Posted by LostBoyinNC43 on March 6, 2013, at 11:18:49
It is absolutely unbelievable. I am a very compliant CPAP user, basically 100% compliant. I have been on CPAP now since Fall 2007 and it changed my life for the better, moved me from a chronic, "treatment resistant depressive" to where I was able to do things again. For the first time since late 1997 when I originally fell apart.
Anyway, my equipment support people, called my "DME," originally gave me a nasal mask. That is standard when first starting CPAP. I found out I was really severe "mouth leaker" and for the first week on CPAP, went thru all these adjustments, first they gave me a chinstrap to wear with the nasal mask to keep my mouth closed during sleep. That absolutely did not work. Then they gave me a "full face mask." Something called a Resmed Quattro full face mask. Its probably the best overall full face mask on the market in the USA.
The Quattro full face mask shut down my mouth leak cold the first night and I started having good quality sleep for the first time since late Fall/early winter 1997. Ive been on that Quattro mask since late summer 2007, without missing a beat. I tried going back to a nasal mask a few times in 2008, but it never worked Id always wake up with severe dry mouth, wake up with mouth leak and feel "depressed and hungover" during the daytime. And also extremely irritable.
So recently, I decide to try something called "combination therapy," where you use a loose fitting nasal mask in combination with an oral appliance that moves your lower jaw forward. I started the nasal mask first, wondering if anything had changed in the four or five years since I used a nasal mask.
I woke up today feeling like HELL. Feeling like I used to feel before CPAP, in the old days. When everyday was like Id wake up with dry mouth, feel hungover and super depressed all day long, wake up with GERD and a sore throat, feel agitated and irritable as hell.
So Im ABANDONING this "combination therapy" CPAP experiment and going back to the tried and true Quattro full face mask that has served me well since 2007. I never feel this way anymore as long as I use the Quattro full face mask and use proper CPAP pressures.
Moral of this post: It really is a big reminder how much untreated or improperly treated sleep apnea affects my mood and overall way I feel, mentally AND physically.
Felt like I had to get this off my chest. Maybe someone else can learn from it if they have "treatment resistant" depression. It might really be, at least partially, obstructive sleep apnea!
Eric AKA "LostBoyinNC"
poster:LostBoyinNC43
thread:1039687
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130222/msgs/1039687.html