1.5 successful - hurray

Hi All,

I wanted to get back to everyone. My denial about apnea ended whn my god daughter had me tape myself whwen I was asleep. It terrified me.I sounded like I had small tortured animals in my chest.

My sleep study finally came. 101 episodes an hour. I am, indeed, lucky to ne alive and to have somehow not had a stroke or coronary.

My research in earnest began. I think I read a thousand reviews of equipment and about the illness. I didn't know it, but by looking and examining the equipment so throughly I was desensitizing myself to the day when I would go to the DME in the box to choose. Apria is a lousy group, but I was well armed for complacency, and lack of education. As they did not have a place to lie down, I insisted my doctor let me into his sleep lab so I could try on masks laying down. They had a total of five model, but one was the Quattro Mirage. It fir me very well, and I had decided that it probably would not be worse than a face mask (I love to snorkel). I was so darn the sleep weaver (didn't have it), but I did try the Swift FX for her. For some reason the nasal pillows with tape or chin strap or both (mouth breather) seemed overfly cumbersome.

I stuck to my guns and vote the top of the line machine - the S9 with the slim and heated hosed and the 5hi humidifier.

Today was the day, and I awoke with a 103 degree fever and had to go to the doctors. My husband picked up the equipment, and I tried it. The S9 is amazing. I cannot tell if it's on without lifting the mask to hear the air. The ramp up, warmed air humidifier, the apap all combined to make it relatively easy to go actually nap.

I slept 1.5 hours. I had a slight sense of waking to lick my lips. The machine was on auto set, and when I took it off, it was blowing like a jet engine. So the pressure must have been quite high.

I am writing this to thanks the vets here and to tell people who are just facing this that while the whole notion seems so abhorrent to start, I can see that there will be a time when this will just be a part of my night time routine. Perhaps once I feel better, not only from the fly but from the sleep deprivation, I will again have the energy, enthusiasm and health to drop the weight I

BTW, NO plastic smell. Is it the deluxe hose with the S9?

Only on irritation issue and I'll ask in a different post.

Namaste,
MoonBear

Quattro Mirage Full Face Mask
SP Elite
5hu humidifier
slim line heated hose

Good for you! Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. You can find it everywhere. It took waking up from anesthesia with the anesthesiologist telling me I have apnea and need a sleep study to convince me to get it checked. There must be a large proportion of the population that is undiagnosed.

I know what you mean.

I have a pathological dislike of doctors and hospitals. I've known for...oh...probably 5 years that I have sleep apnea. It's pretty severe - though I still haven't seen the results of my titration sleep study. I had my first one back in August, and they put me on an APAP machine 2 days later...my 90% average pressure is 18 cm h2o.

Over the last few years I've done scads of research on sleep apnea, and cpap/apap machines. My RT actually pointed out that I probably know as much about it all as a lot of RT's. :-p Like you, I insisted on a Resmed S9 Autoset. And...like you, I'm a diver - scuba more then snorkel, but hey...

I actually found that wearing the mask and headgear wasn't a big deal. Very similar to scuba aparatus...just a sort of reversal of breath directions. Used it for 9.5 hours the very first time I put it on...and could *not* believe how much better I felt in the morning.

Moonbear congrats!!! Great machine too . Suggestion for dry lips: lip balms! I like the Badger brand (I found it at Whole Foods and a health food store), it's pricey but feels nice and doesn't dry out overnight like so many do. This is not a lip gloss which likely has petroleum which degrades the mask's silicon.

Thanks all for writing. Next time I am near a Whole Foods, I will definitely score some of the lip balm. Sending warm regards,

Namaste, MoonBear