Newbie--day 25. Better late than never!

[SBarrett]

Yes, it surely would have been helpful. "WHERE A CPAP NEWBIE SHOULD START" was here for me all along. To those of you who have been helpful enough to make comments and suggestions, I'm actually doing well and averaging 5-6 decent hours sleep.

Nasal congestion (Minor Care visit--saline solution) and chin straps have been issues. Last night was the first with a HALO strap from Amazon.

One or two strange sounds, apparently somewhere in the headgear, wake me at roughly hour 6. This coincides with an empty water reservoir, although by that time it's bone dry and I'm not sure how long it's been that way. My compliance team person told me no one else has reported this. It isn't leaking air. Not a whistle precisely. Just a mechanical sound loud enough to wake up.

The clean equipment routine hasn't been remotely as time consuming as I imagined. In practice everything is doable. Develop your own routine, containers for washing, etc. Two days ago I made my first call to resupply for disposable filters and nasal cushions. A gallon of distilled water for the reservoir lasts several days and vinegar for soaking it (mixed with water, of course) is only needed once a week, not every day (I'd imagined lugging gallons of water and vinegar! LOL)

I feel lucky this has become manageable so quickly, realizing from others' experiences it isn't always an easy process. Nine days after my equipment was delivered I still hadn't touched it, totally overwhelmed looking at the manuals that first day. Didn't realize I was monitored for use until the Compliance Team called. Lucky happenstance, I discovered CPAPTALK around that time. Thanks again. The forum has been a revelation, and the responders and information life saving. Perhaps literally.

Personal aside: Can't users write the manuals instead of the developers? A hundred years ago (exaggeration), you could buy a book, TIPS, TRICKS, AND TRAPS for WordPerfect; it was a new-user's indispensable.)