61 year old active male, clinically diagnosed with Central Sleep Apnea in 2020.
Top Topics
Recent Topics
Since the FDA approved INSPIRE earlier in May this year( only to be used in patients with "SEVERE" OBSTRUCTIVE Apnea and ONLY on a selected few meeting FDA's stringent requirements), this company has hired an army of online shills to pretty much SPAM any and all online forums that deal with sleep apnea, promoting the Inspire procedure under FAKE profiles that claim they have had the procedure done successfully and without issues . This is a dishonest marketing campaign that lures people by essentially LYING to them.
If you are considering to have this $30,000 procedure done, you should search for people who have had a negative experience after installing this shock therapy that zaps the nerve on the back of their tongue, whenever OSA occurs. Some even complain about how hideous the wiring which running across under their skin, on the side of their neck and under their chin, looks while others complain that the system is not only painful but it also doesn't even work.
Do your research properly before you burn a hole in your pocket, or your insurance claim history.
There has been an explosion of various CPAP sanitizers that work by generating Ozone (O3) which then circulates through a CPAP circuit, from the mask to the machine itself, thus "sanitizing" these parts in the process. Ozone however is quite a dangerous gas for human consumption and it is not clear how these cleaners have even passed the FDA regulatory barriers to be sold in United States, in the first place. According to US Environmental Protection Agency, EPA; "When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs. Relatively low amounts can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath and throat irritation. Ozone may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and compromise the ability of the body to fight respiratory infections" https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality- ... nfections.
Also Ozone sanitizers use warm air to "dry" the inside of CPAP circuits, leaving a flaky white residue behind. This flaky stuff can often bee seen blowing out the CPAP mask when the machine is first turned on. The flaky stuff is the dried out residue left over from "rain-out" inside of the hose and water tank and tends to elevate in volume when tap water has been used or a lot of saliva has been deposited in the mask. Clearly it is not very pleasant to breath the stuff, so if you use of of these Ozone cleaners make sure that: 1-You stay well away from it while it is working. Placing it outside to do its work may be the safest thing to do. 2-To prevent the white flaky stuff from being deposited into your lungs, it is best to turn your CPAP on for 5 minutes or so, before masking up.
Better yet you may wish to consider using clean warm water and your favorite dish soap to clean your hose, mask and tube and then rinse them out well and dry fully before using them again. Your machine itself rarely ever has to be sanitized unless you loaned it to someone with a known communicable disease, a scenario with an infinitely small probability.
All the best and never ever breath Ozone into your lungs.
You never need to sanitize your machine because there's no reason for it. Your machine is just a pump that draws clean air (through its own microfilters) from the environment and blows it through the tube. So there's nothing to sanitize inside (I know, a lot of people LOVE their Ozone cleaners, but Ozone gen erators like SoClean are really very dangerous. Even the FDA talks about it. Anyway, as for your hose and mask, nothing like good old warm water and your favorite dish soap. Then let then drip dry and you are good to go. Masks every 3 weeks but wipe with sanitizing towels ever night before use and hose evert 2-3 weeks. You can also clean your water tank about once a month this way and you are good to go. Oh/...only use distilled water for your humidifier. This way you won't be inhaling juicy bacteria in drinking water.
I can't wait to test drive my new F30i by Resmed, right after posting this. I have tried the entire range of Respironics masks and the most comfortable in that selection has been their Dreamwear full face, however I have a couple of not so serious issues with it, one being that the vent holes on front of the mask are positioned too high so the vented flow of air hits my eyes, depending on my pillow position and I end up with very dry eyes in the morning . The Resemed F30i is almost identical to Philips Dreamwear full face except that the F30i vent holes are positioned as low on front of the mask as possible, reducing the chances of vented air hitting the eyes. (The person who designed the F30i Must have been a astute observer , because it is pretty much a copy of the dreamwear except for this difference).
The other very subtle contrast is the type of silicone that is used in F301 for facial cushioning in that it has a more shiny finish to it than the Dreamwear's which makes for a better seal with skin and thus providing a better seal than the Dreamwear, without having to tighten it too much.
Wish me luck and let us know what your favorite mask is....I went with Dreamwear based on an earlier discussion with board members who recommended it.
Ps. I was very disappointed with Respironics Amara View mask because even though it is super comfortable to wear, its vent holes direct the air out at my eyes, besides the fact that it has a mouth tube which I can't deal with having flow hitting my moth directly, why I can only use "frame type" masks that deliver the air to the mask, indirectly from both sides. ...so the Amara View has become another unused addition to my collection.
Before I start please allow me to declare that I have absolutely no financial interest in any CPAP equipment brand, including and not limited to Phillips or Resmed CPAP machines and their range of other respiratory equipment and accessories, other than my own investment in purchasing the ASV model of both brands for my own use. That said, I am the proud owner of both a Resmd Aircurve 10 ASV and a Philips Respironics Dreamstation Auto SV machine, both of which I like a lot, except that I like my Dreamstation a lot more than I do my Resmed and with very good reasons. I am also fully aware of Phillips's infamous recall of their line of CPAP machines which also covers my unit, however my understanding is that the only identified cause for the degradation of the sound insulating "foam" inside these machines, is the use of Ozone gas which is employed by some CPAP cleaning equipment and since I never use these products, I am not worried about the ""killer foam" inside . Back to why I like my Dreamstration a lot more than I do my Resmed and aside from the obvious superior engineered design of the Dreamstation, its firmware monitors, adjusts to and reports on some critical metrics that my resmed simply ignores (or just sweeps under the rug), while telling me that I am doing great under the therapy that my Resmed provides. One of these critical metrics that my Resmed simply ignores, is "Patient-Initiated Breaths" and naturally "Machine-initiated Breaths", as you can see in a screenshot of my sleep data last night. My Dreamstation provided me with 2319 breaths of fresh air last night within a span of some 6.5 hours, life saving breaths that I would have otherwise not taken by myself as a Central Apnea patient, leading to experiencing a miserable night of constantly waking up throughout and feeling exhausted in the morning and the rest of the day. 2319 machine initiated breaths is of course an average for me as some nights it can go down to a few hundred and sometimes it can go up as much as 4,000 breaths. I simply cannot predict how bad the night is going to be and since I am not on any form of opioids and I do not drink heavily (both known causes of aggravating CSA), it is only a game of chance as to what type of a night I am going to have. This is where my Dreamstation keeping tab on this very important data helps me understand the depth of this problem with at least some degree of accuracy. As you can see in the graph, last night my own initiated breathing went up to almost 100%, on three different occasions, however my median "patient initiated breaths" remained at an alarmingly low 37% median threshold which means that I did not breath on my own for over 60% of the time. Interesting to note that even though my dreamstation reports a much higher AHI as compared to when I use my Resmed ASV, my "TIME SPENT IN PANEA" is almost ZERO with Dreamstation and much higher with Resmed. I believe it is only because my Dreamstation does a much better job of monitoring and reacting to a whole host of parameters that my Resmed simply doesn't bother with. So it is NOT because my Dreamstation isn't capable of lowering my AHI like my Resmed does, but simply because my Resmed isn't calculating the data correctly or even monitoring some critical items while my Dreamstation does a superior job of identifying events and reacting to them. I will of course followup with further posts to explore this comparison adventure between the only 2 commercially available home-use ASV machines, as we go along. Here's a screenshot of last night's DS-1 data:
So what you are saying is that Dexamphetamine is helping you sleep near normal, if you take it during the day. Given that this is a habit forming drug (you'd be pretty much addicted to it, if as you say, you've been on it for a year) and that it can cause new or worsening of existing psychosis, especially in people with a history of depression or mental disorders, I'd be very cautious . Remember that habit forming pharma can alleviate a set of symptoms while aggravating others and forming new ones. My recommendation is to have an exit strategy if 'sh%$it hits the fan and you find yourself in a situation when you must get off of Dexamphetamine because its not like once you are addicted to it, you can just stop taking it without some very serious side-effects.
The pockets are sewn into the fabric all over so even weight distribution. If you have Prime membership at Amazon, you can always return it up to 30 days, if you don't like it. I think it would be too hot to use in summer or in warm climates, unless you have good A/C, but in winter we keep the bedroom pretty cool at night so the blanket works great.
This is what I have been trying to Convey here. You do not know how your therapy would improve, if you were able to somehow try ASV therapy. I hear you in that you have fiddled with your CPAP mode and kinda got your AHI under control, but as I have argued in my other posts, Resmed's reporting of AHI , even for its ASV machines, is kind of dubious and cannot be relied upon, which is why I have both Resmed and Philips machines in almost all their models, Airsense, APAP, ASV and VPAP and given my history of dominant Central Apnea (my Polysomnography scored >53 events per hour). In conclusion I'd like to suggest that if you ever get an opportunity to try a Philips Respironics BiPAP ASV, you will find the quality of your sleep improve surprisingly well, as it was the case for me moving from APAP/CPAP therapy to ASV.
So I recently purchased a cool weighted blanket that weights 20lb. It is for sure a very heavy blanket that has 4"x4" pockets filled with tiny ceramic pellets. It completely gets rid of air pockets when pulled over and kelps ti literally pin me down in bed. I find that I fall asleep immediately when I use the blanket and tend to stay sleep uninterrupted through the night? Have you ever experienced a weighted blanket? What is your take on it?
Ok so your OAS is the dominant apnea, otherwise your strategy would not help. My central apnea is dominant and it is not even a complex apnea (I have very little to no Obstructive events) so regular CPAP therapy is useless for me.
Also there is a lot of talk about Treatment Emergent Central Apnea. But it is worth noting that only 8% of patients under therapy for OSA, develop Central apnea (complex apnea). The vast majority of patients with predominant Central apnea disorder, are either long term Opioid users (prescription or otherwise) or patients with certain heart diseases. This group's central apnea tends to improve over time with therapy and the cessation of underlying causes.
There's also a subgroup who are idiopathic centrals, whereby the root cause of their disorder is none of the above or undetermined. This group Central apnea does not improve over time and can only be "managed" with correct therapy.
Its noteworthy to mention that the ONLY FDA approved form of therapy for Central apnea is ASV therapy.