My CPAP Machine and Me – Best Friends For Life
By Julia A. Keirns
HOW I KNEW I HAD SLEEP APNEA
My dad snored so loud we would always make fun of him. Mom would tell us to leave him alone and not wake him up. She used to say that if he was snoring that loud he must really be tired and in a deep sleep. Boy, was she wrong. Today, he would have been sent to the sleep doctor and put on a CPAP machine.
So, move ahead to me. I have always snored. I follow after dad in a lot of things. Dad always had a stuffy nose and sprayed Afrin in his nose every night before bed. Ditto. Dad always had acid reflux and chewed tums all the time. Ditto. Dad snored like a freight train. Ditto.
I can remember many times when the kids were young of getting a pillow thrown at me, and a frustrated child who couldn’t sleep would holler, “MOM! Roll over or something!” Every time we would go on vacation and stay in the same hotel room, the hubby would take along ear plugs for the kids. Either they wore the ear plugs or I would get two pillows thrown at me at the same time. I believe the older I have gotten, the worse the snoring has become.
One time I went on a ladies retreat with several women from church. We all stayed in a house and went on some shopping sprees. There were two of us who snored and so they sent us to the upstairs bedroom and shut the stair door. I never wanted to do that again because it was so embarrassing to have them hear how bad I snored.
Our youngest son is in the Air Force and he was sent to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio to have laser surgery on his eyes a couple of years ago. He was not allowed to be left alone, so I went with him and stayed with him in the same room. He had to put drops in his eyes every couple of hours. We had two twin beds side by side with just a nightstand in between us. I woke up the first night and looked over at his bed and did not see him. I put my glasses on and the whole mattress was gone! I had to think about it for a minute, and then I heard the fan on in the bathroom. I went to the bathroom door and opened it and sure enough, there he was, with his mattress, pillow, and blanket, laying on the bathroom floor with the bathroom fan on and his phone fan on. I felt bad. It was funny, but it wasn’t. I had to stay with him for three more nights. I knew it was probably time to bite the bullet and go get tested for sleep apnea.
For me, it was more of an embarrassing problem. I never wanted to fall asleep anywhere. One time when I was in the hospital for my broken leg, the nurses woke me up a few times in the middle of the night because I was not breathing and asked me if I had ever been tested for sleep apnea. It was simply a matter of not wanting to take the time to go through the hassle. Because of my broken leg, my mother came and stayed with me to help while my husband worked. She also woke me up a few times because I was not breathing. She said, “Julie, dad never snored that bad. You need to get that looked at.”
THE MATTER OF THE TEST
Last year, I finally called my family doctor and told him I needed to be referred to a sleep doctor. After talking to me about why I thought I had sleep apnea, he agreed and got me an appointment at the sleep center. The sleep center called my insurance company and found out that they would only pay for an at-home sleep test. They sent me home with a monitor that I had to wear around my chest and attach to my finger. It was not that difficult to fall asleep with it on. A little annoying at first, but I slept all night.
The next day I took the monitor back to the sleep lab and they downloaded the information. They called me a couple days later and said that I definitely had sleep apnea. I knew my throat was closing at night and it would wake me up sometimes, but I did not realize that I would stop breathing 30 or 40 times per hour. That was scary to think about.
The next step was to choose a durable medical equipment company to provide my machine and equipment. My insurance company will only rent the machine on a rent-to-own basis and I have to prove that I am using it faithfully. The insurance company requires me to use it 70% of the time in order for them to pay all 10 months rental. At the end of the 10 months, then I will own the machine. I am currently using it 100% of the time and will not sleep without it.
I was set up on a Resmed AirSense 10 Auto CPAP machine and I absolutely love it. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. I have ClimateLineAir Heated Tubing, and I wear an N30i Nasal Mask with Nasal Pillows size medium. The thing I like most about this mask is that the tubing comes off the top of my head and does not get in my way while I sleep and roll over. I have not had any trouble keeping my mouth closed at night. I am a nose breather as long as my nasal passages are open. I believe the forced air not only keeps my throat open, but it also keeps my nasal passages open.
I faithfully wear the CPAP machine every night and cannot sleep without it anymore. Sometimes I will doze off out on the loveseat watching a movie or something, and I will constantly wake myself up snoring or not breathing. My throat completely closes off. That is when I get up and go to the bed and decide to take a nap with my machine on. It has been a life saver. I feel so much better now and feel more rested. I have noticed that the vivid dreams have stopped. I don’t know if that is significant or not, but I hope it means I am getting more of a deep restful sleep. I take my CPAP machine with me everywhere I go. I actually bought a second machine and equipment so that when we travel on the weekends, I do not have to tear down the machine all the time and pack it up. I have a second one ready to go.
I have flown with my CPAP machine and it has not been a problem at all. The airlines usually just put it through the scanner, and it is carried on the plane with me. They don’t count it as a carry on because it is a medical device.
If you are struggling with some of the same problems I explained, then my advice to you would be to get tested and see how bad your sleep apnea is. Give the machine a try. You might just find the best sleep of your life.