I was diagnosed with OSA a few years back and put on a CPAP. Since then I’ve lost 16kg (35lb) and i’m much fitter than I was. Last year I had a sleep test after not using the CPAP for two weeks. Good news is I no longer require the CPAP, bad news is I can’t sleep well without using it, and I’m left feeling tired without it.
When I asked the best way to stop using the CPAP my consultant said I was the first he’s come across asking that, he suggested just going cold turkey. I’m waiting for another sleep test, but with covid the NHS here in the UK has cancelled most non essential treatments.
So question for @flydriver - any idea on procedure to come off CPAP long term?
No, I don’t.
OSA needs a ‘definition’ to be recognized as a disease condition. Everyone has an occasional bit of apnea during the night. It becomes defined as OSA when the number, duration, degree of O2 desaturation, and sleep state disruption cross lines that were determined somehow.
So……what if someone is just this side of that line, or that side of the line? I’ve seen people, and their physicians have to deal with that dilemma. Throw insurance payments into that mix and it gets even messier.
In the UK, the CPAP was no longer supported/paid for if you did not ‘pass the OSA requirement’?
Do you own it yourself? If you do, and it works for you, I see no reason to not simply keep using it. It’s certainly not going to hurt you.
Usually people really don’t want to deal with CPAP. Even people that are seriously symptomatic often refuse to deal with it, finding the CPAP experience somehow worse than the OSA condition. One of the patients our company was trying to treat was a physician. His OSA was so bad it was seriously interfering with the work in his group practice. Of course, his colleagues insisted he be treated, of he would be asked to leave. There were legal and professional issues. So, we’d bring the equipment out. He’d return it a couple weeks later. Then get censored by his group who could tell he had ceased using it, and we’d bring it back. I remember at least 3 rounds of that. I don’t know how it ultimately turned out.
Here in the UK the NHS has just that, they set a limit of episodes per hour averaged over one night sleep test. If you are below that limit you don’t get treatment.
No I don’t own the CPAP, after my test results last year I was asked to return the CPAP to the NHS. I wrote to the consultant explaining and had a follow up telephone call with her, she concluded the same as you, continue using CPAP, but at the same time try to come off it.
From the research I’ve done, It would appear the pressure level can be adjusted to less and less over time to a point I should be able to come off it. This makes more sense to me compared to just going cold turkey. I’ll just have to wait for my next appointment and sleep test, see where it goes.
It took me many weeks to fully get used to using the CPAP, and more weeks to feel the benefit of using it. Again from my research, those that take longer to get used to using it seem to then struggle to stop using it!
On a lighter note, one of the nurses told me a great story – Her nurse friend hooked up with a young man in a pub one evening and had a one night stand with him. She spent the whole night awake as he slept, he was suffering with sleep apnea, snoring and stopping breathing for minutes at a time. She had breakfast with him and explained about his condition and told him to make an appointment as soon as possible. Long term she saved his life. Apparently she was the first lady to stay and have breakfast with him, others had just left in the night, now he knows why!
I started using CPAP around September last year after completing a sleep study. A local supplier offers 30 day trial rentals which comes off the purchase price if then bought. The trial was a mind-opener. Massive energy and mind clarity boosts. Needed less sleep. Unfortunately it was a full nasal mask and it got more and more claustrophobic over time. Then I bought a machine and tried gel nasal pillow. It was great but started to hurt one nostril. Switched to the nasal pillow and it’s been just right. I don’t think I’m getting as good results as I did with the full nasal mask but the trade-off for no claustrophobia is worth it for now. I may try again in the future.
I bought one of these APAP machines. It’s very quiet, I don’t even hear it unless I take the mask off. (These are Australian prices. I’m sure other countries could get them far cheaper.) Has a humidifier, plenty of adjustable parameters, and I discovered I can get into the prescription settings (which I haven’t fiddled with). Using it, my events have dropped to below the average of people without apnea. Great results!
