Cpap

[cooter]

Gotta tell ya Pete, I'm sure am glad your AHI was a typo!!..LOL..Talking about dreams! I don.t think I've ever in my life experienced dreams like I do now. I can even remember after I wake up what they were about, something I could never do in the past. Wow, what a phenomenon! For a while now I was thinking it was just me, but now you see it too. Do you head sweat at night? The reason I ask is cause I do, and when the straps get soaked they tend to expand, then when they dry they seem to be loose enough to re-tighten them again. On the other hand if you don't sweat, then that's beyond me. Your mask seems to be a little like mine as far as the construction, except my cup covers the nose and mouth. A lot of times I'll wake and the bottom of the cup would be in my mouth. Do you clean and rinse the hose every day and hang it out to dry? lol I don't. I'll rinse it out with warm water about once a week. But I do use baby wipes to clean out the mask every day. They work rather good. Is OSA on the presumption lists for GWV's? I figure it would be cause of all the crap you guy's had to breath in.

Coot

[jbasser]

Try the nasal adapter. It eliminates the face mask and helps.

J

[sleeper692]

Gotta tell ya Pete, I'm sure am glad your AHI was a typo!!..LOL..Talking about dreams! I don.t think I've ever in my life experienced dreams like I do now. I can even remember after I wake up what they were about, something I could never do in the past. Wow, what a phenomenon! For a while now I was thinking it was just me, but now you see it too. Do you head sweat at night? The reason I ask is cause I do, and when the straps get soaked they tend to expand, then when they dry they seem to be loose enough to re-tighten them again. On the other hand if you don't sweat, then that's beyond me. Your mask seems to be a little like mine as far as the construction, except my cup covers the nose and mouth. A lot of times I'll wake and the bottom of the cup would be in my mouth. Do you clean and rinse the hose every day and hang it out to dry? lol I don't. I'll rinse it out with warm water about once a week. But I do use baby wipes to clean out the mask every day. They work rather good. Is OSA on the presumption lists for GWV's? I figure it would be cause of all the crap you guy's had to breath in.

Coot

Yep, I get night sweats pretty bad sometimes but I don't think that is what is causing my mask straps to not fit from one night to the other. I do think they stretch a bit over time. I noticed last night that turning my head on the pillow caused the mask to go wonkers on my nose. I dunno, its just another thing to deal with and I'm sure I'll get used to it as time goes by.

Sleep apnea is not directly mentioned in the GW presumptives but it easily falls into the respiratory and neurological categories. The main problem is that the C&P doctors aren't up on the latest GW research. The raters aren't either let alone the fact that the raters are not medical types and have to go by what the docs say. When it comes to GW presumptives, the whole thing is one giant goat screw. But that's another thread. ;)

Basser, I've seen those nasal adapters. I'm not sure I could tolerate one of those. They look extremely uncomfortable. But, when I have my meeting with the sleep doc next month, I intend to bring it up. They have said they will pretty much give me any kind of mask any time I want to try something different. I can give it a shot and always go back to the mask if I don't like it.

With my flexeril and cloneazepam at bedtime, I'm not sure if the docs will prescribe me sleep meds but I'm going to ask. My current meds make me drowsy and let me fall asleep but they don't keep me from waking up all night long. I think the best chance I have in the immediate future for getting used to this CPAP is having something that will just straight up knock me out. As it is, not wearing the mask for most of the night isn't doing me much good except for kick-starting the dreams and that in itself has proved to be a dreadful experience.

I've upped my exercise as much as possible, which is mostly walking, and that seems to help me sleep a little better but I still wake up through the night and find my mask laying on the side of the bed blowing air and the machine beeping. If my IU comes through and I get the retro, I'm hoping to buy an elliptical machine to get a bit more rigorous exercise. I'm willing to try anything legal at this point to get a good nights sleep. As it stands now, I dread going to bed because I know its going to be a long night until the sun comes up.

Now, if the VA would just issue me a cute nurse to keep an eye on me all night, none of this would be an issue. I haven't found that option in the regs tho but I'll keep looking! ;)

[john999]

With or without the mask I wake up about 5 times every night. I am also so sleepy sometimes after I get up I am just a walking zombie. My wife says I don't snore with the mask on so that is good. The thing is I don't want to wake up dead one morning (lol) from not breathing so I will wear the mask.

[cooter]

It seems like I'm waking up more times a night just to drain my lizard. Does this effect any of you guys?

John I do the same thing every morning. I'm not kidding it takes me about 2 hours after waking up to get awake enough just to do anything. A lot of times after I get up out of bed I'll go get the newspaper and sit down to have some coffee and then before I know it I fall asleep again. It sucks.

Coot

[john999]

Cooter

I get dry from using the mask so I drink more and I do wake up about every 90 minutes. Often around 4:30 a.m. I just take off the mask because I am exhausted and try to sleep for 2-3 hours straight. I often fail and sleep too long or not enough. I get up and I go back to sleep with the coffee cup in my hand. My private shrink prescribed me some kind of speed so I can stay awake all day. I am trying to get it though my worker's compensation and I am having trouble getting it. The pharmacist looked at me like I was a dope addict and even wanted to see my drivers license. It is expensive so I was the WC to pay for it. Maybe someone has smooth sailing with the CPAP but that is not me.

John