JudgeMental
Replies: 4

Patient Empowerment
Replies: 1

Patient Empowerment
Replies: 1

Patient Empowerment
Replies: 10

Patient Empowerment
Replies: 2

Hello! As the spouse of a CPAP user I am grateful he finally got over his stubborness and had a sleep test completed a year ago, but feel bad that he had to give up sleeping on his stomach.

I noticed that there are quite a few CPAP pillows on the market for users. Could anyone offer a recommendation for one that would allow him to sleep on his stomach?

After attending a baby shower last week I had the crazy thought that a nursing pillow might do the trick. They are shaped like a giant "C" and quite fluffy. I thought it might let him put his forehead on the arch and the space might leave enough room for the mask and hose. Not being a CPAP user myself I need to know if this idea would work.

Thank you!

'trish.

Hello! As I no longer have insurance, everything I buy related to my VPAP machine costs tons of money! Before, my insurance would buy me a whole new mask (Mirage Cuattro) every 3 months, but when I went to get one without insurance, I nearly dropped a load to find they cost $250 each! *gasping for air!*

All I really needed was the soft-plastic/rubber seal that goes next to my face (it wears out fast and gets holes, etc.). To my deep chagrin, I found that those by themselves cost $90!! Is there NO shame?!

So, do any of you know a wholesale place that sells just individual pieces for masks? They say it's called a "coushin," but I'm not sure that's the right name...it's just the soft seal...the piece that actually touches your face.

Also, if you are no longer on insurance, how do you get the CPAP/VPAP companies to do a 2-year service? Maybe they're called a tune-up, I don't know.

Does anyone have experience with Canada or Mexico regarding these machines and their parts? Are they easier to work with? ANY information you have may be of use, so please respond. Thanks!-shawnesty (at) hotmail (dot) com --if you dont like posting directly.

The prescribing doctor said he is now ordering all CPAP with the C-flex turned off. He is reserving this setting for patients who are having difficulty tolerating the therapy . He stated that if in follow-up, the patient reports difficulty with the therapy, it will be his option to then have it turned on.

First question: antecedent of "his option"? The doc or the patient? Yeah, unanswerable, I know; I have to ask him.

Second (the real question): Why would the doc do this? Is there a medical benefit to exhaling against pressure? Or is there medical risk in NOT exhaling against pressure? The doc is uncommunicative so far, and the two DMEs in town don't understand his reasoning. I turned c-flex on, but I'm wondering if I did a "bad thing". Can anyone enlighten me? I can't get to the doc for another two weeks, so maybe experienced members here will have a quicker answer.

Lewy

Hey fellow board members, I'm the new kid on the block as of a few minutes ago. I came by this site a couple of days ago searching for a clinicians guide for a newly bequeathed CPAP machine of which I was the fortunate recipient.

It appears that this community has a great emphasis on patient empowerment, of which I am a big proponent ( Hence the name). I'll be looking in hoping to make more of a contribution to the cause other than the financial one I made a few minutes ago.

I was an insurance administrator for a small corporation for many years. Although that time has passed, I still have a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics that we all face in dealing with insurance companies, DME providers and the like. Perhaps the knowledge I have acquired, enduring all the hours of toiling and bureaucratic bustle, and would be willing to share may provide succor to someone here. I have found that knowledge is power in this venue and Darwinian values rule (particularly with insurance companies).

Its time to empower patients and insureds alike to balance the scales of fairness and advance the agenda of patient autonomy.

Its up to us joint and several

Best, P.E.

I just found this board. I have been using a C-PAP for a year now and I love I can not sleep with out it on. I just want to say hi.
Brad

Hi all,

Im currently in my first 6 months of OSA therapy and have been using a nasal mask with some average results. I am looking into trying a Nasal Pillow mask but im unsure of the advantages of changing. If you have used both could you tell me why you changed and why the nasal pillows where better or worse for you.

My CPAP is set to 12, and i sleep on both my side and back.

Thanks in advance

DOHboy

I just turned 40 years old, and the greatest gift was to finally be able to breathe normally. It has taken me almost half my life to figure out that I had sleep apnea and a deviated septum, including the last few years working on the proper solutions. Although I understand that so many are suffering from more trying and tragic conditions, moving beyond this feels like one of those giant safe doors has been unlocked and opened.

I thought I'd share my story so others may possibly gain some insight as to how to help themselves or people they know with similar experiences. For me, it’s also a way to celebrate a bit and bring closure to this rather pesky situation.
It's difficult to trace it back. Clearly, I was never a morning person. I felt sluggish since high school, just barely making the bus each morning, looking around wondering how everyone else could be so damn loud and spastic.
Then, I'd have to drag myself out of bed in college. Even during this period of natural (and not so natural) high energy I still felt it took me until the afternoon to hit my stride.
Post college, depending on where I was living, since a variety of allergies compounded the problem, I often felt like a walking zombie. Chronic symptoms were a dull headache, major pressure behind the eyes, dark circles, that “tired look”, memory loss, difficulty in communicating, a general full body malaise that I could physically feel especially in my joints and extremities. I also recognized that at least one nostril was pretty much closed at all times. Sometimes it would even jump sides…quite confounding, but the consensus was, “allergies”.
Otherwise, I'm very lucky to be in good health and I’ve been blessed with a pretty darn good life. Throughout these years I still went to the gym, was active in sports, had a great social life, traveled extensively, and excelled at whatever work I was pursuing. So it's not like I was bed-ridden, but I did feel like I was playing the game of life a few seconds behind the scoreboard time.

In my early 30’s the symptoms grew worse which had me questioning my sanity at times. I was never chemically depressed, but feeling that your real self was somewhere else got me down. I became disappointed with myself and generally not as happy as I knew I could be. I was overly self-conscious, hypersensitive, and just a general douche at times. Extensive research on the web, led me to consider a variety of conditions. Was it just severe allergies? Or how about Crohn’s disease, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I even tried taking bovine adrenaline thinking I may have depleted adrenal gland syndrome…blah blah.
I also began to wonder, "is this just me getting older? is this what chemical depression feels like? should I just get used to it?". This daily distress made me more jaded and disconnected with the world. I kept friends and family at a distance, lost touch with many, and had difficulty developing new relationships. This was very frustrating to me, a loving person who only wants to live my life with laughter, creativity, and compassion. As much as one would like to blame other forces, it sucked knowing that it was truly my lack of vitality that was the root of the problems.
I must admit here that I ended up drinking too much. Getting buzzed would give me a jolt of (what I thought was) charisma and energy. It never lasted long and inevitably felt like poop the next day. This was a very unhealthy cycle. If you find yourself turning to booze or dope to escape your problems whatever they may be, you must reconsider, and find a real solution. One must realize, the sooner the better, that no one is going to expend much empathy sympathizing with your whining. Especially if you are doing nothing to help your situation. You will be lucky to have some concerned falmily or a best friend, but that’s going to be about it. Even the few doctors I had visited over the years offered no guidance other than to write allergy medication prescriptions or insist on perpetual allergy shots.

Onward. I moved to Brooklyn New York 4 years ago, and maybe there was something in the air but my condition worsened to new heights. I had a tough time just following what drivel was being said on the tube. My thoughts were muddled and I didn’t have much conviction in what I said or did.
Through all this I built my small business and things were going fine in that arena, but every day was a struggle to find the motivation.
The search for some clarity continued. Girlfriends had mentioned in the past that I would snore pretty heavily at times, although it wasn’t chronic log-sawing going on. I also began to recognize that I was shallow breathing with my chest while awake, not with my belly/diaphragm. Also, my throat would close up in most prostrate or even sitting back positions. I bought a CD set by Dennis Lewis on breathing techniques (fascinating) and when I practiced I felt much better afterward. I started to become aware that it was a general lack of oxygen, the essence of vitality itself, that was causing my array of symptoms. I grilled an aunt and uncle who both had sleep apnea, and although I didn’t fit the typical sufferer I was compelled enough through my research to get a sleep study. Again, my health care wouldn’t cover it, so I volunteered for a sleep study at a nearby hospital and sure enough I had sleep apnea. They also determined I had a very narrow passageway in my throat and I could be a good candidate for UPPP surgery which would remove my adenoids, tonsils, uvula, and scrape some palate to make it wider. But first I tried the CPAP machine and quickly felt much, much better. Dramatic difference. Wore it every night regardless of how uncomfortable it was… and the whole fighter-pilot look isn’t the most attractive thing, but I had a very understanding girlfriend who was just happy to see me livelier than she ever had before. Also I found that my allergies were not as severe as long as got restorative sleep. It’s all connected, and I believe it begins with getting enough of those magical oxygen molecules.

After a while, I inquired about the UPPP throat surgery, set a date, and after a nasty recovery I didn’t have to use the CPAP machine anymore…however I was maybe only feeling about 60% as good as I did with the CPAP machine, which forces air down your throat at night to assure you are getting good amount of oxygen. The ENT doctors also determined that I had a deviated septum and that perhaps that should be addressed some day after recovering from the first surgery. The thought of actually being able to breath out of both nostrils was becoming very attractive to me. I had gotten used to being semi-stuffed, but now I was determined to make the possibility of breathing fully a reality.
So I had another surgery at the beginning of September to correct the septum and reduce my turbinates (small bones in the nose that can obstruct breathing if enlarged). I was up and about pretty quickly, but it did take a while to fully heal, blowing out some major buildup every other day. I took a run of antibiotics because there seemed to be a small infection in there, and applied some bacitricin with a q-tip way back there to keep it clean and moist. Voila, the combination of all this finally has me breathing clearly out of both nostrils for the first time since… who the hell knows when.
Halle-freakin-lujah. I mean there is some serious rejoicing going on here.
I’m trying put the past behind, but wow did I experience some unfulfilling years. In retrospect I could have prevented much of it if I only sought out better information and shelled out more dough for treatment. So please, if you or any one you know is experiencing symptoms that are a result of not getting enough oxygen, don’t hesitate to take the necessary steps to alleviate it. It’s so essential to human health, yet is often taken for granted. Some answers include, a CPAP machine, surgery for some, learning how to breathe correctly while awake, lose weight, and exercise…get those lungs pumpin’. And if you still smoke and allow yourself to remain obese you are just asking for it.

On a political note, if I had lived in a country like Canada, Japan, or any of the other industrialized nations with national health care, I may have been diagnosed and had my septum easily corrected much earlier in life.
Lord knows I would have been more productive, made more money, paid more taxes, not have dragged down the system with other unnecessary treatments like perpetual allergy shots and meds, and would’ve been generally happier.
Isn’t it patriotic to want to have your fellow Americans happier and healthier? I’d much rather put my money into a national health care system than waste it on my pretty useless insurance that I had over the years.
A smart, fair system can be put in place that increases care and cuts down costs. Figuring this out can be done and is more important than the bottom line of a few major corporations.
Well, went on a tangent there…but watching so many Americans being led astray, by the likes of Sarah Palin and Fox “news”, to fight against their own interests saddens me intensely.

Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll be breathing easier soon.

Sleep Apnea Sufferers at Risk for GI Conditions

People who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) also tend to have gastrointestinal (GI) tract conditions such as gastric reflux and hiatal hernia, which forms at the opening in the diaphragm where the esophagus joins the stomach. Study authors suggest that patients who are being treated for OSA should also be referred to a gastroenterologist for a more comprehensive treatment approach.

Researchers studied 42 adult patients with proven OSA. Each patient underwent an upper GI endoscopy to evaluate his or her gastrointestinal health. Pathological GI conditions were found in more than 80 percent of patients suffering from OSA, the majority showing two or more findings. The most frequent observed pathology was hiatal hernia, followed by erosive esophagitis, histological esophagitis and erosive gastritis, duodenal ulcer, and biliary reflux.

Approximately 12 million Americans have sleep apnea, which is characterized by episodes of reduced or no airflow throughout the night.

fair use from:
http://www.ethioplanet.com/vybes/2009/11/14/sleep-apnea-sufferers-at-risk-for-gi-conditions/

I'm a new user & just love the great sleep I am getting from my machine. Every since though I have developed chapped lips. I've tried several chapped sticks, but none really work that well. Now my doctor is telling me to go to a dermatologist. Has anybody else every had this problem? If so, what did you do to correct it? Thanks

New York Doctor Calls for Universal Sleep Apnea Screening

A New York City physician argues that every American should undergo screening for obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that afflicts about 18 million people, if not more.

New York, NY, November 01, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The National Transportation and Safety Board’s recommendations for routine sleep apnea screening for airline pilots and others operating multiple passenger vehicles is a good start, but a New York City physician argues that every American should undergo screening for a condition that afflicts about 18 million people. While we screen for prostate cancer, which is found in .001% of men, we don’t screen for sleep apnea, which is found in 24% of men. Yet, sleep apnea is more deadly than prostate cancer.

“It’s estimated that 80-90% of people with OSA are not diagnosed in this country,” says Dr. Steven Y. Park, an ear, nose, throat physician and Clinical Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at the New York Medical College, who specializes in diagnosing and treating sleep-related breathing problems. "It’s been shown that sleep apnea can cause or aggravate anxiety, depression, diabetes, weight gain, high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction, heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. We should screen everyone for this condition.”

Dr. Park provides some more frightening statistics:

• 24% percent of all middle-aged men and 9% of women have obstructive sleep apnea.
• This figure goes up to 55% for seniors in their 70s and 80s.
• Sleep apnea increases your risk of heart attack by 2-3 times, and for stroke, 3-4 times.
• Your overall risk of dying increases by 46% (you’ll die 20 years earlier)
• Untreated sleep apnea raises your risk of car accidents by 3 to 10 times normal
• You don’t have to snore or be overweight to have sleep apnea.

Dr. Steven Y. Park is the author of the book, Sleep, Interrupted: A physician reveals the #1 reason why so many of us are sick and tired. He has a unique and unconventional perspective on sleep and health issues which your audience will find useful, if not life changing.

fair use from:
http://www.pr.com/press-release/189810