When you have been sleep deprived for so long with obstructive sleep apnea and you finally get relief because of your CPAP machine, it can be very frightening to wake up in the middle of the night with the machine not working and displaying an error code.
I had this experience this past weekend when my Fisher & Paykel Icon+ stopped, showed a 5.03 error code and wouldn’t restart.
Everything is going really well with your CPAP mask and you’re sleeping really well. Then you start coming down with a cold or you get the flu!
Check out how cold and flu symptoms impacted my CPAP experience.
A low AHI score can make you feel like you achieved something great (like winning the Stanley Cup) all while sleeping. I had my lowest AHI score ever a few nights ago, and I’m pretty excited.
For a CPAP user, your mask is a vital piece of equipment because you spend so much time wearing it. But what happens when you start to have problems with your mask and the manufacturing quality just doesn’t seem to be up to scratch?
Click the “Read More” button to see what happened with my mask issues.
If it wasn’t bad enough that you had to wear a CPAP mask to battle your sleep apnea, to get a good snug fit you also need to shave regularly! Whiskers and beards make sleeping in a CPAP mask much more challenging, but is it enough trouble to force you into shaving more regularly?
Tracking your AHI score is a good way to understand how well your CPAP therapy is going and if you have your sleep apnea under control. It can be quite disconcerting to check your figures and see a sudden spike in your AHI, maybe double or even triple your nightly average. What does this mean and should you be worried about it?
I’d never heard of CPAP Mask Rash until I just looked in the mirror – I think my shaving routine may have to change a little from now on.
It’s often easy to bury your head in the sand about a medical condition such as sleep apnea. It tends to creep up on you slowly, while all the time your body becomes less and less efficient, and you spend more time sleeping then you do living life. Only those around you will really suffer, until eventually something has to give.
I now look back on all those years I had untreated sleep apnea and just shake my head – why didn’t I do something earlier?
Knowing now as I do that it’s really easy to get treatment, and that I’d feel like an entirely new man (like I did when I was in my teens or early 20’s) I really should have gone to a doctor sooner.