Lets Talk About Sleep Apnea/CPAP Machines

[Northendzone]

So I was recently diagnosed with having sever sleep apnea (I apparently stop breathing 31 times per hour) and picked up my CPAP machine last night.

Had a hard time falling asleep with teh mask on my face and dithced it at around 1 am - I know it was night 1, but it was frustrating.

Anyone else out there have sleep apnea or use a machine?

[DuffMan]

in.

you'll get used to it.

[johnnyrocket03]

I have been asked by my wife and physician to go and rent the equipment and do the whole "sleep study" thing but the costs surrounding this are ridiculous. I know im in the minority on CP when I say im not a millionaire but $150 to rent the machine for a night and then if I "need" the CPAP machine i have heard they are like $1000.

I am trying to solve this issue through weight loss and healthier diet rather than rely on machines for the rest of my life plus after doing some research im a little skeptical of the validity of this condition. When i tried to look it up it looked like only 28 people in North America die from sleep apnea every year and mostly when it is determined that sleep apnea was part of the cause of death, there is something else like heart disease or some other pre-existing condition involved as well. The other thing was noticing how many people are diagnosed with sleep apnea, if everyone has it, is it really a concern?

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by johnnyrocket03

I have been asked by my wife and physician to go and rent the equipment and do the whole "sleep study" thing but the costs surrounding this are ridiculous. I know im in the minority on CP when I say im not a millionaire but $150 to rent the machine for a night and then if I "need" the CPAP machine i have heard they are like $1000.

I am trying to solve this issue through weight loss and healthier diet rather than rely on machines for the rest of my life plus after doing some research im a little skeptical of the validity of this condition. When i tried to look it up it looked like only 28 people in North America die from sleep apnea every year and mostly when it is determined that sleep apnea was part of the cause of death, there is something else like heart disease or some other pre-existing condition involved as well. The other thing was noticing how many people are diagnosed with sleep apnea, if everyone has it, is it really a concern?

Your HC Insurance may pay for it, mine did.

Not sure if sleep apnea kills you outright. Sleep Apnea is hard on your heart which is going to lead to heart problems.

Also, you can buy these things used for cheaper, just get a new mask, hose etc.

I'm pretty sure someone's here wife works at a Sleep apnea clinic or something like that.

[jeep991]

The CPAP machine is not ideal but at least it will help you sleep throughout the night and feeling more refreshed in the morning. I know I used to wake up exhausted and with headaches and just a feeling of a "cloudy" mind (even after a good 6-8 hour sleep) but using the machine has gotten rid of that.

[MillerTime GFG]

Holy crap....31 times/hour? I went for a test a couple months ago (mostly because I snore like a banshee) and I stop breathing 5 times/hour. Even that is considered (very) minor sleep apnea.

You must be a zombie during the day.

[DuffMan]

true true, when I first went to the sleep clinic, for an overnight study, they figured out I was stopping breathing, once every less than a minute, and my body had to wake up to get the breathing going again. I felt the same as jeep991.

[ExiledFlamesFan]

I'm a respiratory therapist that currently does some basic sleep apnea testing. Here are some basics:

-The CPAP machine will take a few weeks to get used to. Don't give up, give it at least a month.
-CPAP is the gold standard of treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. There are alternatives like dental appliances and some airway surgeries but none are as effective as CPAP.
-There are 2 types of sleep apnea: central and obstructive. Obstructive is much more common. When you sleep the muscles in your airway relax, the tissue in your airway obstructs the airway, causing no airflow.
-central sleep apnea is neurological. Your brain fails to tell your body to breathe. This type is very rare and treatment is a bipap machine, which is a machine that forces you to actually breathe, much like a ventilator.
-a CPAP machine on the other hand is forcing a small amount of pressure in your airway to prevent the occlusion and the keep your airway open while you sleep
-severe sleep apnea is very hard on your cardiovascular system. Your heart is working much harder than it should to make up for the fact that you are essentially not breathing for periods of your sleep. As you fail to breathe, the oxygen levels in your blood (and tissues-brain, heart) drop dangerously low.
-with obstructive sleep apnea, you are constantly waking up during the night. Some of my patients haven't gotten a good nights sleep in years. This will obviously lead to exhaustion and psychological problems like depression.
-for those who get used to the CPAP machine, the biggest thing they notice is they feel energised because they are finally getting a good nights sleep
-obstructive sleep apnea is much more common in obese and overweight patients because of all the extra tissue they have around their airway. However I have seen skinny dudes with severe OSA. It just depends on your airway anatomy.

Hope that helps with the basics. Try it out for a month or two.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Anyone know of a clinic in the downtown core they would recommend? Wife is bugging me to go get one of these.

[woob]

My advice: make sure you explore all your options for ways to treat it. I know people who have had great success with the dental appliances, others had success with different CPAP mask types, and others with bi-PAP (you have to have a consultation with the Sleep Centre for bi-PAPs, I think). But, most importantly, continue to work on this and don't give up, as not sleeping well will begin to affect your life very negatively.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by johnnyrocket03

I have been asked by my wife and physician to go and rent the equipment and do the whole "sleep study" thing but the costs surrounding this are ridiculous. I know im in the minority on CP when I say im not a millionaire but $150 to rent the machine for a night and then if I "need" the CPAP machine i have heard they are like $1000.

I am trying to solve this issue through weight loss and healthier diet rather than rely on machines for the rest of my life plus after doing some research im a little skeptical of the validity of this condition. When i tried to look it up it looked like only 28 people in North America die from sleep apnea every year and mostly when it is determined that sleep apnea was part of the cause of death, there is something else like heart disease or some other pre-existing condition involved as well. The other thing was noticing how many people are diagnosed with sleep apnea, if everyone has it, is it really a concern?

You'll feel much better once you actually get restful sleep. Balking at spending money on something so crucial is silly.

[TheGrimm]

Originally Posted by johnnyrocket03

I have been asked by my wife and physician to go and rent the equipment and do the whole "sleep study" thing but the costs surrounding this are ridiculous. I know im in the minority on CP when I say im not a millionaire but $150 to rent the machine for a night and then if I "need" the CPAP machine i have heard they are like $1000.

I found a guy on kijiji who will come and watch you sleep at night for free! You could probably just have him count your breathing.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

So I was recently diagnosed with having sever sleep apnea (I apparently stop breathing 31 times per hour) and picked up my CPAP machine last night.

Had a hard time falling asleep with teh mask on my face and dithced it at around 1 am - I know it was night 1, but it was frustrating.

Anyone else out there have sleep apnea or use a machine?

How did you get diagnosed? I see some places have you sleep at your facility and others just put a recorder on you or something. Any suggestions for a doctor?

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG

Holy crap....31 times/hour? I went for a test a couple months ago (mostly because I snore like a banshee) and I stop breathing 5 times/hour. Even that is considered (very) minor sleep apnea.

You must be a zombie during the day.

there are sometimes during the day where i have a heavy head, but most of the time i can function; however, I guess I have no real basis of comparasion. Once I get used tot eh machine and start sleeping all night, who knows.

a friend of mine tells me he wishes he had gone years ago for the machine.

i could be mistaken, but i got the sense that you can't get a machine without a dr's referral.

I went to the sleep clinic and the vists there are covered by AHC, the home test was $200 - the overnighter there is $800.......I submitted the expenses to my healthcare plan.

[MrCallahan]

Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG

Holy crap....31 times/hour? I went for a test a couple months ago (mostly because I snore like a banshee) and I stop breathing 5 times/hour. Even that is considered (very) minor sleep apnea.

You must be a zombie during the day.

This was happening with me before as well. I never snored at all growing up, then one year, the girlfriend I was seeing at the time told me that I started to snore, and it progressively got worse to the point where it disrupted her sleep because it was so loud.

This went on for a couple years, and I started looking into Sleep Apnea, and it was discovered that I had enlarged tonsils. Even had a few doctors say that they haven't seen enlarged tonsils like that before. So I had a tonsillectomy done, and my snoring has gone away completely (unless I'm sick, or drinking, but not nearly as bad), and I sleep MUCH better than I did during those years.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

You'll feel much better once you actually get restful sleep. Balking at spending money on something so crucial is silly.

Yeah, no kidding. I bet if his TV broke tonight, he wouldn't think twice about heading to Future Shop and dropping $1K on a new one. But $1K on a machine that will last 5 years (at least) and improve every minute of his day and night and while making everything he does on a minute to minute basis more enjoyable...FATA THAT! (BTW, you can get good machines for well under $1K).

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by Regorium

How did you get diagnosed? I see some places have you sleep at your facility and others just put a recorder on you or something. Any suggestions for a doctor?

i went to the sleep Center or something like that - it is in shawnessy not far from Cattle Baron steakhouse

They offer two options of monitoring - the home test, where you hook up a machine for $200. Or the overnight test in their facility $800 - similar machine I assume........sleep ctr analyses reuslts from machine........

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

So I was recently diagnosed with having sever sleep apnea (I apparently stop breathing 31 times per hour) and picked up my CPAP machine last night.

Had a hard time falling asleep with teh mask on my face and dithced it at around 1 am - I know it was night 1, but it was frustrating.

Anyone else out there have sleep apnea or use a machine?

I've had mine for about 4 years now. My snoring was out of this world and this machine possibly saved my marriage. I got used to it fairly quick. I remmeber really over tightening the mask at first as air leaked into my eyes which made going to sleep difficult. I also had a wicked acne outbreak on the bridge of my nose which was a cross between the mask rubbing on the skin and the exfoliation the machine provided (it has a humidifier on it to). Getting the mask to fit right is the key, it can take a lot of adjustment to be comfortable, leak proof and not too tight.

I suggest don't get in the habbit of taking it off, or not using it. Mine is an Auto-pap so it is set up for me. It starts at a higher pressure (8 cmH20) so that it can reach it's ideal setting for me faster. I can hit a button to reduce it to 4 cmH2o which I often do if I'm having problems falling asleep or if I wake up during the night.

I really notice now when I don't use it (camping) or take it off in the middle of the night. Sore throat, light headedness, crappy. I have tried the dental appliance which does nothing for me, custom or off the shelf, my apnea is more then mild which is what those products are. My apnea is in fact severe. My snoring is in fact deaffening, I have snored since I was 6 or 7 years old. Now being 30lb's overweight and after a few drinks, the apnea machine is a godsend. Just a real pain in the ass when it comes to travel.

One other thing, I use to have a lot really cool dreams, now having a dream is rare, I will sometimes force myself to go to sleep on the couch so I can have a dream.

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by johnnyrocket03

I have been asked by my wife and physician to go and rent the equipment and do the whole "sleep study" thing but the costs surrounding this are ridiculous. I know im in the minority on CP when I say im not a millionaire but $150 to rent the machine for a night and then if I "need" the CPAP machine i have heard they are like $1000.

I am trying to solve this issue through weight loss and healthier diet rather than rely on machines for the rest of my life plus after doing some research im a little skeptical of the validity of this condition. When i tried to look it up it looked like only 28 people in North America die from sleep apnea every year and mostly when it is determined that sleep apnea was part of the cause of death, there is something else like heart disease or some other pre-existing condition involved as well. The other thing was noticing how many people are diagnosed with sleep apnea, if everyone has it, is it really a concern?

I don't know, I just picked the little finger clip thing up and took it home, crammed tose plugs up my nose and slept. I didn't have to pay anything for the diagnosis. Maybe they made up for it when they sold me the thing, it was around $1500 icluding the mask, strap, hose, humidifier etc... but everything was covered under my benefits plan. It was through a respiratory clinic, and it was over 4 years ago, so things may have changed, but the process didn't cost me a dime.

[MisterJoji]

Respiratory Therapist fist bump to ExiledFlamesFan. Only thing I can add on top is if you're claustrophobic/uncomfortable and your using a full face mask, try a nasal mask (chin strap might also be needed).