Posted by Breezely on June 09, 2009 at 09:55:00:In Reply to: How do you handle living with CPAP? posted by Much Worse Than I Feared on March 25, 2009 at 01:29:20:
How do I live with it? I can't live without it.
You do adapt. If your tossing and turning are due to your sleep apnea, then using the CPAP will reduce or eliminate that problem. I used to toss and turn like a cork in a hurricane. With the CPAP I generally turn over once or twice a night. That's really nice. Of course you do need to do it carefully and manage your hose when turning over. But you get used to all of these things. You'd be amazed. Soldiers get used to sleeping through artillery barrages, I got used to sleeping with 1/4" of steel between me and a giant diesel engine when I was in the NAVY. You can get used to using CPAP.
The machine is about the size of a shoebox. Yes, it has a mask and a hose and a cord.
Yes, you can take it with you. Mine came with a padded travel case that has room enough for my camera and some spare underwear with the CPAP, and lots of books and papers in the rear pouch. The airlines do not count a CPAP as a carry-on, so if they are allowing one carry-on, you can have two! Security knows what a CPAP is. They will make you take it out of the case, just as if it were a laptop. I travel a lot, foreign and domestic, and have never had a single issue about the CPAP.
You can get a 12V cord and cigarette-lighter plug for most or all CPAPs. My wife and I rented a boat in France for a couple of weeks and I took my 12V cord, but it turned out that the boat had an AC outlet right next to the bed so I didn't have to use it. You can use it for camping or whatever.
If your apnea is sufficiently mild that CPAP is a choice, then get the CPAP but just don't use it if you've got a hot date. On the other hand, if she's a regular date, then you should talk to her about it and see if she will try letting you use it. My wife likes the white noise the machine creates. (They are very quiet, but not silent.)
Drinking in the evening will make your apnea much worse. If you drink, then you should use the machine, but then you might not be in a state to make an intelligent decision at that moment. :-)
If your apnea is mild, consider some lifestyle changes. This is a serious problem if you let it get away from you. You sound young, and young people don't always realize just how HARD it is being old and having problems like this. But right now you are building the person you are going to be when you get old. Lose weight now and get in the habit of keeping it off. The longer you put that off the harder it gets. Lose weight and don't drink after 6PM. Those are probably the two biggies with controlling sleep apnea.
--Brian