Posted by SleepyTimeGal on December 31, 2008 at 09:23:22:In Reply to: Re: Can anyone relate to this posted by Katt on December 30, 2008 at 17:44:12:
Your situation sounds like another poster awhile back who developed central apneas when his pressure was raised sufficiently to control the obstructive apneas. If you do a search on "central" or "mixed," you might turn up the posts, although I can't remember that he found a solution.
The thing is, the medications are not really making you "sleep." It's a difficult concept to wrap one's head around. It's sort of like thinking the body is relaxed while under anesthetic for surgery when, in reality, the body is tremendously stressed.
Good luck to you and the new machine. BTW, did you ever try an auto-adjusting PAP? They increase the pressure only as needed, then drop back down, unlike machines that are set at a continuous high pressure. After three sleep studies with very different results, one doctor set my pressure at 16, which is relatively high. I bought an AutoSet Spirit with the software to monitor my nightly stats. Sometimes the pressure runs between 10 and 12 for weeks at a time; other times -- maybe when my allergies are bad or something -- it runs between 14 and 15+. My guess is that if I'd tried to stay with a consistent pressure of 16, I'd have been in trouble. I never had a BiPap; I had no trouble exhaling against the high pressure. But everyone is different.
Again, best of luck to you and a prosperous and productive New Year.