Finally got my Bi-PAP machine and it seems to be helping. Still using the same full face mask (Resmed F20) and I managed to finally sleep an entire night without taking it off in a half asleep daze in the middle of the night as usual.
Progress!
I just had a lot of polyps removed from my sinuses this morning. It hurt at first, but now the main problem is cleaning up after blood drips on my clothes. I have a little squeeze bottle to flush out the sinuses, and it makes a mess everywhere. And this will go on for a few days yet.
I will try for a new sleep study soon, because I think they are not catching my snores/wakings at the facility, and the last study was a few years ago.
I did a home test a few weeks back. It was one of the worse nights of my life. I had an appointment with the NHS today and it turns out I have ~40 waking episodes each hour which make me eligible for a CPAP. They gave me a full face mask because my nose airways are about 70% blocked on a good day.
We’ll see how tonight goes. I am concerned that I won’t be able to sleep with it. I tend to sleep on my face. I really want this to succeed. I’ve been having palpitations recently and the GP said it might well be the source of it.
Also my wife eventually kicked me out of bed more than year ago and I’m really anxious to go back :(
You’ll get used to it. It’ll be a few rough nights, then you’ll sleep better than you have for years, and feel like a new man. Old sleeping habits quickly adapt. Only people I’ve seen who never get used to it are people, I suspect, who sabotage themselves.
Seriously, 40+ events per hour is quite severe; you won’t BELIEVE how much better you’re going to feel. All of that lack of energy, that self-doubt, that wondering about what happened to the guy who used to be able to get things done, to think clearly, to exert himself to do new and difficult things? He’ll come back.
I often tell people who are unsure about a CPAP: look, if there was just this ONE thing you could do to make literally every aspect of your life better, wouldn’t you do it? It sounds like you want this to succeed. You’re going to do fine.
Why is your nose blocked on a good day? If it’s dryness, have you tried using a neti pot?
I have been going strong. The resmed 10 has been great. I also was a mouth breathing sleeper, but I went with the nasal mask, rather than the pillows.
I like it a lot. I did not really have any symptoms before, but I was a 45 events an hour guy. So clearly I needed it. No issues so far, I have the mask that you can just unclip the nose cone tube from, which is nice. I usually don’t have to get up in the middle of the night, but if I do, it is easy.
It took one night to get used to it. The resmed 10 auto adjust helps a lot as it limits any issues with pressure exhaling.
Currently my settings are 7-17 pressure. Usually average around 13.3 a night.
Its some form of deviated septum. Basically the nose airways are almost closed, and it takes very little to get them altogether blocked.
First night was a mixed bag. First half I struggled to sleep properly. I then woke up at 02:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep until 04:00 but by then I was quite comfortable with the mask and slept better.
I am not sure if its possible, but I felt that the air flow was weaker towards the end. Hopefully I didn’t break the machine with my terrible breath.
On another note, my wife said that the machine makes quite a racket which will not help with getting back to our bedroom :(
I am under the impression most of these machines are now dynamic, which means they alter the air pressure as you sleep. My provider changed the machines starting pressure but it still shifts, apparently, while I am asleep and unaware.
That’s weird. The old ones were like vacuum cleaners but my resmed9 (now several years old) you can barely tell it is on.
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but maybe you should ask your wife if the reality is, maybe she just sleeps better alone? Because this kind of sounds like bullshit: these things hardly make a racket in this day and age, even on the highest settings. (My wife says it took her a couple days to acclimate, but at worst, the sound was disconcertedly medical, not loud. And it was still infinitely better than my snoring). If your wife DOES sleep better alone, there’s no shame in that. Some people do, even when they are very much in love with their partners, but are worried to admit it. So if she does prefer a bed to herself, getting that out in the open might allow her to be supportive of your CPAP in other ways. Because it’s very much worth you keeping going with this, even if it DOESN’T ever end up with you back in the same bed with your wife. Sleep apnea kills, and sleep deprivation prevents you from living your best life, or being a supportive spouse, partner, and parent in innumerable other ways.
Yeah, my Fiance says that it is definitely not silent, but loads better than the bandsaw snoring I was doing before
It was my wife who pushed me to get checked. If it was left to me I’d probably be dead in a couple of years. She’s been putting up with my snoring for almost 20 years now, but did ask me to move to another room last year because she was simply not getting any sleep and it was affecting her well being.
Hopefully the machine helps me and she can get used to its sound. It’s pretty consistent at least…
So after approx 3 weeks of use, it’s working quite well. I need to explore my battery options for Camping!!! :) Anyone here actually go down the battery route?
I’ll post some of the most “popular” I’ve found on the interwebs later tonight. Looks like a typical price for one will be around $300… and for the official ResMed costing between $600 - $700 depending on where I get it from.
man, i can imagine it’ll suck having to haul this to a foreign country and get distilled water while traveling.
got my resmed10 and started off with just the nose plug strap. can’t use it yet tonight since i forgot to buy distilled water.
The main reason to use distilled water is to prevent the minerals in tap water from depositing in the CPAP system. When I travel I just use regular water. I suppose it will depend on how many days you are away each travel period and how often you are flying.
I suppose if you are worried about bacteria in foreign countries maybe the hotel has filtered water. Or do not use the humidifier when overseas. I would probably get some saline solution to moisten my nose before going to bed and maybe if I wake up in the middle of the night.
Perfectly okay to use bottled water.
Yeah my place the water gets white scaley buildup fast.
I already did it. I used regular bottled water and just cleaned it a little longer when I got back. TSA had no issues with it and it fit in the safe. It was a fairly painless experience, both ways.
So back to batteries
- Resmed official battery power station: $720 (doesn’t appear to last very long at all and is pricey)
- Medistrom battery: $330
and then on top of that… there are countless other solutions like
- giant battery 32000mAh battery: $110
- Goal Zero Yeti: $200
- DC Converter for Resmed: $84 - to be used with the Yeti, or with another adapter with the battery.
I’m gonna be flipping through different solutions and the like, as I want to find something that will work for approx 2 nights and not be too heavy/cumbersome, as I’m going to be backpacking.) If anyone has any experience with any of the above, or different ones - let me know!!