cpap and surgery didnt work grrrrrrrr

i have sleep apnea. got a cpap. 3 masks . didnt help me at all.
did surgery- dev. septum. turbinate removed.
any other advice for what i can do.

neworleans39 wrote:i have sleep apnea. got a cpap. 3 masks . didnt help me at all.
did surgery- dev. septum. turbinate removed.
any other advice for what i can do.

Did someone "suggest" that the surgery would get you off your machine? (If they did, they lied.)

My advice would be to get busy and figure out how to make your CPAP therapy work. At least you should be able to breathe through your nose now.


Den

How long did you try making your cpap work?

If a few months, it wasn't long enough to be a good judge if it would work.

I went through more than a dozen masks before finding one that works best for me. Many have had to try way more than three to find the one that works best for them so keep trying.

Do you have the software to monitor your therapy? How did you judge it wasn't working? By how you feel? Many of us feel worse initially due to the adjustment period dealing with the therapy.

If you still have equipment, go to your member page (top left), and then fill out your profile (text please, not icons) in as much detail as possible - full name of machine, masks, etc. It is quite possible that you were not started on the ideal stuff to begin with, or received no help in mask fitting, pressure setting (outside of the MD's initial scripted one), etc. and it's quite possible we can help you as there are loads of people here with lots of knowledge and experience, as well as the fact that there may be newer equipment out there these days.

Welcome, neworleans39. I think that you will find a lot of information and support on this forum. If you didn't have that when you tried CPAP before, perhaps being here will make the difference. I hope so.

I tried on 13 masks during my titration sleep study and mask fitting alone (!) to find one that I thought I could live with. Sometimes it takes some trial and error to find the right solutions for you. There are settings on some machines that can be changed to make therapy more comfortable too.

As Julie suggested, it will help us to help you if you could tell us what machine you have used and which masks you have tried, if you remember. Also, how long ago has it been since you used CPAP, and how long did you try before deciding it wouldn't work for you?

~ DreamOn

As Wulfman has said, your nasal surgery won't take you off of CPAP. Nasal surgery will frequently make it much easier to use CPAP because it should allow you to breath through your nose.

Unless you have a gross malformation, CPAP will work to treat obstructive sleep apnea. The only thing that would be more effective than CPAP would be a tracheostomy, which is a last ditch option. Some people need to try several masks before they find one that they like. A good attitude toward making CPAP work is absolutely essential in making CPAP work for you; without persistence, you could end up like those people who suffer with sleep apnea while their CPAP equipment sits in a closet.