A new apnea patient's journey - starting with Provent

PS - The Ventus Medical website itself states:

• The safety and effectiveness of Provent Therapy in pregnant
women, children under the age of 18, and patients with central
sleep apnea have not been established.

So at that point, after reading and studying my lab results and report, and consulting with both my internist and my endrocrinolgist/sleepdoctor, I felt it wise to rule out trying Provent, gritted my teeth and made up my mind I was going to go with my VPAP machine, my mask and I was going to make a go of it.

Had I not gotten that diagnosis, I likely would have tried Provent first. But once I knew my diagnosis, I determined that I was not going to try something which at best might pose the risk of masking the severity of my condition.

Nate

NateS wrote: …The degree of sleep fragmentation and disruption of sleep architecture places the patient at risk for cognitive impairments and metabolic sequelae including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome.[/i]

Holy Mortality Nate! That's a pretty dire prognosis and I think you, your significant other and your doctors all made the best choice when staring down the barrel of a diagnosis like that. The cognitive impairments would scare me the most. I'm glad to hear you have someone that can take this journey with you and stick by you.

Wow - just wow. Thanks for sharing your story - it's powerful. I feel a bit cavalier now. I am sure that if Provent wasn't a reasonable option for me my Dr. would not have prescribed it based on the preliminary results.

I hope things are considerably better - you look healthy behind your awesome mustache. Yes, I'm jealous of it

neurotony wrote:…The cognitive impairments would scare me the most.

Me, too.

Thanks for your good wishes!

And thanks for your new avatar/pic. But I'm having a hard time determining whether it depicts you opening a bottle of Tabasco with your teeth or celebrating the New Year with a paper horn.

Nate

neurotony wrote:

NateS wrote: …The degree of sleep fragmentation and disruption of sleep architecture places the patient at risk for cognitive impairments and metabolic sequelae including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome.[/i]

Holy Mortality Nate! That's a pretty dire prognosis

I can start to believe you are either not a Ventus plant or you are a good internet actor.

That "dire prognosis" applies to every one of us with sleep apnea who do not treat the condition effectively. It is just a matter of how long it takes with severity being a major determining factor.

neurotony wrote: I am sure that if Provent wasn't a reasonable option for me my Dr. would not have prescribed it based on the preliminary results.

Just keep reading case histories here about what doctors have presribed.

Neurotony and SU,

If I didn't have nasal congestion and sinus issues, I would be trying Provent right along with you. I have greatly struggled with CPAP (long story).

Anyway, I wish you all the luck in the world and will anxiously await your next updates on your progress.

49er

05/04 4th Night sleep on Provent



I fell asleep without the monitoring app on, but turned it on when I woke up at 2:15. The phone fell off my chest and stopped recording around 5. So this is only a 2.5 hour recording.

The two spikes at 3:00 am - 3:30 am and 4:20-4:30 am are me snoring. I am wondering if it's because I'm breathing through my mouth. After the 1st 7 days I'll try another app to see if it records sleep position better. If anyone knows of one please let me know.

Here are some early Trends:

1) I do wake up once or twice during the night on Provent. I don't recall waking up before, but I may have.

2) It mitigates the snoring but isn't stopping it completely. I may need to try a chin strap or positional sleep therapy to achieve 100%. It'd be worth a try.

3) I'm waking up before my alarms, feeling rested. The morning snooze-button marathon appears to be abated on Provent, but the jury is still out.

4) I don't feel tired during the day, especially notable in the later afternoon. I've fallen behind on my Hulu queue simply because I'm not strapped to the couch after work because I'm too tired to do anything.

5) I don't feel the need to drink coffee throughout the day. Yesterday I only had two espressos in the morning and one with lunch. Coffee is typically my throughout-the-day drink with 2-4 espressos in the morning while I'm getting ready and 3-6 throughout the day. I'm going to start tracking it.

6) I haven't said "Gawd - I HATE YOU!" to myself in a few days. I frequently felt this way because I couldn't find my keys or forgot a word or lost something I had in my hand 2 minutes ago. I spent a lot of my day searching for things I should know where they are. Of all these early trends, this is my favorite. When I took the Apnea Questionnaire this question stuck out to me because I didn't realize it was something other people went through too. It's embarrassing to admit, but I said this a lot to myself and, even worse, I felt that way.

49er wrote:Neurotony and SU,

If I didn't have nasal congestion and sinus issues, I would be trying Provent right along with you. I have greatly struggled with CPAP (long story).

Anyway, I wish you all the luck in the world and will anxiously await your next updates on your progress.

49er

Yeah, I do feel lucky to not have nasal issues. I still need to have some back-up for when I catch a cold or allergies hit. I tend to get allergies more in the Fall than in the Spring. I don't know why.

I wonder why they don't make a mouth-guard with the same venting strategy? If you are only breathing through your mouth it makes sense and it might work. Though I guess it could get messy if the pressure is pushing snot out your nose. Ewww... ok, maybe NOT a good idea. Heh.

This sounds like BiPAP in reverse???

10 cm (or 8 ) EPAP and 0 cm IPAP???

Sounds impossible to tolerate.

But what do I know.

That looks like a bottle of Cholula hot sauce.
Yum.

Therapist wrote:This sounds like BiPAP in reverse???

10 cm (or 8 ) EPAP and 0 cm IPAP???

Sounds impossible to tolerate.

But what do I know.

Are you talking about me? Mine is 8-10 IPAP and 4-6 EPAP, so 8/4-->10/6.

Nates wrote:I'm having a hard time determining whether it depicts you opening a bottle of Tabasco with your teeth or celebrating the New Year with a paper horn.

Chunkyfrog got it right - Chalula! Apparently I like it hot! Heh.

05/05 Night's sleep on Provent



The results are pretty consistent if not boring. Light snoring from 2:45 - 3 am and again from 3:30 - 4 am. I could hear in the 3:30-4 am an increase in wind volume that leads me to think my mouth is open while I'm snoring. So, it seems I'm breathing through my mouth during the snoring periods. The rest of the spikes are me moving around and ambient noise.

I feel rested and alert this morning. I'm going to go ahead and get the 30-day prescription tomorrow then.

I think I'm going to add a chin strap on Tuesday to see if it stops the snoring. Does anyone know where I get one or have a comfort recommendation on a brand or style?

Having tried them, I would rule out all single strap models because the single strap on top of your head will keep slipping forward or backward off its necessary 90 degree position from your chin, rendering them useless. Any chinstrap worth its salt needs to come into contact with your head at two different angles, or you will be messing with it all night.

I have had good results with the Ruby ChinStrap, custom sized by pre-measurement and it works great because there is nothing to position or adjust. It just slips over my head and everything stays in place because of all the contact points to keep it in place, and all the open space cutouts to make it cool and comfortable.

See the pictures online at various cpap websites to get the idea. I got it from Sleep Restfully. I think only twenty bucks. Important to pre-measure if you want a perfect fit, better than the Ruby adjustable model.

Nate

Nate, I've never heard of a custom Ruby. Do you just mean that you buy it in small, medium, or large? How is it better than the adjustable one? I would think it would stretch out over time and become too loose. Have you had yours long enough to speak to that?

NateS wrote:Having tried them, I would rule out all single strap models because the single strap on top of your head will keep slipping forward or backward off its necessary 90 degree position from your chin, rendering them useless. Any chinstrap worth its salt needs to come into contact with your head at two different angles, or you will be messing with it all night.

I have had good results with the Ruby ChinStrap, custom sized by pre-measurement and it works great because there is nothing to position or adjust. It just slips over my head and everything stays in place because of all the contact points to keep it in place, and all the open space cutouts to make it cool and comfortable.

See the pictures online at various cpap websites to get the idea. I got it from Sleep Restfully. I think only twenty bucks. Important to pre-measure if you want a perfect fit, better than the Ruby adjustable model.

Nate

Good point about the multi-angle straps, I guess a scarf won't be the trick

I see what you mean by not getting the adjustable, the fixed size look like they'd be more comfortable and more effective. SU has a good point too if they are prone to expanding over time. I'll see if the Care Medical here in PDX has them when I pick up the Provent Monday or Tuesday.

I'm not sure I really need to stop all snoring since I feel better overall, but it would be nice to know if there's a 100% solution. Maybe I'll even feel better-er
Thanks for all the help and support!