.0-4.5. My leak line was almost perfectly straight. AHI=1.1. I also put my bed flat rather than having the head raised with the pillows to facilitate side sleeping.

The TAP III device was not dialed all the way out yet, so it's probably not maximized, but along with the other two results that were still low enough without side sleeping all night, I am optimistic!

My sleep study is at the beginning of March, which should be enough time to tweak everything. That's when I'll have a more complete picture of sleeping with the TAP III alone. I will continue to sleep with both the autopap and the TAPIII until then. I probably won't keep the autopap at 4.0, though, unless I want to do another test, since it's just not very comfortable. It feels like I'm not getting enough air.

Now I'll just have to buy another pair of shoes everytime the box is no longer useable

The bad news is that I started getting a lot of TMJ pain, called the dentist and they said I was not supposed to dial it out, but rather leave it where it was. Not sure how I misunderstood, or if they weren't clear. in any case I've not been wearing the device much, waiting for my jaw to heal. It was going fine dialed all the way out then the pain began and kept getting worse and I kept thinking it would go away. Big mistake.

I did dial it back, but am not sure where we started and getting to the dentist means taking off work, etc. So, I'm just letting it heal and hope to see the dentist before the sleep study or postpone the sleep study which I hate to do. I've worn it a couple of nights and had just a bit of pain. I'm going to go very gradually to reintroducing it and see what happens. Eventually I suspect I'll get it right.

It's a bummer because things were going well, very well.

I've come to think that dialing it out to the max is not all that important. Rather it is that it holds your tongue forward so it doesn't fall back. So, this putting it forward apparently is not the right thing to do nor necessary. I'll keep doing the updates.

The other thing is that the manufacturers won't give any info whatsoever. I had a simple question about how to clean the device and they referred me back to the dentist. . Frustrating, and stupid.

I'm still optimistic that I can get it to work. But it certainly is no easier getting this right than getting the cpap right with the mask and everything.

RosemaryB wrote:...........
The other thing is that the manufacturers won't give any info whatsoever. I had a simple question about how to clean the device and they referred me back to the dentist. . Frustrating, and stupid.
........

Probably their lawyers made strict rules to avoid threats of lawsuits for giving medical advice without a license to practice medicine.

I would imagine there is a threshold of adjustment which is effective and above that threshold there may be no additional positive effect.

Good luck with the device.

You should be able to get a UPS (Universal Power Supply) that would do the trick. Try posting on some computer sites. They're often used to keep computers going when the power goes. The draw of an APAP isn't that much, so you might be able to find one to get you through the night.

rooster wrote:

RosemaryB wrote:...........
The other thing is that the manufacturers won't give any info whatsoever. I had a simple question about how to clean the device and they referred me back to the dentist. . Frustrating, and stupid.
........

Probably their lawyers made strict rules to avoid threats of lawsuits for giving medical advice without a license to practice medicine.

I would imagine there is a threshold of adjustment which is effective and above that threshold there may be no additional positive effect.

Good luck with the device.

thanks, Rooster. I think it may be right that more (further out) is not necessarily better.

Things are going fine with the device now. I've dialed it forward quite a bit, but not all the way and I haven't had any pain. Just wanted to let everyone know. The sleep study is the beginning of March. I will post the results once I get them (probably weeks after the study). I'll also update any significant changes in status.

Guest wrote:You should be able to get a UPS (Universal Power Supply) that would do the trick. Try posting on some computer sites. They're often used to keep computers going when the power goes. The draw of an APAP isn't that much, so you might be able to find one to get you through the night.

Hi Guest. I do have a large UPS device and a backup battery. I figure four nights max between the two of them (If I sleep 6 hours). However, that still doesn't solve the camping and light traveling problems. I hope that this device will work well enough to have as a backup and for camping without all the batteries. I'm having pretty good luck with it right now and am optimistic.

Redundancy in systems can be useful. . .

WOO HOO! I just heard back from my doctor and my AHI using the device during the sleep study was 3.7. My oxygen levels stayed above 92% the whole night. I don't know much more, though she is sending me the doctor's report. I will also be getting the hypnogram once I can give them the release of information forms, etc. I'll post that with more details once I have it all, which may be a few weeks since I'm working/going to class for 12 hrs a day most days and have no time to go get it right now. But I wanted to give everyone the good news. I'm very happy about this, needless to say. I'll be sleeping exclusively with the device in place for a while to see how I feel.

Ditto DreamStalker. Your current setup with 2 battery backups has batteries similar to the deep cycle glass mat units only smaller. They are completely sealed and so cannot exhaust fumes any more than yours do. Something to consider.

Rosemary, I'm just trying to clarify this update.

You're now sleeping exclusively with the TAP, no cpap?

Your study results are enviable!!!!! This is very encouraging!!!!!!

Huggers,
B.

Babette wrote:Rosemary, I'm just trying to clarify this update.

You're now sleeping exclusively with the TAP, no cpap?

Your study results are enviable!!!!! This is very encouraging!!!!!!

Huggers,
B.

Thanks, Babette! I am indeed happy with it. I was not willing to use only the TAP until I got my results, which was today. I'm very conservative when it comes to my sleep. So, I mostly used it along with the cpap except for the sleep study. I used it along with the cpap to get the device extended very slowly (over some months). A few nights I fell asleep with it on before I put on my mask and I have very vivid dreams, fwiw. I will start using the TAP for one night, then two, then three in a row, etc. I'd go all out, but I am working solid 12 hour days if you include attending classes, and I want to get used to it gradually.

I will post many more details when I look at the hypnogram and other results. One thing is that I had no REM supine sleep during the study (I asked the doctor and she cheerily answered--I love this woman!) that question. She doesn't have the hypnogram either, though. I had more events during REM though it was side sleeping. So, I will need to side sleep with the TAP, which I expected to do anyway. I'll post more when I get the results and probably on a separate thread to clarify things with pictures. Still, 3.7 is just fine with me and I am extremely happy.