Sleep Apnoea and CPAP

Masala wrote: »

No change as far as i can see. BUT - you must contact them to send you authorisation to carry it as extra hand luggage. I did get stopped once boarding the plane and only that I had the covering letter - I would had had to put one of my bags into the hold.

To be honest - the authorisation side of things is quite easy and works well...so credit where credit is due!

Did not have any letter when I carried on last year. Is it just counted as carry on??

I flew flybe not so long ago and CPAP no issue at all... not even asked what it was. I'd expect the same from all airlines to be honest but if you have/can get your hands on a letter then no harm to be sure to be sure.

I am using a ResMed Airsense unit with a mirage FX nasal mask. On Saturday night the circular holder that connects the mask to the air hose almost completely came away and now there is a very poor seal with lots of air leakage. I cannot afford a new mask at the moment so I’m thinking of trying to repair the mask using glue – I believe the mask is made of silicon (for the soft cushion parts) and nylon for the harder parts. It is the harder (nylon) part I will be trying to glue. Anyone tried this before and if so what would they recommend for a suitable glue?

Glebee wrote:

Ive used superglue in the past to stick the rubber cushion to the mask where its come loose. Worked perfect.

Jaysus, wouldn't fancy that, fumes etc??

dogmatix wrote:

Otherwise I’m going to have to try loads of gaffer tape.

Are you renting machine?? If so will they not give you a replacement?? How old is it??

Aye - i'm renting it - had it exactly one year. I was annoyed when it happened on Saturday night as it was almost exactly one year since I had started using the machine. I was convinced the blasted thing was programmed to fail on exactly day 365. I'll give them a ring today about a replacement. I tried superglue last night and it worked well on the circular holder. But I had forgotten about the tiny vents/valves which had popped out. I'll superglue them tonight (I was too tired to try delicate work like that at the time).

Some info that may be of interest on the Airmini.

I have been renting an AirSense 10 since January, with not much trouble other than some leakage when I turn onto my side (full face mask) but the treatment is working so I'm not bothered.

I decided to get a AirMini a couple of weeks ago as I travel a lot with work... my experience so far is super positive.

Size
It packs up pretty small; I actually pack the unit and charger in the box the unit came in as it's got a pretty secure shell, and pack the hose and mask in a small soft toilet bag. Boxed up it takes up about 1/3 space at about 1/4 the weight of the AirSense which for my 2-3 day trips is the difference between a single bag or two bags on a flight. I have not got the official soft case yet because that seems to be quite big and padded, and less flexible for packing. I'll probably get the hard shell case at some point.

Noise
It's louder than the AirSense. If your partner complains about the noise now, the AirMini will be louder. But not as much as some have reported.

Lack of Humidifier
I was pretty worried about this... I love the humidifier on the 10 but the Airmini doesn't work with one for full face masks. However, I've had no problems so far not having one for a night or two. I believe they are working on a humidifier solution for the face masks, so fingers crossed.

Using It
One button, literally. You need to install the app initially, but that's it....one night I just lay down, strapped in, and hit the button, and it ramped up perfectly.

One downside is that the data is not merged between the two devices, so if you like tracking you'll have to use the app (for the mini) and the website (for the airsense), but TBH I don't track it too regularly anymore unless I'm not getting sleep.. The other downside is that it's bloody expensive. 1500 lids; I did consider importing for 800-900 USD, but figured import duty, warranty, power supply, and uploading of data would end up making this more trouble than the few hundred saving. One other thing I would love is the ability to run it off an external battery... currently it's the included charger (nice long cable) only. Also: don't get a second mask... just travel with your daily mask. It means you don't have two to clean and maintain at the same time, just one.

I hope this is of some use to you guys.

Seagull01 wrote: »

Hi everyone, diagnosed with severe sleep apnea last December, over 31 apneas/hypopneas an hour, oxygen levels dropping to 81%. Sleeping constantly and taking ages to wake. Had second sleep study in March, I dont have Narcolepsy but have restless legs which wake me and prevent me going to deep sleep. To cut a long story short, started on APAP machine in December. I noticed an immediate improvement, then plateaued out which was very dissappointing. Still exhausted but perservered and after adjustments to the APAP machine doing so much better now. My air is set automatically from 4 to 16 and I am at 16 quite a lot of nights.

Anybody else's machine set on this high level???

Mine was set 4-20 but I don't think I've ever gone to 20, seems avg is 10.

LittleGarry wrote: »

I had been renting an Airsense 10 since February. I was very happy with the machine which had literally overhauled my life. I was not happy paying €110 per month to rent it though. I done quite a lot of research online and ended up buying one from this company:

https://www.cpapstore.eu/store/cpap-bipap-machines/auto-cpap-machines/airsense-10-autoset-auto-cpap-with-humidair/

I found them to be excellent to deal with - the MD even rang me at 7.30 one evening to discuss queries I had about the myAir online monitoring and if it would function here (which it does 100%) along with a few other minor queries. The machine arrived within 48 hrs of placing the order and was identical in every way to the rented machine that I had.

The price of purchasing the machine from the distributor here is nothing short of insulting in my opinion.

Where did those lads ship it to you from? Price here in Ireland is bananas.

LittleGarry wrote: »

It was shipped from Athens according to the paperwork on delivery - shipped overnight via TNT at no additional cost to me....

Excellent. How did you find setting it up, in terms of your pressure settings, etc?

LittleGarry wrote: »

Wasn't an issue at all. 5 mins "research" on Youtube showed me how to get into the clinical menu on the machine. I just went into this menu on the rental machine and copied settings across to the new one. The most important are the pressure settings (which I knew from prescription anyway) the rest are mainly comfort settings - ramp time / humidifier settings / tube temp etc I would imagine, if you are not comfortable doing this, and if you know your pressure settings that the store would set it up with relevant settings before despatch - drop them a mail to confirm obviously.

Great, sounds no more complicated than the S9 Autoset, which I find pretty straightforward. Even in the context of sleep apnea, I do love a new gadget!

houseplant wrote: »

Hi everyone, just this week been diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea. 27 episodes per hour. Waiting on a call back from consultant to discuss prognosis, presume I'll be using a cpap machine. Are the results as good as I'm hearing? I'd give anything to not be constantly tired.

You won't look back. A little getting used to. But 100%success . Go for it..
Can't remember mine but they were multiples of yours.and zero problem since I started on cpap

Masala wrote: »

Yep.... it becomes second nature on hitting the pillow. Eventually feel like u on the beach with a warm mediatereen breeze flowing over you!

Ah here...what are you injecting into your machine 😂

has anyone tried mouth taping? can check youtube for demos. Ill need to get my hands on a reliable sleep measuring gismo to see if it makes any difference to sleep quality.

Seagull01 wrote: »

Yes it happens to me quite a lot. My airflow is 16 and I would reach that most nights so the mask lifting off my face is common. I hardly notice now I just adjust the mask and the pressure drops a bit once im breathing normally.

Yep.

Perhaps it is ramping up too quick? By the time it's at my max (12) I'm asleep. If I wake in the night then it seems really powerful.

Advice is reset ramping while you get back to sleep.

And tighten it up.

trashcan wrote:

Not my experience at all. I couldn't sleep with it, felt much, much worse than before I started and eventually gave it up after 3 months of feeling dog rough. My score was 41.

It took me 5-6 months, but so worth it, its like a sleeping pill, once the air flows I'd say I'm asleep in a couple of minutes. The odd time when the pressure is high, I'll wake up, but just do a reset and back to sleep.
I was 32 prior but averaging 4 - 4.5 now.
Different world.

does anyone find diet plays a part? mine cleared up after changing what I eat , I put a sleep tracking app on my phone recently and only have some low level light snoring, no chainsaw stuff.

Drumpot wrote: »

Yeh I didn’t find it immediately helpful and was diagnosed as mild to severe I think.

I went into the consultant after a month or so to ask if it should be so difficult to sleep or if I should be seeing major benefits. I think I just wanted him to reassure me it got better cause I was finding it hard to get used to the machine.

Consultant said that I should be loving the machine and the information on the machine showed it fixed my apnea. Then he said I might aswell stop using machine if I wasn’t feeling the benefits. I was surprised but I didn’t think a consultant would advise this if they didn’t have the knowledge or experience to know that this was the right course of action.
.

I went back to the consultant on Friday for my six month review off the machine. What they said to me back in March was that although I had apnoea my "tiredness" symptoms weren't actually that bad. I saw a young doctor (honestly looked like he was just out of school, I must be really getting old) firstly on Friday, who was saying much the same thing, not that great a risk of stroke, and not worth it if it was affecting my sleep that badly. He then went off to get his more senior colleague, who persuaded me to give it another try, this time using nasal pillows which I hadn't tried before. I have synus issues,(had septoplasty surgery during the summer which hopefully has solved that) so am not at all sure how this will work out, but we'll see. Not looking forward to it after last time to be honest.

houseplant wrote:

OK. I was worried I'd get this answer. Thank you.

Don't worry, ya seem to be doing great, it took me 3 months or more to get your results. It will take 3 weeks of good readings for your body / mind to catch up.
Believe me it's worth it!!

A typical machine costs 100-110 per month. This counts towards your DPS limit of 134 per month, so if your family already gets medication regularly, the cost of that plus cost of the rental is added together and you only pay the first 134 per month. 

You could also buy outright for 1500-2000 or get abroad  refurbished for less than that.