Sleep Apnoea and CPAP

looksee wrote: »

What do you use to clean them? I have wiped mine with water wipes but didn't find any improvement. Also I imagine the pressure level would make a difference. I find I need a new one each month.

Once the doctor gives you a letter to say you are fit to drive, they give you the licence. Just make sure the letter says 10 years.

I dont need a humidifier so cannot assist. Sorry. When you get your licence, it is marked 101, but nobody pays any attention.

About a month ago, the supplier (its a rental), contacted me to come in for a service. They rented a room in the Maldron Tallaght. I couldnt make it, but went down to them the following day in wicklow. Had a chat with them and they showed me the issue.

This was only at the start of December.

They didn't say much but I am sure they swapped my machine out. There is something about it

I bought a water distiller from Amazon, cost me about €80 or €90 I think. It produces about 3L of distilled water at a time which is enough for the humidifier for a couple of weeks.

Boiling water won't remove the particulates and minerals that can clog up the humidifier. If I have to use normal tap water (even boiled) for a while, say if I go away for a few days and forget to bring distilled water with me, then I find that there is a lot of residue left in the humidifier compared to distilled water.

All,

I've a Fisher Paykel machine, and currently using this;

Which has started getting leaky, time for a new one.

I need to wear this with a chin strap unfortunately becuase my mouth hangs open in my sleep and the air pisses out! 😆

Does anybody have any experience with a full face version, ie, one that covers nose and mouth, by Fisher Paykel, that they can recommend? I'm hesitant to try a few seeing as they're expensive to be buying to discard... The full face things with the plastic bit from nose to forehead seems like it might be very uncomfortable?

I was diagnosed with 14 an hour and told it was mild enough. But my snoring would wake the dead. I don't feel rested wearing the machine, or not wearing it, but my snoring is far far reduced/eliminated (so i'm told...) so I must persist and wear the shaggin thing. I hate it. Wearing it 5 years now. Often times it has the adverse affect of waking me during the night as when I move the tube can pull and slip the mask a little, creating a hissing etc.

There is a severe lack of knowledge or consistency of opinion in sleep apnoea consultants as far as I can see. I have been to, I think, a total of 5 with experiences ranging from good (sadly now retired) to poor, including (in one case) blatant money-grubbing.

However going back to Drumpot's post, 6 is low, at 6 I think it would be unusual for a machine to be even recommended, under 5 is considered 'not sleep apnoea'. I had an initial diagnosis of 29 (after being assured that I did not have sleep apnoea as I 'didn't look as though I did'. That was the consultant, the nurse independently said the same thing 'I can recognise people with sleep apnoea'. I was put on a machine but that was before internet linked machines and there really was not a lot of support or information, and I gave up on it. I started the process again more or less by chance some 10 years later (about 3 years ago) to be told that I had a reading of 47.

In the meantime (over the 10 years) I had issues with atrial fibrillation which intensified until I had an urgent cardiac procedure and since then it has been mostly ok. It is recognised that there is a connection between A.fib and sleep apnoea, but no-one has shown any interest in joining the dots on this.

The sleep apnoea is still a significant issue though, generally I am keeping them to between 3 and 15, averaging about 8. I have realised that the most important contribution to reducing the readings is lying on my side, if I turn onto my back the numbers go up very significantly. I am more comfortable on my back but I have mostly trained myself to lie on my side.

I wish I could find a consultant who actually has some in-depth knowledge on the topic and is willing to do more than talk platitudes, propose irrelevant and unnecessary (but remunerative) procedures, and take my money.

I think I rented mine (something like 110/mo) for over a year, and asked them about buying it and got it for 800eur or so.

It was with BOC gas (I was surprised too!)

I tried and failed.

I've been wearing my machine for 6 years almost. Do I feel better? No. Honest answer, no. I only went to a doc about it because my then girlfriend, now wife, was driven demented by my snoring and didn't like listening to me choking and not breathing in my sleep. So I wear it because it stops the insane snoring. But honestly I don't feel more rested, but I'd like to think I'm less likely to die of a heart attack! Whenever my wife is away for the night I don't wear it, the freedom of not having a hose off your face is great!

Totally agree, I wake up exhausted. However I already have the associated heart issues so I know I need to wear it, I do know that it helps prevent the events and if I don't wear it my blood goes down significantly - as the other poster says, into the 70s (I have an oximeter that I have worn a couple of times without the machine, and its scary).

I also find that it did not give me the rested sleep or energy levels I was hoping for. I do feel slightly worse and more groggy in the mornings when I don't wear the mask, so it is having some mild benefit. But I wonder sometimes if there is more than just my sleep apnea going on.