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58 days til my CPAP mask
I get my CPAP on April the 14th and I am literally counting down the says....I'm looking at my first decent night's sleep in 25 years.
How do they measure the right amount of pressure to use? And will I feel the benefit the very next morning after using it?
How do they measure the right amount of pressure to use? And will I feel the benefit the very next morning after using it?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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Russ --- so glad you decided to join us here. We can use a UK perspective.
To answer your questions, they measure the right pressure to use during an overnight sleep study called a polysomnography. They test you while using a CPAP and keep increasing the pressure until all apnea and hypopnea events are cleared. With respect to when you'll feel the benefit, some people feel a world better the very next day, but that wasn't the case for me, and isn't the case for many others. It often takes weeks, if not months, to fully adapt. Don't want to scare you away. Because if you stick with it, you will feel better. It sometimes just takes some work and encouragement, which this group will be happy to provide...
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Permalink Reply by Judy on
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The amount of pressure prescribed was determined during your in-lab titration study. If you didn't have an in-lab titration study then it will be determined by an at-home titration period w/an auto-titrating CPAP. It is to be hoped that if it is an at-home titration the prescriber scripted a sensible pressure range and not left it up to the DME supplier to set a wide-open pressure range.
Some people experience relief their very first night, most people it takes awhile to adjust to CPAP therapy, to find the right mask that is comfortable and relatively leak free.
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OK thanks - as for a UK perspective, this is how it worked for me:
I first went to my doctor about my snoring - I've been known to set off car alarms with the force of my snoring. I was kept in hospital as a day-patient and went under general anasthetic during which time they sent a probe up my nose and determind I would benefit from 'nasal surgery'. Also one of the doctors, while I was under, gently lifted my jaw forward and my snoring stopped. Once I'd come round the doctor came to see me and told me all the above, plus I grind my teeth in my sleep but that was a by-product of the situation.
He also asked me something that at the time seemed odd - when I wake up in the mornings do I always feel even more tired, and did I also feel sleepy through the day? The answer was a massive 'yes'. He said he'd be in touch.
A few months later I was called back for an appointment with the ENT specialist and he gave me a device to wear which looked like a watch and had a strap to go around the tip of my middle finger which obviously measured my breathing. I had to wear it overnight. I did so and returned it. I then had a letter to go back to him about 2 months later.
It was then he mentioned apnea and it made perfect sense. I always though the "waking up and feeling like a zombie" thing was normal - I thought everyone was like it. So he said he'd make an appointment for april 14th to try a cpap mask. One of the problems was he wasn't British so it was hard to understand him - this is why I have questions here.
The way it work in the UK is, although my apnea rating is 17 (occurances per hour), until we try the cpap mask and it's successful I haven't officially been diagnosed with apnea. But it is strongly believed to be the problem.
So I'm counting down the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes...
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Very interesting how things are done in the U.K. My overall impression is that they make this even slower and more painful than here in the U.S. Without doubt, I'm 100% certain you have a raging case of Sleep Apnea, and any doctor worth his salt would agree in a heartbeat given the symptoms and circumstances you describe.
Sounds like they diagnosed you with sleep apnea many many months ago when you first went in and the doctor moved your jaw forward and the snoring stopped, and he found out that you wake up feeling unrefreshed and go throughout the day feeling tired. Then they made you wait a few months to get a home test to validate the pre-existing diagnosis. Once you took that, you had to wait another 2 months just to hear them utter the words "sleep apnea." now they're making you wait another few months -- until mid-April -- to further validate the diagnosis with a cpap mask and to determine what pressure setting you should have with CPAP (which is generally called the titration part of a sleep study). my guess is after the titration they'll make you wait a few more months for your own CPAP machine/mask to arrive, citing "procedure" or some other vague, unjustifiable reason not to give you the care you need in a timely fashion.
Sorry to sound so annoyed. You're doing the right thing by going through all this rigamorole, and ultimately you will get your CPAP and feel much better. The thing that's annoying to me is that every night of your life, they know that your sleep disordered breathing is slowly killing you without being treated, and still they make appointments 2, 3 months down the road.
Russ Burt said:OK thanks - as for a UK perspective, this is how it worked for me:
I first went to my doctor about my snoring - I've been known to set off car alarms with the force of my snoring. I was kept in hospital as a day-patient and went under general anasthetic during which time they sent a probe up my nose and determind I would benefit from 'nasal surgery'. Also one of the doctors, while I was under, gently lifted my jaw forward and my snoring stopped. Once I'd come round the doctor came to see me and told me all the above, plus I grind my teeth in my sleep but that was a by-product of the situation.
He also asked me something that at the time seemed odd - when I wake up in the mornings do I always feel even more tired, and did I also feel sleepy through the day? The answer was a massive 'yes'. He said he'd be in touch.
A few months later I was called back for an appointment with the ENT specialist and he gave me a device to wear which looked like a watch and had a strap to go around the tip of my middle finger which obviously measured my breathing. I had to wear it overnight. I did so and returned it. I then had a letter to go back to him about 2 months later.
It was then he mentioned apnea and it made perfect sense. I always though the "waking up and feeling like a zombie" thing was normal - I thought everyone was like it. So he said he'd make an appointment for april 14th to try a cpap mask. One of the problems was he wasn't British so it was hard to understand him - this is why I have questions here.
The way it work in the UK is, although my apnea rating is 17 (occurances per hour), until we try the cpap mask and it's successful I haven't officially been diagnosed with apnea. But it is strongly believed to be the problem.
So I'm counting down the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes...
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Ah no - on April 14th I get my own mask, that's what my GP has told me.
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that's good news. do you already have a CPAP machine? If not, you'll want to make sure that they give you a data-capable one so you can monitor the effectiveness of your treatment, and get input from others on this group as to what you might do to further optimize your therapy. the respironics m-series with a-flex is a good place to start. it's also auto adjusting, so that you are given different amounts of pressure depending on your needs on a given night.
Russ Burt said:Ah no - on April 14th I get my own mask, that's what my GP has told me.
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No I don't have anything yet, I'm assuming when I go there in april they give me the mask and all the gubbins that come with it.
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In the UK, does the government fully subsidize the cost of CPAP machines and CPAP masks? If so, is any choice given to the patient as to which CPAP machine and which CPAP mask he/she will have?
Russ Burt said:No I don't have anything yet, I'm assuming when I go there in april they give me the mask and all the gubbins that come with it.
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I'm assuming I get whatever mask is suited to my needs. We don't pay for any treatment here, the NHS covers it all. England, Scotland and N Ireland all have to pay for medicines (tablets etc) but here in Wales we don't even pay for those.
But all non-medicinal treatments in the Uk are paid for by the NHS.
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i wonder whether they'll give you a decent mask/machine, or whether they'll give you the bottom of the barrel equipment to keep costs down. which machine and mask you get can really make the difference between whether this works for you or not. i'm not only interested for the sake of helping you get the best information, but also to know what the NHS will provide for. We here in the US seem to be flirting with a more socialized form of medicine, and what the UK does might give us some sense of the direction we're headed here...
Russ Burt said:I'm assuming I get whatever mask is suited to my needs. We don't pay for any treatment here, the NHS covers it all. England, Scotland and N Ireland all have to pay for medicines (tablets etc) but here in Wales we don't even pay for those.
But all non-medicinal treatments in the Uk are paid for by the NHS.
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The NHS has its faults but far more often than not you get the treatment that you need as opposed to what they can afford unless it has no 100% proven success. They will give me whatever is needed to get me past this pointless affliction.
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Permalink Reply by RichM on
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Sorry that it will take you this long time to get it resolved here in the states your personal doctor will set you up with an appointment with a sleep center (most of them are attached to a hospital, That might take a week or two depending on a open slot. Then it will take a week to score the testing results (the next morning you will find out some what how it went from the tech) when you get the final results they will send in a order for a cpap or a bipap depending on what type of problem you have. Depending on the company you hope you can ask if you can get a certain type of machine, most come with a data card (all the ones that I have so far have data cards) and they will let you pick what type of mask they have, allot only use one brand of gear, depends where you live you might have more options. But for the most part you would have the gear that day or the next. Like Mike was saying the way things are going around here lately our gov is trying to go to more like what the UK is doing and from what I have see in my lifetime (all of 56 yrs) I have see what that can do to the health system. I spend a good deal of time over in Finland for work a few years ago and what I saw of the health system I was not impressed. What we have over here in the states is great compared to allot of other places. If Finland (which as all of 5 mil people) and the other Scandinavia countries are having the problems they are having with long times to get services how it the world would our gov with over 350 mil people get anything done. we would be all domed. Best of luck I hope you get everything you need so you can get some good sleep.
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