Greetings and Thanks

Hello,

Where to start? When I was little I could never breath through my nose. When I was 14, I moved from my normal pediatrics doctor to a new doctor and he took a look up my nose and asked when I broke my nose. I answered never but we eventually learned my nose had been broken at birth (on the birth canal). This left my nose 100% blocked and left me a mouth breather.

I underwent surgery soon after and the doctor "roto rooted" my nose. For the first time I could through my nose. It was awesome. I had hoped that my snoring would disappear and life would magically be better. Unfortunately I still snored pretty bad. I am 27 and not much had changed.

A few months ago I was camping with my friends and they were commenting that it sounded like I was having trouble breathing when I slept. I brought this up with my doctor along with the fact that I had problems snoring. He recommended a sleep study.

This was your pretty typical sleep study. 26 sensors, etc. I was not on CPAP at the beginning. I fell asleep within 1 hour. The tech woke me up around 2:30 AM and put me on a CPAP (a non-trivial 30 minute task) and told me to go back to sleep. I couldn't. I ended up laying awake for 3 hours until they told me to go home.

I was pretty depressed. I wish I could have finished the study so that I knew my pressure. The tech said I would have to come back so they could get a target pressure for me. I figured it would be 10 days until I got my results, then I would have to schedule another sleep study which was booking 2 months out, plus another 10 days to analyze the results. It was looking to me like it would be months before I got anything useful.

Two days later my phone rang and it was some DME supplier telling me to come pickup a machine! My sleep study interpreter forwarded a prescription to him. I later learned that my AHI during the study was 81! I got a copy of my report (thanks to this websites recommendations), and read it several times. I was having major sleep issues. Since they didn't know my pressure, they subscribed an AUTOSET II. I slept with it for the first time on Feb 5th. It was interesting. The first night I woke up several times "fighting" the pressure. I felt like I couldn't exhale due to the pressure. After a couple days I got used to it and things are much better now.

I have used my machine every day since I got it. When I get up I write down the results shown on my AUTOSET's LCD. I don't have the software yet. I am not sure if I really need it as I have the AHI numbers from the device. My pressure is averaging around 11 (min 9, max 13.2). My leakage is always 0.02 L/s. My AHI is hanging out around 4 (max 5, min 3.1). My AI is between 0 and 1 every day.

I feel a bit better during the day. Surprisingly, I don't feel drastically different. The main thing I notice is my sleep cycle has become much more regular. I am going to bed at the same time more consistently and getting up around the same time. I used to have huge variations in my sleep schedule.

I wanted to thank all the people who put so much work and knowledge up into this website. When I first realized I had a sleeping disorder I found this website via Google and I read all the "Where A CPAP Newbie Should Start" stuff and the "Our Wisdom" stuff. I learned a lot, and I appreciate everyones work. Regular posters should also realize that many people read the forums and the information supplied on the website, but may never post. I admit, I almost didn't post anything because the contents here already answered most of my questions.

It's also amusing how questions seem to get asked that I always wonder. Today I was reading my past AHI numbers and wondering what was "good"? I went to cpaptalk and Jason S had just asked if we should be chasing zero. That thread pretty much answered my questions.

Thanks for all the information and keep up the great work,

Barry

Gotta echo these sentiments. I often wonder where my therapy might have gone without this site. I will recommend it to anyone that is starting CPAP therapy. If after visiting here they don't end up compliant, then they're pretty much down the denial path anyway and won't be bothered with anything like this. But at least they will have been given a fighting chance...

I don't mean the above compliance statement to sound shallow or harsh, but I really believe it's all a state of mind. I'm not any more tolerant of stuff like his than the next person, but humans will adapt if it's really in their mindset to do so. I've slept twice without my machine since starting this and both times were while sitting on an airplane. When I first began therapy I was prepared to read all night if necessary but I was not going to take off the mask. In the immortal words of Nike, Just Do It.

Welcome to the board, Barry!

Glad you found your way here, 'cause what SharkBait said here is so true --

SharkBait wrote:at least they will have been given a fighting chance...

That's what many need -- to see the kinds of tips, hints, fixes, tweaks, help, support, information, etc. they can find on this board. So that they actually can do this kind of therapy. Instead of having a busy DME tighten the straps more and say, "You just have to get used to it."