I suffered from sleep apnea for decades, but I only got a diagnosis and started CPAP therapy ten years ago.  I used my CPAP every time I slept, and it did give me some help with my severe fatigue.  But I was far from well. I was still awakening 20 to 50 times each night, and I was still waking up feeling unrefreshed in the morning.  What little energy I had would run out during the day, and by evening I would crash, so fatigued that I could barely walk.

I tried many different types of CPAP masks over the years.  They all leaked to a greater or lesser degree, and I was also unable to keep my mouth shut when asleep.  I was noticing occasional apneas even though I was using my CPAP.  I did not start getting good results from my CPAP until I instituted a "zero tolerance for leaks" policy about 2 1/2 years ago.  I taped my mouth shut (not recommended!) when using a nasal pillows mask, and I used tape and wax around my nose to minimize leaking. 

I finally changed to a full face mask which at least solved the problem of pressure drops from breathing through my mouth.  But the full face mask simply did not fit the contours of my face, and leaking in the cheek area was a bad problem.  It helped  somewhat to put rolls of wax between the two silicone flanges that touched my face, but the wax would eventually soften and compress during the night, again letting air leak out.

In the past few weeks I started using the Respironics Total Face mask, that covers the entire face with a plastic dome.  I am having a lot more success in preventing leaks with this mask.  No mask is perfect, but this one seems to be working pretty well so far.

The significant thing is that once I began to get really tough about preventing leaks, I started to recover from the sleep apnea damage.  My fibromyalgia pain was less, and I had more energy. With leaking better controlled I no longer woke up so many times a night, and I began awakening in the morning feeling rested. 

There are a lot of other healthy practices I picked up over the past ten years, among them are getting treatment for my hypothyroidism and my asthma, scheduling nine hours in bed every night even if I am not asleep the entire time, meditating once or twice daily, getting regular gentle exercise (swimming and aqua aerobics), taking an Internet class on managing fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, becoming a teacher of such classes and following my own good advice, learning how to stay within the limits of my energy, (leaving a little left over at the end of the day for my body to use for healing), learning how to keep a neat and well-run home despite chronic illness (check out Flylady dot com), taking a probiotic supplement to foster healthy intestinal flora, and letting my husband know he has my respect and love.

It had been impossible for me to lose weight when my sleep apnea was poorly controlled.  When I was sleep-deprived I was hungry all the time, and I craved sweet and fatty foods.  Once my sleep apnea was under better control I instituted a "healthy eating plan" that did not permit refined sugars or starches in my diet.  Later I also began trying to eat only healthy fats.  Without going hungry, I have lost about 95 pounds in the past year and a half. I still have a lot to lose, but the weight is comig off at a rate of about a pound a week.