Still can't breathe!

Hi everyone! Its 1am and I'm wide awake and feeling hopeless. I have not given up AND WILL NOT GIVE UP on making my bible pap work but every time I start to drift to sleep in my mask I wake up in a panic as if I'd had an apnea! What's happening?

First -- I suggest you delete your duplicate post so that we can all respond to you here and avoid confusion.

You're on a bilevel machine? Which one? Do you know what your pressure settings are? And what mask are you using?

Welcome to the forum Karen. We can probably help you if we have more information. It's possible you are having an apnea while drifting off to sleep, but it's also possible that some of the comfort features on your machine could use some adjustments. Or you're just plain not used to this whole adventure yet. How new are you to the PAP machine?

Are you using the ramp feature? Do you know what your starting pressure is?

Do you feel like you are suffocating? A lot of times, they start the pressure too low, and that leaves us feeling like we are suffocating. It usually helps to raise the starting pressure to 6 or 7. If you can tell us what machine you have, we can help you with the settings.

Oops sorry bout that..not sure how I posted that twice! Believe it or not I know nothing about my machine. I was diagnosed at the VA and they said here is your machine and proceeded to show me how to put it on like the flight attendants shows you how to put your oxygen mask in a plane (simulated) so I am muddling through this ordeal and trying to understand it all. I know I wear a full mask and something was said about using a Bi pap because my brain isnt communicating with my body to breathe?? It was all very rushed.

Hi again Karen -- OK, so the first thing we need to know is which machine you have. Especially since your description:

something was said about using a Bi pap because my brain isnt communicating with my body to breathe??

if literally true, would mean that you have something a little more complicated than plain old garden variety obstructive sleep apnea and you may have a specialized machine -- even different bilevel or "bipap" machines behave differently. So, you likely have a ResMed or a Philips Respironics machine. Take the water tank out of the machine and look at the underside of the blower unit (not the humidifier part). There should be a model number that might start with REF or DS on the PR machine, or a number starting with 36xxxxx on a ResMed machine.

And hang in there -- you have come to a great place where one step at a time we can help you feel a little more in control and knowledgeable about what's going on.

Ok it says ResUmed on the machine and underneath it says ResUmed H5i on the bottom andRoHS. Does this help?

What else does it say on the top of the machine up by the on/off button?

Some possible choices are
Escape
Escape Auto
Elite
AutoSet
VPAP S
VPAP Auto
Adapt

Sorry I meant to type ResMed..I'm so tired I can't even type lol. Well I left the house to go to my sons football game so I will find that out and write you when I get back. Thanks!

Karen - ALL machines made by ResMed say ResMed on them... decades of models and series, etc. Means nothing at all in terms of which model you now have...