Is CPAP worth it for advanced age?

This is one miserable experience. I'm on day 6 of the "hell week" of titration to see what I need or am doing in my sleep.

I've always considered "treatments" at my age to be something where quality of life is the paramount concern.
So far this ain't "quality."

(Male, 74 yrs old, 6', 250 lbs down from 354 a few years back
but plateaued against further loss anything short of starving.

Upper moderate apnea.

Presently on titration (test) machine Resmed S9 for the evaluation week.
Have swapped masks trying for best fit. Start pressure is 8 cmh20.)

It gets better

You'll get used to it

Keep pushing through

It will enhance your life!

This treatment can be difficult at first--not unusual for any new user.
I am sorry about your frustration, but I promise it does get better.
You sound like your mind is sharp, 74 is not necessarily all that "old".
Many people continue to work/play/laugh into their 80's and beyond.
Hang in there--you have friends here.
My machine has helped me feel younger and happier beyond measure.

Napnea, you are still young - my dad is 94 and doing very well - apart from a leg that got messed up in the repair of a broken hip. I am just about to turn 61, so still a young un, at least in my dad's eyes! You say your pressure starts at 8 - what does it end up at? The mask you are using makes a huge difference, so if you can be a little more specific about your problems, maybe someone will be able to give you specific answers. For example, do you know if it is leaking?

It does get better - although it is a pain at the moment, it is far better than the alternatives. Before you know it, you will be so happy you stopped by here and asked a few questions. Reading on this forum will give you answers to the questions you didn't know you had!

You say your pressure starts at 8 - what does it end up at? The mask you are using makes a huge difference, so if you can be a little more specific about your problems, maybe someone will be able to give you specific answers. For example, do you know if it is leaking?

The pressure ...seems.... to be okay for MOST of the time.

But mask leakage is SEVERE..... when it does it.
I started a different thread about sleeping on my right side.
Whatever is going on shoots the pressure up to 14 or so within minutes of turning over. Then the mask no longer just leaks, but it honks and poots and just goes wild.

I have tried both the medium and large full face masks and both will do it on that right side so much so that I now spend the night subconsciously AVOIDING changing position.

I also started a thread on "final" machines as I am curious if the selection of masks and stuff is wide enough to actually find a COMFY set of devices.

This forum helps a lot.

I'm a Kaiser patient and we get "compartmentalized" for any SPECIAL treatments to the point that I don't know WHO my "sleep doctor" is to ask pertinent questions.

Napnea wrote:This is one miserable experience. I'm on day 6 of the "hell week" of titration to see what I need or am doing in my sleep.

I've always considered "treatments" at my age to be something where quality of life is the paramount concern.
So far this ain't "quality."

(Male, 74 yrs old, 6', 250 lbs down from 354 a few years back
but plateaued against further loss anything short of starving.

Upper moderate apnea.

Presently on titration (test) machine Resmed S9 for the evaluation week.
Have swapped masks trying for best fit. Start pressure is 8 cmh20.)

firmly in that 'denial' stage, I see.

no, you can foregoe the cpap, and instead, lay there gasping and choking all night, blissfully unaware of the damage you're doing to your heart, and increasing your chances of congestive heart failure, heart attack or stroke.

if your loved ones are lucky, you'll have a heart attack and not a stroke.... sucks for them to be having to change your diapers.

's up to you.

Any idea how hard it is to change a diaper on an 80 YO lady who insists she didn't mess her britches?
You have to be firm and patient, work fast, clean her up good, and always give her a big hug.

Not using Xpap, can improve your ability to stop aging. When you die in your sleep, you don't age anymore. Jim

However much longer you're going to live, optimal treatment will give you a better quality of life. You just have to iron out the kinks, first. Take a look at my blogpost below for "Taming the Mirage Quattro" Whatever mask you are using, these tips will help.

And if you really can't make this mask work, you are in LUCK. One thing Kaiser does well is have lots of sample masks to try and even take home to use at home under your own sleeping conditions. They'll even give you more than one at a time to try. So call the sleep clinic at Kaiser and go in to try other masks. There's not even a co-pay.

Hang in there, this is a problem to solve.

you can foregoe the cpap, and instead, lay there gasping and choking all night, blissfully unaware of the damage you're doing to your heart, and increasing your chances of congestive heart failure, heart attack or stroke

Why is it that when I stop the CPAP and go sleep in the recliner, I actually get some SLEEP?

I am such a light sleeper that I find it hard to believe that I have ever gasped or choked due to cessation of breathing.
Yep, I know this is a denial comment, but it sure puzzles me how my heart feels fine UNTIL I hook up to the machine.
Then I get skipping beats and a small degree of pain (not MI pain) but still pain and discomfort FROM having air blowing into me.

The FIRST night I tried the titration machine, I woke up feeling pretty good. Each successive night has led to being WAY more tired the next day.

I guess I can't argue with clinical evidence but man, this thing is truly miserable.

Welcome to the board.

Please fill in your equipment on your profile so we can help you better. There's a link in my signature line.

We can probably help you work through the problems and make it more comfortable. Unfortunately, the doctor and CPAP salesmen (DME) often aren't much help with actually living with it.

As for not believing you have apnea, that's a common reaction. Your brain learned to sleep through apnea slowly over time. It's like people who live next to the commuter rail line and sleep through the trains thundering by every 15 minutes.

As for age, your remaining years will be much less miserable and healthier with CPAP.

Napnea wrote:

you can foregoe the cpap, and instead, lay there gasping and choking all night, blissfully unaware of the damage you're doing to your heart, and increasing your chances of congestive heart failure, heart attack or stroke

Why is it that when I stop the CPAP and go sleep in the recliner, I actually get some SLEEP?

that's the denial part.

you're unconcious, so you don't know what's happening to you... get a video camera and record the noises you make, and how often you shudder, and gasp, and shake, and twitch around.... that's not *sleep* that's desperation, and fighting for air, and killing your organs.... but, as long as nobody cares about you, go for it, you're only hurting yourself.

Napnea wrote:
I am such a light sleeper that I find it hard to believe that I have ever gasped or choked due to cessation of breathing.

exhaustion does wonderful things to your not being able to remember.

Napnea wrote:
Yep, I know this is a denial comment, but it sure puzzles me how my heart feels fine UNTIL I hook up to the machine.
Then I get skipping beats and a small degree of pain (not MI pain) but still pain and discomfort FROM having air blowing into me.

you've managed to psych yourself out... 'blowing into me'. there's no air blowing into you, it's just a *TINY* amount of pressure to help keep your airway open, and, by TINY, I mean that 17cm/h2o works out to about 1/4th pound per square inch. it *seems* like a leaf blower because the machine intelligently tries to maintain whatever pressure it's set for, adjusting for the vent rate that's in the mask, by blowing more, or less air to reach a pressure, so when you take the mask off, it goes up to high to try and maintain pressure, which, of course, it can't. as soon as you put the mask on, the blower slows down, a LOT. you can hear it if you put your ear on the flow generator (the thing with the LCD)... you can even hear it speeding up and slowing down as you breath in and out.

Napnea wrote:
The FIRST night I tried the titration machine, I woke up feeling pretty good. Each successive night has led to being WAY more tired the next day.

I guess I can't argue with clinical evidence but man, this thing is truly miserable.

you've stubbornly refused to fill out the equipment section, or tell anybody (as far as I remember) what your initial sleep test showed. it makes it a lot harder to help you.

if it's a resmed unit, there's a name right there above the power button, there's also a REF number on the back that's medical words for "model number"...

it's starting to seem you don't WANT help, you just want to bitch and whine....

please feel free to prove me wrong!

archangle wrote:Welcome to the board.

Please fill in your equipment on your profile so we can help you better. There's a link in my signature line. .

meh, he's been pissing and moaning here for a month. still hasn't filled in anything.

Napnea wrote:This is one miserable experience. I'm on day 6 of the "hell week" of titration to see what I need or am doing in my sleep.

I've always considered "treatments" at my age to be something where quality of life is the paramount concern.
So far this ain't "quality."

(Male, 74 yrs old, 6', 250 lbs down from 354 a few years back
but plateaued against further loss anything short of starving.

Upper moderate apnea.

Presently on titration (test) machine Resmed S9 for the evaluation week.
Have swapped masks trying for best fit. Start pressure is 8 cmh20.)

My grandfather came to visit us from the Netherlands with his new girlfriend when he was 86.

The quality of you life will increase dramatically once you get in dialled in, including the "girlfriend" part.

When I had mi diagnostic test, I learned that I was averaging 79 events per HOUR. That's more than once a minute. I thought I slept fine, just not long enough. I didn't even reach deep or rem sleep when events tend to be worse. My sleep was so bad that I couldn't even get to the more healing sleep.

With cpap, I feel so much better. No more tired all the time. Not grumpy at the drop of a hat. No nightmares of being chased. No more waking up choking and gasping.Bathroom trips are rare instead of every couple hours. Able to share a hotel room with out being yelled at all night. No more morning headaches.

All that and I feel better, fall asleep faster, and my blood pressure is much better. My quality of life is so much better. I still have some bad nights here and there. But a bad night with cpap is still better than I night when I fall asleep without it. I may feel like the night without it was easier, but the day after is much harder.