babybearsmum

Haha yeah I'm less than a month away I'm freaking out too! We just have to think about the long term though. It's a small time to be sore and a lifetime of being healthier. We'll get through it and be healthy and smokin' hot in no time!!!

I really think everyone should stay over night. I mean no matter how it's done it is a major operation. Plus what if you get sick or something. I think one night probably two is the best for anyone just my opinion though

The other thing that would worry me (like you don't already have enough on your mind) is that if you can't get an appointment to see him pre-surgery will you be able to get an appointment post-surgery if you have problems?
I hope you get everything sorted out so that you are confident in your decision. Good luck! I wish you the best.
Summer

To say that it is like grabbing a higher prescription is disingenuous to my entire argument and I respectfully disagree. Best - Shellie

Sorry it's taken a few days to get back to you. I usually step up or down by half intervals or less...however i have gone as much as 2 or 3 when my weight changes a lot. Watch your AHI number. You want it less than 5. I feel best when it is less than 2. If you get too much air in your stomach you will know to turn it down. Also watch your leak. It should be less than 40. If it is over 40 you will not get enough air and have events but the machine will not count them correctly in the AHI because it gets thrown off. In order to get my leak below 40 I have to tape my mouth shut with medical tape. It's miserable and one of the main reasons I am having WLS. Please feel free to PM me if you need more help. Good luck!

I get your concern. The insurance companies want to make sure your are compliant with use and are looking at the number of hours used. When you change your settings it does not affect the hours used in any way and it is not possible to change them either purposefully or inadvertently.
The way to tell if you need to go up in pressure is to look at the number of AHIs. It must be less than 5. I actually feel best when it's less than 2. The machine needs to be turned down if you are getting air in your stomach which you will feel with pain, belching and/or extra farting. I lost about 50 pounds a few years ago and had to turn the machine down a lot. My surgery is about a month away and after I plan on systematically turning it down - always watching the AHI so I don't go too low too fast. Also, don't make huge adjustments. Change the pressure in small increments each night. The other important number to look at is your leak. Each machine measures leak a little differently and in general the leak should be below 40 (not sure of the units). If it is higher you will have events but they will not be recorded properly in the AHI number. In order not to leak I have to tape my mouth shut and keep all the parts like new, makes a huge difference. My pressures are high - IPAP is high as 21 and EPAP runs about 5 below that. (Hence the need for tape)
There is very detailed info on the web about each model of machine and more info than you could ever want on optimizing your settings. Good luck to everyone. I'm so hoping to get rid of my machine.

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You can unlock and adjust your Cpap yourself. I do it all the time to keep my events low. Google unblock Cpap with the name of your machine and you will find instructions. There are also message boards like this one for sleep apnea where you can get the info. It's not a big deal at all. Once you know how to get to the clinical side of your machine you can see all your results nightly and know how to adjust. For example, I checked my results and I was having 3.2 events an hour. Clinically this okay but I've been having those dreaded morning headaches. I upped my IPAP and EPAP by .5 and this am my AHI was back down to around 1.0. Don't know why I am having more events since my weight is stable. It's great to adjust your machine yourself and once I read up on it I was able to fine tune my Cpap (actually a VPAP) and I get much better results. I hate having sleep apnea and I hope it goes away after my vsg, in the meantime, it's a literal life saver. My AHI without it is severe...75 events an hour! Good luck. If you get stuck PM me and I'll see if I can help.

Yes...my pulmonologist sent me home with a cpap unit that automatically titrated to what was needed by my body. I think it was called an auto titration study. By that we had to adjust my setting from 10cm to 11.5 cm.

I just want to throw some caution out there for anyone adjusting their own cpap.........(not that I disagree with doing that).......
If you're insurance is paying for it, find out if they bought it all at once or if they are making monthly payments. My insurance made monthly payments but didn't require reading the chip every month. I lost that insurance and had to pay the last two months on my own to make it officially mine. Some insurances require the chip to be read to make sure you are actually using it. Not just to make sure it's working. They aren't going to pay for it if they can't see you're using it.
So.........please be careful about what you do with your cpap. You don't want to find yourself in the position of having tampered with something you shouldn't and end up responsible for paying for a $1500 machine.
Other than that, good luck my fellow cpappers! I will also be looking into adjusting my machine now that you've taught me it's possible. If I remember correctly I'm at a 10 (had 60 recorded events per hour). I'm going to look into bumping it up a notch.

I have been changing my own CPAP settings for 25 years and it has worked well for me. My current self titrating machine automatically adjusts on demand so I monitor my stats regularly and adjust the upper and lower boundaries as needed.
Both my doctor and a friend who is a respiratory therapist have unofficially approved my approach. I've not had a machine yet that I couldn't hack into ...

Everything went smooth. Very minimal pain. Walking slowly but walking.
Best wishes to everyone on the journey

I realize this is an old thread but thought I would throw my two cents in for future patients. I did partial self pay with Dr. Nick. He repaired a hiatal hernia along with the sleeve and only billed my insurance for the hernia and I just had to pay the hospital a portion of the self pay part. It only cost me $4k instead of $12k. I have always been super impressed with him and like someone mentioned he is very honest about his complications and will tell you exactly what happened with each patient. I felt very comfortable and confident with him. I am now 6 months out and couldn't be happier.

Hello, I'm babybearmum. I have a 2 yr old son. I'm 28 and have been married for 3 years. My husband is super supportive. I'm so thankful for that. I've been looking into the sleeve for several years and after being diagnosed with sleep apnea I was ready to take this step. I wish everyone here the best of luck, a speedy recovery and a healthy new life!

I've started mine. I HATE the Bariatric Advantage shakes!!! One drink of that and it almost came back up! I LOVE the Atkins shakes. I've been having broth I have to have it out of a spoon. For whatever reason drinking broth always grosses me out Of course feeding my son makes me want to take a huge bite out of the chicken but I'm managing! I hope we all do great and shrink our livers and ourselves! I can't believe how quick it's coming I'm having mine on June 4th and it's really starting to hit me.

Thank you for understanding my intent. I wish you good luck. You both deserve to be in a relationship where you are loved and are getting the affection you need. Your child deserves to grow up witnessing a healthy relationship as well.
As for your hope? You deserve his interest whether you are fat, thin, purple or grow a foot out of your forehead. It's unconditional love and we all deserve it.

Shoot, I just wanted to wear normal sized underwear. No more 'granny-panties'!

Being able to wear high heel shoes w/o pain
Not resting my arms on my stomach (may miss this one, lol)
Being more active with my 5 y/o son
Not worrying if I'm able to fit in a seat or bench
Walking pass the plus size section = cuter clothes... and not buying wide width shoes
Not worrying about "what's for lunch or dinner" at 10AM! lol

Uhmmm.... Perhaps you need to reread your original (grammatically incorrect) post about speaking with kindness.

No, thanks.

Says the person that just told someone " just like the rest of ur race African American and ignorant."

I just got my insurance approval. Surgery date will be June 26!

June 11th excited and a little scariest haven't told entire family yet

Not to be indelicate, but I'd love to be able to see my junk without a mirror.

Hello!! I am Busybeingme! I am 35 yr, PreNursing student who lives near Annapolis MD. I am a full time wife, student and CNA. I have been married for 10 years and been with my husband for 18 years. We have two furry faced children, BamBam and Gracie (cats) I have PCOS so we have been unable to conceive children on our own, and infertility is not in our price range. In March of this year I went in for gastric sleeve surgery. When my surgeon went in he found a mass on my stomach, and nodules on my liver and spleen. It was decided at that time not to proceed with the sleeve surgery. After 7 days in the hospital and 3 weeks on home health care lots of blood tests, Cat scan, MRI and biopsies later... I am Cancer Free, Disease Free! So now I have a new date of JUNE 19th!! I am super excited about having this surgery. My journey started back in Aug on a day trip to Kings Dominion (Adventure park in VA) I went with some coworkers.. at 330 lbs I was unable to ride all but ONE roller coaster. I simply did not fit... that is when I decided to simply do something about my size. Until this point in my life, I was really not interested in having weight loss surgery. That day, waiting for my friends to ride coasters and me watching I knew I had hit rock bottom... so, I started looking into the lap band... I knew an old coworker who had it done... so i started to research... Then I found my ANGEL MD his name is Dr. Gandsas. I went to his seminar and knew what I wanted... Gastric Sleeve. My husband went with me and he said... "Lets do this together..." I have wonderful support system.
This is basically my second time going through this whole process so id be happy to help with any pre surgical questions or concerns... Happy to meet you all!!
Cant wait to be on the other side.... BBM