Great News!

 I had to have a new sleep study done, been trying to get in with one of these sorts of doctors since we moved Sept. 2022.  Finally got a referral and had an appointment with one this past November.  She confirmed that due to weight changes I needed a new study but the department was backed up for EIGHT MONTHS to get one scheduled. ugh.  But there are two private companies who do the studies here(filling a need obviously, as if someone with severe OSA could die before they get diagnosed/a study at that rate).

So we got scheduled with the private company that took our then private health insurance in early December 2023.  They were to send the test results to my sleep doc, who would contact me.

I sent her a message while we were on our road trip(3 weeks later). She had already set up a follow up appointment for me in March 2024 before she went out on maternity leave, figuring I'd need my settings on my BiPAP adjusted at least.

I was up front with her that I wasn't using the BiPAP since we left in May of 2023 for our cruise, as I felt it didn't help me sleep better.  I had already lost a bit of weight at that point.  I was required by my TKR surgeon to bring it to Ohio with me so I did but they never put it on me after surgery before I woke from the anesthesia, but I dutifully used it at night the two nights after surgery that we spent in Ohio.

So the Sleep Doc sent me a message that she was moving my March appointment up to January.  I kind of knew something was up as the sleep technician, after wiring me up told me it was going to be a "split study" which means they just put you on oxygen for half the night, then wake you up and put a machine on you for the rest of the night.  Turns out he never came to wake me up until the morning when it was time to leave.  Hmmm.

I took my machine to my doctor appointment as instructed(figuring they needed to adjust the settings down as I tried to use it the night before and it was blowing air into my nostrils so forcefully that I had a hard time sleeping and breathing, kept swallowing air, etc.)

She was all smiles when she gave me the good news that the study showed I no longer had sleep apnea! 8-)))

The doctor plugged the unit in to check the settings and the finding from the night before showed her my breathing was worse using the machine than the night I had the study without it.

So here's my almost empty nightstand without that infernal machine sitting on it.  There's a company that buys BiPAPs and CPAPs, refurbishes them and resells them but I guess I used mine for too many hours so they won't buy it. 8-(  Anybody out there need/want a BiPAP?

I think I can sell all the attachments, tubing, filters, cushions, headgear, etc. I have that are still new and sealed in the packaging as those don't require a doctor's prescription.

I was diagnosed in March of 2013 with sleep apnea after ending up in the ER as I couldn't breathe and was suffering from right side heart failure.  That was a week after our then family doctor went batshit crazy(was self medicating with Opioids he wrote himself on his own Rx pad plus was drinking heavily, went and shot up the front of the grocery store in the shopping plaza where his office was and threatened people with a gun while driving an ATV around town.  He eventually lost his license to practice medicine).  No excuse for him not to catch my symptoms as I was seeing him once a month for a year, up to that point.  

BTW-he died in 2017 at 64 years, at home.  I'm thinking he was hopped up on pills and booze and we know he owned a gun(at least one).....but you come to your own conclusions.  I feel sorry for his kids though and his ex-wife.

But that's neither here nor there.

I am FREE from that machine!

Sluggy