Posted on 10/04/2024 4:53:42 AM PDT by LouAvul
Do you like it? Tolerate it? Of the three types of machines, which do you prefer?
Are they noisy or is it like "white noise?" Caveats? Suggestions? Thanks.
Saved my life. Saved my marriage. I can’t live without it. Got on Monjourno and exercise and lost 40 lbs. Now I don’t really need it but still use it. I use the ne Phillips Respironics and AirSense 11. Nasal pillows Swift FX for the win. Doc has my Cpap turned down to lowest level since I lost weight. That’s the key.
I have tried every mask made and cannot tolerate anything on my face. Its horrible. And the hoses are just as bad. There is a device called Inspire that I’m hoping will be approved by my ins.
Best wishes for you.
Have you tried the CPAP Pro? I love it. No mask, no straps around my head.
BAck when I still had TRICARE I got a RESMED AirSense 10 machine, used it for a year with ZERO objective results - I STILL felt like hammered sh!t in the morning, blood pressure was still a little elevated and I would crap out around noon and nap or fall asleep on my feet.
I got a dental appliance from our family dentist of 25 years which turned this around until the appliance broke; by then our insurance had changed and I couldn’t afford $625 out of pocket charge for the device (basically a HARD night guard for bruxism with a jaw lift bump).
Went back on the CPAP about six months ago as I’m 100% VA disabled and VA has sent me a handful of nasal masks and nasal pillows. Difference being the pillows stick into your nose a bit and are a little easier to get used to. The nasal mask had me wake up in a panic dreaming a face-hugger from ALIEN was on my face and I couldn’t breathe. THAT got thrown away. I have a beard/mustasche so most masks won’t fit. I’ve gotten used to the nasal pillows but they shift a bit during the night and blow air into my eye which wakes me up.
Noise? Silent. The positive pressure pump makes no sound I can hear other than the airflow out the nasal pillows/mask until I put it on.
I’ve been using CPAP now for about six months straight and I STILL wake up like a zombie, have midday slumps (I’m retired, I can nap when I want to) but have more days where I’m awake 5 AM to midnight and get a lot of stuff done, and my BP is a little lower (but for some inexplicable reason goes UP every time I’m at the VA. Heh-heh).
Hope this helps.
I wrestled with mine for years until they green-lighted my sleep apnea surgery.
They reconstructed my nose and removed my uvula, adenoids and tonsils.
What a difference. I now sleep like a rock
Have upper airway (nasal) obstruction (allergies and deviated septum) as well as apnic episodes. Use nasal pillow. Have resmed 11 and portable S2 devices.
Best thing ever for rest and for my marriage. Can’t say enough positive about it.
THIS IS TRUE!
Good studies showing as little as a ten pound weight loss can affect airway patency/flow.
I’m about five pounds over my IBW but even when I was 20 lbs below that a few years back I STILL had OSA.
Sometimes weight isn’t a direct factor, but it can definitely help to lose a few pounds.
This might be unintentional and inevitable if the present WH regime steals the election next month…
Couldn’t survive without my CPAP. - actually use an Auto-Pap (APAP). Had severe obstructive sleep apnea... 72 episodes/ hr of disrupted sleep with oxygen levels falling into the lower 70s (normal is greater than 92%). FYI up to 20% of men and 12% of females have OSA, not always associated, but more frequent with obesity. If interested see: http://nasemso.org/wp-content/uploads/neuro-epworthsleepscale.pdf
Degrees of severity: Normal - less than 5 episodes / hr of abnormal breathing, Mild - 6-15 episodes/hr, Moderate - 16-30, and Severe - greater than 30.
In one study, patients with untreated sleep apnea of moderate degree had an 8 year mortality of 50%.
This is a MAJOR health issue and is so much more than just a snoring issue.
Various treatments are available and CPAP (APAP and BiPap) are the most common remedies, but for those who won’t / can’t tolerate that, other treatments can be implemented. See your physician if you are having any issues with fatigue, snoring, falling asleep easily, concentration issues, low testosterone issues (up to 50% of low T patients have low T and treating with Testosterone can make the sleep apnea worse !!!
I have three machines. They’re all silent. I prefer the nasal pillows over the face mask. Properly inserted I hear nothing but the sound of my own breathing.
Thanks for posting. Health/life BUMP!
What causes sleep apnea? Why not eliminate the cause instead of compensating?
Have one and hate it. Can’t find anything comfortable to sleep with.
“..Saved my life. Saved my marriage....”
+1
Almost the exact same situation here.
As far as the equipment goes, it’s a love/hate thing for me.
I’ve gotten use to using a mask rather than the nasal pillows...each his own.
Hate that hose at times though.
It’s literally a life saver for me and allows me to get a solid night’s rest so I love it from that aspect, but I’ve had to learn to tolerate the equipment. My first machine was quite noisy, but my new one is pretty much quiet. I had no problem sleeping with either one, but prefer the newer one because it’s a much smaller package making it easy to travel with, etc.
I also lost weight and so my machine is now turned down to a pretty low setting.
Can’t sleep without it. No more falling asleep on the couch when I get home from work. Almost never have a sore throat in the am from snoring. I just switched to a BiPAP. Same as a cpap except it adjusts the air pressure based on how you need it.
My mask just slides under my nose rather than covering too much of my face. I suppose the biggest inconvenience is with the hose coming from the top of my head. Sometimes I have to use my hand to keep from getting tangled whe I roll over.
I’ve had a cpap/bipap for 7 years. It is well worth it. I recommend folks get good and tired before going to a sleep study. It’s hard to sleep with 20 wires attached.
I use one religiously now. I do because I bought a wearable blood/ox heart rate monitor which demonstrated to me how low my blood-ox was getting at night without it, scary!
I bought a refurb unit on ebay for a little more than $110. It has an audible alarm, and more importantly for semi-deaf me, a buzzer that wakes me when my blood ox dips below a level you decide (89% for me). A new one is sold on Amazon for about double that:
It records the entire night so you can see how you are doing.
I now think it borders on medial negligence for doctors to simply hand you a machine and then say “good luck” without any monitoring system to make sure it is actually working. Get one of these so your can see how bad the problem is or to provide reassurance that your machine is doing its job for you. Good luck!
I do. I have two, my old Airsense 10 and a newer Airsense 11. They have saved my life, especially the AS10. I used it in the hospital when I had Covid. What kind of questions do you have? I’d be more than happy to share my knowledge and experience.
I’m not crazy about mine but I tolerate it (took getting used to). It sucks when travelling because it’s bulky (I like to travel light). I could get a “travel” CPAP but they are expensive.
But I am told that I no longer snore like heavy machinery.
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