are you fully recovered after CPAP or still tired?Poll pleas

I have to quantify my answer (still feel tired) in that I am recovering from a vitamin D insufficiency and have a newborn, so my sleep is fragmented.

Prior to treatment, I was dozing behind the wheel whilst driving home from work. I dont have that problem at all after treatment. Yes, I'm still a little tired, but without treatment I suspect I would just be a bunch of flowers at the side of the freeway..

I have the complete opposite problem now! I used to be constantly tired and taking several naps all day long. Once my CPAP was all adjusted and everything now I can't get to sleep because I feel so good!!

I voted still a bit tired, though mine is mostly due to noticing all sorts of things that keep me awake now that I'm not so exhausted that I sleep through them (kids making noise, uncomfortable bed, temperature issues, etc.).

I'm not bad at all after 7 months.

My mind is clear again, I need less sleep time to feel rested, I sleep the whole night without waking up I don't feel like taking a nap on day time at least I have been working too hard. The only problem is I don't have a lot of stamina.

It toke 6 months because I was never titrated and my first Dr. was no good. I was 4 months on CPAP at the wrong pressure. The moment I started APAP I saw the fast improvement and it toke not more than 2 extra months to feel my energy was coming back, of course I needed to exercise too to gain the energy back.

As I said the problem I need to work now is to rebuild my energy and physical strength which I lost the months before starting treatment. The machines are not able to do that for us

Here is what I am finding. I am sleeping more soundly than ever. No more night sweats from low SO2 and the resultant higher BP (through the roof Alice!). However, I still find that I awaken 'groggy' and it takes me perhaps fifteen minutes to half an hour to 'get going'. Once going, though, I am good for the day. No fear of nodding off at traffic lights or at the computer screen any more. BUT, BUT, if I lay down on the couch to watch TV for a while I am as good as gone in the evening. For half an hour or an hour. And then I will awaken (fully) and head off to bed where it takes me just a few minutes to fall asleep (on any night).

Do I consider myself fully recovered? I have no idea, but I know that I feel a whole lot better than I did before! And it seems to me that I feel a bit better each week as it goes along.

Same here. 3 years now 3 machines,cpap pressure ranges,and all kinds of mask,chinstrap

I picked fully recovered but...after a month I am not sure that can be the case. I am guessing i have had this dam condition for years and just "started" sleeping for the 1st time in say 5, maybe 10 years. I have read much here over the last 30 days about sleep debt and healing...so bottom line is I think I have more real sleeping to do, a little more healing and will even feel better in the months to come. last week for the 1st time I was pulling the mask off and feeling like i could not breath, someone on this site, BlackSpinner told me that my body was getting o2 for the 1st time in years at night and "calm" myself down when i put my mask on, that I was feeling this way because cpap was WORKING! God bless her as she was right 2 nights of being calm and Bam...all is well.

after 30 days:
way more energy
never take naps any more (always had to take a weekend nap or 2)
no longer go to sleep at 8pm!
sex drive is increasing
Black and I mean black circles under my eyes are 1/2 way gone! ( i was obsessed with theses for the last 4-5 years)
My temper is greatly improved as well as my outlook on life
Focus at work is coming back
i have a feeling of wellness for the 1st time in years

pretty dam good for 30 days but looking for more!!!!

Glenn

I feel way better than before cpap. A lot of my trouble I think stems from the crazy rotating shifts i have to work. I am looking forward to some day retiring and getting to be on a normal sleeping schedule.

I am 2 weeks into treatment. I am a different sort of tired now. The kind of tired that says, "dang - you did a lot today"! Not the, "I'm to tired to do anything except be tired all day" feeling I had prior to therapy. I selected option 1 as it was the closest too how I feel. I don't know that anyone can say they are "fully recovered", instead - let's just say I feel like I am now "fully me".

I'll go along with that. I've been on CPAP for years and years now. Yes, I'm still tired - but I'm 80 years old, with heart problems, COPD, a hip implant, broken back, and other problems.

Oddly enough, after my first diagnosis and prescription, my respirologist has been sufficiently favourably impressed with my semi-annual lab results that he hasn't recommended a further sleep study, or any change from my simple old machine without software.

My hours are those of the elderly - the time get up in the morning is determined by the time I go to bed in the morning, but I do find eight hours sleep seems to suffice. I've been known to fall asleep over the newspaper, as old folks do, but that may more likely be fatigue from a vision problem than OAS.

At my age, I don't expect miracles. But I do get up feeling less fatigued than I did when I retired twenty years ago (and well before my OAS diagnosis and treatment). Comparatively I am feeling much better and more comfortable. I can't even guess what would constitute "recovery", but at least I'm still on the right side of the grass, most of my birth cohort aren't, so I must be getting something right. And I won't crab or throw it back.

LoQ wrote:

williamco wrote:please exclude tiredness that is conclusively caused by other causes. we need to assess the efficacy of CPAP in eliminating tiredness that is cause by apnea

Well, what if we don't know what the cause is? I've seen improvements in my level of energy from doing things with CPAP therapy as well as making changes in other areas.

You presume that we all know what the entire road to health looks like. Some of us don't. I don't know, and my doctors don't know, either. Nobody is withholding information from me, I am not stubborn or refusing to try something, WE JUST DON'T KNOW what all of my problems are! I'm pretty sure some of them are still related to SDB that has not yet been fully treated, but I was also surprised earlier this spring when I began taking a medication for my lungs that improved my energy level. What if part of my problem is an undiagnosed metabolic thing? There are just so many reasons why people could be tired, and I can't just divide up my fatigue into the apnea part and the rest.

I bet that might be true for a lot of people.

I feel like I am in about the same place LoQ describes. I don't know why CPAP therapy does not seem to make me feel as much better as I think it should. Supplemental O2 helps a lot, but does not seem to be the magic bullet either.

Since starting CPAP, I have ruled out anything being physically wrong with my lungs or heart. About the only thing they found is my heart rate drops pretty low at night, but not low enough to be bradycardia. In the last two months I have had my nasal passages roto-rootered and my hiatal hernia repaired.

Right now I think ambien and my slow heart rate at night might have a lot to do with the problem. But without ambien, I don't really get to sleep and my AHI will go through the roof.

The neurologist / sleep doc ordered a new sleep study a few weeks ago and pronounced everything is good. He told me to keep taking ambien and blew-off my problem with CPAP not making me feel that much better. Fortunately my Family Doc continues to be be willing to help me figure it out.

Im in the one percent worse after cpap..

so I dont imagine I will get many folks I can relate with.. so dont read any further if you are recovering..

I am also one of those people who was never tired or sleepy before cpap..

so six months down the road, I have barely been functioning, the only thing different in my life was that
I started cpap.

I sure would like my life back the way it was before cpap, because this is just not "living."

I thought I would give it six more months, but a year is along time to live like this.

whats the alternative? having my life back, and maybe die early?

So am I fully recovered? my irregular heartbeat is gone, nocturia is gone.. thats it..

other than that, I feel like this machine is slowly killing me actually, I simply cannot get any good sleep with this thing
blowing air into me all night long.

To the other people who feel worse than ever, what are you going to do?

I've been on CPAP for about a month now. The first two nights felt AMAZING! I really noticed the difference. Then I had a couple of 'hiccup' days where I went back to feeling totally icky. It seems like I have good days and bad days. I wear my mask most of the night, usually I take it off just an hour or two before waking up (when hubby is rushing around getting ready!) and I can usually tell how many hours I wore it by how I feel the next day. I have noticed a HUGE difference when I miss a night. I instantly go back to morning headaches, TOTAL sluggishness, needing to nap midday...I had no idea how bad I was before CPAP until I didn't wear the thing for a night. I couldn't believe I was living like that for YEARS!

So I am improving, but I think it's a long road. I have years of sleep debt to fix! And my main goal when deciding to start the process of doctors and such was that I needed to lose weight but was to tired all the time to do ANYTHING! (Exercise OR worry about trying to make balanced meals, etc) So I am hoping as time goes on, I will be able to start making those changes in my life, and that will also help me to feel better. I guess it's a multi-layered process. But I definitely recommend that anyone that has been prescribed CPAP to HANG IN THERE! Even if you aren't feeling better right away, you are getting oxygen which you NEED! Even if you don't feel an improvement, your body HAS to be doing better than it would be otherwise!

Sleepyrae