Biguglygremlin

Hi KennyAZ

You make a very good point.

The masks and headgear just don't last as long as we would like them to and the deterioration is fairly gradual so it's easy to not really be aware until they start to become more and more difficult to maintain.

I've had 3 masks in the past 6 years and really noticed the difference when I use each new one.

It would be nice to be able to replace them more often but it's not always possible and other things always seem to take precedence.

You don't like unfounded opinions and wild guesses RebeccaR? :O

That link has some very useful and concise information but it takes all the fun out of making it up as you go along!

This will probably be the most rambling and pointless comment I have made in this forum.

I'm not the smartest cookie by any means but I am perpetually curious and the primary tool I use in my feeble attempt to comprehend the universe I live in is abstract thinking and looking at the the big picture.

I do this because I feel that the closer I am to the subject the more distorted it becomes and the harder it is to keep it in perspective.

I often involve myself in discussions just for the hell of it. A way of sparring and playing with words and logic but what I notice is that if I have formed an opinion, from that point on when I see, hear or read anything related to that subject I anticipate contrary information and block or skip over it and I focus intently on anything that could possibly support the viewpoint I have already formed.

This process works well for me when my preferences are positive, constructive, progressive, or helpful but that is not always the case. Some things really bug me and I persist in looking for the negatives. I get stressed or anxious about things like misused statistics or the abuse of power.

So where am I going with this pointless comment?

There is a phrase that I remember reading a long time ago in a Mary Stewart book. Something along the lines that every man brings with him the seeds of his own destruction and I think that is dangerously close to the truth for most of us. Some people destroy themselves with neglect and abuse whilst others achieve the same outcome with worry and stress.

In answer to your question above:

I wasn't dizzy in the past and I have been on CPAP for some years but I am often dizzy now. I don't know why I'm dizzy but it is likely to be either mini strokes, messed up blood pressure or some kind of panic attacks. I've never had panic attacks before but I suspect that they can be learned or acquired because the brain is a powerful device, for good or ill and we are only have superficial control of it.

I hope it works out for you.

Don't hesitate to come back to this forum for suggestions or advice to do with setup and settings etc.

Not really my forte but Sierra is usually very helpful and knows his stuff.

I've made a number of purchases from these guys: 1800CPAP

That's not a recommendation. Just one possibility amongst many.

The last machine I bought cost around $400 which was all I could afford but it works fine for what I need it to do.

If your economy and control mechanisms are much like ours (Australia) then you can probably also buy them from merchants and private sales listed on your local trading sites. (Trading Post, Gumtree, Ebay etc.)

Once again just an example and not a particularly good example either: Example

Hi MidnightRider

Yes the alcohol will help you get to sleep but it doesn't last far enough into the night and it will do serious damage to you, your budget and any relationships you may have.

I was also in the very severe range before I had a CPAP machine and used to resort to antihistamines (the drowsy type) to help clear the airways and also to help sleep.

Sleeping on your side is also critical to being able to breathe properly with severe apnea (until you have a machine)

My suggestion would be to simply buy a CPAP machine and mask online.

I understand that in some countries there may be issues but there must be a way around them if you are determined, perhaps even a used or refurbished machine.

This forum contains plenty of information about machine options and settings.

There might also be some good advice online regarding sleep habits and relaxation techniques.

I finally found some current statistics for provisional deaths with the 5 year averages and the COVID 19 attributions.

UK Death Statistics

According to my limited maths skills the number of deaths above the average that were not attributed to COVID 19 in week 15 were 1,806 and in week 16 there were 3,096 extra deaths that were not counted as COVID 19 but were likely to have been at least indirectly COVID 19 related, especially when you consider that the increases are proportional.

This would seem to indicate that, at least in the UK, the real number of COVID 19 deaths is about 30% higher than the official numbers.

It would be interesting to see these figures across a number of countries.

I know that it seems like I have wandered off track with this thread in an apnea forum but surely this virus is a greater threat to the CPAP community than a leaky mask and the more we can learn about it the safer we will be and that includes evaluating the credibility of the information we are using to make critical decisions.

For those with grandchildren this is another possible twist in the story of COVID 19

Possible Link to Children

The Australian government insists that children are not affected and not spreaders which seems more like an economic decision than a safe medical conclusion.

The corrected link worked but I wish it didn't. :(

I was really intrigued with the opening disclaimer and also with the overall impact.

It is all in the nature of the subjects, the calibration settings and the connections between the various questions.

It was well though out and written to create a very bad picture.

The opening disclaimer was warranted.

Don't do this survey unless you are in a good place.

Yes they have been discussed quite a bit in this forum and a lot of people in Australia suffer from allergies and asthma which could also be monitored by a pulse oximeter although I think more obvious symptoms would normally develop before any significant oxygen reduction could be detected.

I bought a wrist device once, that was suppose to record oxygen levels as well as sleep quality, but I never trusted it so now it's abandoned on a desktop in another state.

For many people too much information fuels unnecessary stress and anxiety so I don't normally dwell on medical things but I have been refused release from hospitals on a number of occasions because my oxygen levels were way too low, so I thought the device might give me a clue as to how to avoid being detained next time.

My conclusions were that the device can't be trusted, for me it's probably normal to suppress breathing when I am in significant pain, and I don't want to live my life focused internally, perpetually worried about my health.

The marketing practices for medical things under our present circumstances interests me more than the devices themselves.

It's hard to tell at what point normal business management and pricing strategies become a form of extortion or gouging.

Medical Supply Company Charging $789 For $40 Box of Masks

Of course governments opening their treasury vaults and competing aggressively against each other doesn't help.

It seems that, for good or ill, this microscopic virus has shaken our world in more ways than we can possibly comprehend.