Cpap

Mick, I know you know this but, we're all, in our own ways, just trying to help. And motivate you. Because, as with all of us, that's the real problem. And I find that when I give someone advice designed to motivate them, I'm really also trying to do it to myself. So if I join in in the fire and brimstone talk, just know that I'm also really just talking to myself. I know it's an overused cliche (hey, can we do those accent thingys?), but I really do feel your pain. OK, I don't smoke so I can't pretend I know what it's like to quit that, and for all practical purposes I don't drink anymore (JamFests don't count, guys), but when I was younger I was a pretty heavy pot smoker. Anyway, we understand that what you're trying to do is really, really hard and we're there with ya, brother.
 
I'm gonna die, you're gonna die, we're all gonna die!.
Not at 55. And not struggling to breath at night.

There was a story in the news recently. This chick, a vegan, she was going to attempt the summit of Everest, in part, according reports, to prove vegans too can reach the summit. She got sick and fucking died. Dead. I'm not trying to make sport of that poor girl's death, but she spent her days eating fucking sprouts and, what, kale smoothies, only to die trying to prove how healthy she is as a vegan.

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I hate these analogies. It's one example of a woman doing something she loved, which is an extreme sport with a high rate of death. The rest of the world that eats healthy and takes care of their bodies have a high quality of life for decades longer than someone who eats like shit and smokes all day. You'll find an example of someone that does and lives to be 100 but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that that isn't the normal progression of how the human body ages.
 
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We all get one go at this thing called life...If you're digging it like I sure am, it would seem you'd want to ride the wave out as long as you can.

The facts are that rats and people that are skinny asses living on restricted diets live healthier and substantially longer lives. You don't have to be a vegan.... just regulated low caloric intake consistently...

Not smoking in 2017 is a no brainer...no one should smoke cigs..., the stupid shit is ridiculously expensive and totally bad for your lungs, heart and circulatory system...fun fact you see these old guys missing a foot here and there...very often it is from stinkin smoking!!!! WTF! Had no idea this was a real issue till they wanted to lop off the father in laws foot and said the loss of circulation was directly related to smoking....he still would not quit smoking...then one night he got wasted at his local watering hole, fell and whacked his head on the pool table...ended up in the hospital with no memory of the event and a total space cadet ...we thought he was a goner but he came back to himself after a few months in rehab....no smoking while in recovery so he got the smoking reprieve without having "to quit"...

Beer in moderation like "a couple a night" is totally cool...I'm a teetotaler but my Father-in-law was a case a week dude ...beer was his main food source....doctors would shit a brick when they would check his blood...healthier than most 20 year olds....He passed a few years ago @ 77 because of colon cancer that he would not let them operate on...Went out on his terms...

Yeah if you can get lean the sleep apnea will / should disappear...... Good luck Dude!
 
I'm not going to take offense to you guys. I know a lot of what you're saying is correct.

I'm fucking pissed this morning. I know I have to wear this damn thing. For one, if I do not use it the insurance company will get involved and refuse to pay and/or take it from me. Two, I have to wear it for my health, so I can get some sleep. But, I feel like i'm drowning! I try to do as I am supposed to, to soldier through. But after a while, a matter of a few hours, the thing is blowing so hard I can't catch my breath. I feel like i'm being smothered. I can't imagine it is supposed to be blowing that hard! So I have to take it off. For a few seconds it keeps blowing, and sounds like a hair dryer or something set on low. If I am going to get any more sleep I have to take it off. I go back to sleep, and the wife calls my name and says, "You're snoring really loud". I know it is annoying to her, but she is mostly worried and wants me to wear the cpap. So, I put the damn thing back on. But in no time i'm drowning in air again, off it goes.

I'm so pissed, confounded, and disappointed in myself. My score says, "that's a great score!", though duration of hrs isn't that lengthy. 4 hrs 20 min. It sure as hell doesn't feel like I did great. My head is clouded as fuq.

Gidge? Does your cpap blow pretty hard once it ramps? I'm going to make an appointment to get the air adjusted down. There is no way for me to adjust it myself, that I can figure. Mine is blowing so hard now that I can feel leakage around the mask. The overwhelming pressure has to go somewhere, I guess.

I'm also disappointed in myself for gaining 20 fucking pounds over the last year. I had gotten down to 192, maybe even lower. I felt great. I looked great. I'm not trying to be, whatever, but evidently i'm not hard to look at anyway, but I could tell women were looking at me a lot more, sometimes to the point of being uncomfortable. I felt light on my feet. Why did I fuck it up? I'm married, I don't care if women look at me. That's not the point. I just want to feel better, lightr, healthier.

How did I lose that weight? Yeah, you guys aren't going to be impressed. I won't go into it, but something happened in my personal life. I just didn't eat, one really doesn't have to eat much to survive. Fasting isn't a bad thing. I drank a lot of beer, sometimes. I walked a lot, long, long walks. I kayaked a lot, I swam a lot. I slept little and kept moving. I know some of that is not healthy and wrong, but I felt great!

I'm also disappointed in myself for smoking. I thought a lot about it yesterday. I even thought about not opening that pack of cigs I had after the last of the other was gone. I can do it, I can take the challenge to put them down, I can do it for my health. But I couldn't! I see myself as a fairly strong person, if I set my mind to something I can do it. But I couldn't.

Sheesh, i'm unloading this morning. I suppose I should be embarrassed, I guess I am. I'm just distressed, disappointed, and pissed...mostly at myself. I'll probably regret writing all of this later, once my head clears...putting my life out on the fucking web.
 
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Mick, I totally understand. First off, it's not your imagination, something's wrong with your CPAP settings. You're going to get that fixed. The sooner the better.

You need help quitting smoking. No shame in that. If it were easy, there wouldn't be so many professionals to help people do it. But even though it's harder for some than for others, it can be done.

Just remember that some people's bodies have a stronger addiction response to certain chemicals. It's a physical, medical reality. It is NOT a sign of weakness or a character flaw.

Same with the alcohol. Hey, I enjoy getting drunk as much or more as the next guy, but I don't feel a need for it. That's because my body doesn't respond that way. And I'm thankful for that.

But jeeze, give me a chocholate chip cookie and then try to cut me off. I can make binge eating an Olympic sport. And when you're a type I diabetic, that's almost as dangerous as having a heroin addiction. Still struggling with that one.

But what I really want to get at here is, get over yourself. You're on that macho, 'I don't need any help' trip. Fuck that shit.

The vegan chick that died climbing Everest? Tons of guys in great shape die doing that. You probably would've died during the hike from the hotel to the Jeep.

Yeah, we're all gonna die. The question is, are you ready to die right now?

It's later than you think.
 
I've been CPAP'n for a while now. Checked it out from a friend that told me how much better he felt getting good sleep !
Took me about a year I guess before I got settled into it. Now it finally feels pretty natural.
Have a beard, and that nose only one. I can sleep on my side ok with it. The pressure seems constant, the flow modulates with my breathing. I figured they all did.
 
I have an appointment tomorrow at 9 am with the pharma company where I got the machine. I need that thing turned down, but of course I don't want it too low. I'm not sure how they will determine how much lower it needs to be. It seems from the get go I would have had a prescribed pressure setting. It sure looked to me she just pulled one off the shelf. Fucking incompetence. I have 3 different medical entities I had to go through to get help with sleep. None seem to be in touch with each other. Throw in the insurance company it's a cluster fark with them all hand out for payment.

Gidge? When you said yours is set for 24/12, could you explain that a bit, please?

Mixsit? Mine starts low, but I can feel the air coming out of the vent on the hose. It's enough that it freaked my dog when he got in my face to see what the hell. Then after a while, i'm not sure what determines the change, but it "ramps" up the airflow. When I wake up because i'm feeling smothered, and take off the mask, air is quite audible coming out of the nose piece. Is that normal? When you take yours off is it blowing air at a fairly strong flow?

Mine seems like it is blowing so hard that air is escaping around my nose piece.

I'm currently on a fast until Friday 6 pm. At 8 pm tonight it will already be 24 hours. Water and black coffee. I'm not sure if losing some weight will help things. Doctor said he wouldn't rule out it might help some, but mine is not weight related. It's anatomical. Regardless, I need to get back down to around 190 lb.

I'm pissed, and determined. Changes will be made.
 
Chili?

How did your surgery go, brother? You doing alright?

Hey Mick. Thanks for asking. Everything went well. Very well. The surgery was yesterday and I feel totally fine today. A little congested as I think there is still some "packing" up in there. The stuff dissolves and I was bleeding a lot yesterday, so not sure how much is left. I can breathe through my nose, but it isn't free-flowing.

There was really no pain afterwards, so I took the prescribed Norco simply for a free ride and to get a good night sleep. :D

In the next few days, I'll see how much of an improvement it does for my sleep... without the Norco. :)
 
That's great, man, glad to hear it. :thumbs up:

Don't go blowing too hard, and like my Granny used to say, don't pick at it.

I hope it works out that you have far fewer problems and can now get some good sleep.
 
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Mixsit? Mine starts low, but I can feel the air coming out of the vent on the hose. It's enough that it freaked my dog when he got in my face to see what the hell. Then after a while, i'm not sure what determines the change, but it "ramps" up the airflow. When I wake up because i'm feeling smothered, and take off the mask, air is quite audible coming out of the nose piece. Is that normal? When you take yours off is it blowing air at a fairly strong flow?
Mine seems like it is blowing so hard that air is escaping around my nose piece..
Yes. But seems to me they set it for some amount of positive pressure -the guy came in middle of the night and tweaked it. If I stop breathing it ramps down, take the mask off it runs full blast. So in between breaths it ramps down, but always air comes out the vents.
There's a 'slow initial ramp up delay I don't use and the humidifier setting. That's it.
 
Thanks for responding. I appreciate it.

I didn't get to do the sleep study in facility, so I missed out on any personalized tweaking in-house. Insurance wouldn't approve, I had to do home study.

I should have looked before, but the light on the machine goes out and the machine is not where I can comfortably get to it with headgear and foggy headed waking up in the middle of the night because i'm feel like i'm suffocating. So, last night I went to bed at a decent hour, for me, 11 pm. Around 4:30 I woke up and felt I couldn't breath out properly. I didn't have my reading glasses on the the machine was a little difficult to see, but it looked like it was fluctuating with the upper number being 30. I repositioned so I could see better, and then the machine wasn't fluctuating from inhale to exhale at all. I don't know, I was foggy headed. I took the mask off and it ramped down to nothing. Once I laid back down I sat up again to look at there was an "F" on display. I don't know what that means, fault, fail? Slept remainder of the night without.

Anyway, thanks for responding. I have an appointment this morning at 9. Hopefully they can sort things out so I can use it without feeling ima gonna drown from airflow.
 
Just a fyi.

While I did say that this thread is a personal CPAP diary, it is not just about me.

A lot of people these days are getting a CPAP machine, probably people each of us know. My hope is not only that I can glean information and get help from others, but that for anyone who stumbles upon this thread can get help for themselves. Personally, in the meat world, I know people who have gotten a CPAP and do not use it. That is unfortunate. Maybe through my own trials and tribulations, as well information from others here in this thread, we can help others. It might also influence and encourage others to get the help needed to improved health through a good night's sleep.

So, please, feel free to share your own thoughts and experiences.

Everyone have a great day!
 
A lot of people these days are getting a CPAP machine, probably people each of us know. !

I've noticed that. It's weird. I wonder if there's any correlation with the national obesity epidemic or an aging populace that was raised by a medical community telling them that smoking was not only safe, but healthy?

Mick, this might be a dumb question because you're a smoker, but do you get any cardio? When I do any extended strenuous cardio exercise I sleep GREAT! Other times I don't sleep near as well as I used to. I've started slacking over the last 6 months because we had a super wet winter and an intensely hot summer, but before that I was trail running a lot and doing hot yoga 6 days a week on top of it and sleep was never an issue. I know this is about snoring but if you're in a deep sound sleep you're less likely to notice it or allow it to wake you up.

Also, and you put your foot down on this I know, but if I do a few shots before bed I usually wake up halfway through my sleep. I assume because of the sugar. If you're sleeping lightly you're more inclined to wake up from snoring.
 
My doc told me sleep apnea definitely correlates to weight. She tells me to lose weight and I'll sleep better. My wife tells me I stop breathing at night, but when I press her on it, she says maybe I just stop snoring. So, I don't know. I'm hoping the nose fix will allow me to sleep good. We'll see.

I do cardio most everyday. Fat man on a bike. :D However, I have slacked off the last couple of weeks because it is just too damn hot. I used to be able to ride in the heat, but this year it seems different. I'll ride between 30 - 45 minutes most everyday. My sleep quality doesn't seem to correlate with my cardio exercise.

I definitely have to lose about 20 pounds.
 
Gidge? When you said yours is set for 24/12, could you explain that a bit, please?
Mine is a Bi Pap machine..if its set at 24/12, it blows mostly at the 12 setting..when it senses i am trying to inhale it blows at 24 and then by the time I go to exhale its back at 12..
 
24? Wow.

I saw the person I got the CPAP from today. Mine was set for 5 on exhale, an 15 on inhale, the machine's max is 25. It doesn't always blow at 15, but if it senses I need it, I guess it senses I stop breathing, it blows harder. It will also blow 15 if it senses a strong leak or I take the mask off. According to her, it hasn't been blowing at 15, max from data recorded was 14 point something. I don't quite understand it, and she said it was difficult to explain, but there is a ease off function for the exhale, 1-3, she has mine now set for max ease off of 3. She coordinated with my doctor to set max inhale air pressure for 12 instead of 15. She says, it sounds like things are working normally and what I am experiencing is just a matter of getting used to it. She actually liked my numbers from the report the CPAP generates. We'll see.
 
I'm over 48 hours into my fast. Nothing but water and black coffee. I'll eat tomorrow evening. I have london broil. I would marinate it overnight, but I don't even want to see food right now. Actually, I could eat, for sure, but i'm not overly hungry.

ez,

I'm doing the CPAP primarily by my wife's urging. Not only does my snoring disturb her sleep, she sees that I stop breathing. It scares her. My snoring does not wake me up. I would not know I stop breathing while I am asleep if she hadn't told me.

I don't run and haven't "worked out" regularly in a while. I walk the dog at a pretty brisk clip for close to an hour many days/nights. Okay, not as many as I should, for him. I kayak when I have/make time, mostly in the inlet where the current is extremely swift. Depending on the tide, you have to paddle your ass off or get swept in/out. Is fishing exercise? I walk a lot throughout the day. At times more than a lot. I sometimes climb ladders, from 5 to 40 footers. If I ran it might be a different story, but normally I don't get winded easily, and generally have pretty good stamina. Although I am a little heavy, could lose a few or more, I carry my weight fairly well. I don't really feel 54, most of the time.

It doesn't matter what I do during the day, active or inactive, I generally sleep the same. I really don't sleep much or as much as I should, 4-5 hours a night. That will change. I must wear the CPAP 70% of the month, over 4 hours a night, i think. If not my insurance company will get involved and deny coverage. It is monitored via internal modem. I'm mostly going to sleep more because i should.

During the week I never eat breakfast, just coffee. I rarely eat lunch. I hate fast or convenience food. I can't eat right after getting home, need to wind down. By that time I am hungry, so look out. Beer is probably what puts the pounds on me. Beer is food, can't eat and drink, I reckon. Although, I do eat pretty good sometimes weekend evenings. Meat, it's what's for dinner.

I mainly drink beer Friday and Saturday, maybe one other night during the week, sometimes. I'm not a drink a beer after work kinda guy.

interweb confessions :rolleyes:
 
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