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.
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.
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.
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!
Have one and hate it. Can’t find anything comfortable to sleep with.
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.
I’ve always snored. My dad did too and so does my brother. My brother got a CPAP machine but after a while came to really dislike it. We both independently discovered that if we are a little elevated rather than totally flat, that helps with the sleep apnea. Also, my dentist fitted me for a mouthpiece that keeps me from grinding my teeth (she knew I snored from how I’d been grinding my teeth) but it also keeps me from snoring.
I’ll take that any day over a CPAP. I don’t think I could ever sleep well with either a mask over my face or a couple tubes going into my nose.
Husband and I both have cpaps. He’s always had the full face mask. I started out with the nasal mask, but after a few years I was snoring again with it, so had to adjust to a full face mask. Then, after my last sleep study, I got a new mask for side-sleepers. It’s hard to describe, but the mask sits under your nose and over your mouth, with the hose coming out on top of your head.
I still wake up several times a night from the mask slipping (which results in noise), but that’s better than stopping breathing hundreds of times a night.
The point of it all is NOT to give you a better night’s sleep, but to keep you from dying in your sleep.
I’ve had 3 different units (provided by the VA) since 2005/2006, and honestly, they’ve gotten smaller quieter, and I absolutely cannot sleep without it. I have fallen asleep on a couch, in a chair watching football, etc. - but when I lie down in bed, the mask goes on.
On my 2nd machine & can’t live without it. I have no problem sleeping on my stomach with it but I’m the exception. There are a lot of options. I haven’t met anyone who has gone the Inspire surgery route, but know people who have success with mouth guards and even lasering of their throat but my understanding is that’s only good for several years. Best of luck.
I need one, but can’t wear the face hugger. Hope you have a better experience.
I had a friend that nodded off in the daytime.
I was not able to convince him that he had a problem.
About six months later he got a CPAP machine.
Properly adjusted, it worked well for him.
I don’t recollect the machine being noisy. It does make some noise, though.
There is something about a CPAP machine and an aging parent that tests your patience and “compassionate” care when you are bombarded with requests to get them working right and every usage situation seems to have unique “other” things for them to work right. But they did give to me when I was unable to care for myself . . .
The ONLY thing that was good about the time it took me to get it was that by the time I got hooked up, they had brought out the tiny 2-nostril mask. I avoided the whole full-face Darth Vader Mask era. It took me about a month to get used to it, because there WILL be nights when you wake up and THINK THERE IS A DAMN ALIEN FACE-HUGGER on your face. But once I got through that... pure bliss. NOW if I don't sleep well, it's because of the new kitten or because I didn't get my ass in bed early enough. DO IT.