8 months in and a lot of questions!

Last spring, I was so tired and draggy and foggy all the time (and my husband said I had started to snore a lot) that my doc prescribed an at-home sleep study; it showed apnea (I can't remember the AHI and I can't find the damned paper, but I recall it was between 20 and 25, I think) and fairly significant oxygen deprivation. So I got an APAP and started using it. It's the Philips Respironics Dreamstation; I'm using the nasal cushion-type mask, which was the only one that didn't make me feel claustrophobic when I tried it.

So...at first, it was great. I loved that it was so quiet and comfortable, and that I could sleep on my side and switch from side to side without being aware of the tubing. I actually found the air pressure kind of reassuring. And after about 4-6 weeks, it was clear that I wasn't so exhausted anymore, so it must have been working.

However...a few things got in the way. I hurt my back and found that I just couldn't deal with both the mask and the back pain, so I dropped the mask for a while. I went back to it as soon as my back was better, but then I got a bad cold and my nose was too stuffed to use it. When that was finally over, I went back to it again. But I am finding that I am hating it more and more.

Issues:

1) Sometimes my throat gets so dry I feel like it's all stuck together. I don't think it's mouth breathing: First of all, I am very uncomfortable breathing through my mouth (especially with the Dreamstation on!), and second, it's not my whole mouth, it's just the part in the back where I can feel the air hitting when I breathe in. I raised the humidity and heat to the highest level and that seemed to help somewhat, but not always.

2) At first I was impressed at how quiet the machine was. But more and more I find I feel like I'm sleeping with Darth Vader (or I'm trapped in his mask!). And sometimes, lately, there's a bit of a whistling sound that drives me absolutely nuts. I end up messing with the contraption all night, so I don't sleep well (even though my AHI still looks fine).

3) I was waking up with headaches before I started using the machine, and at first that seemed to improve. But now it seems like my over-the-top awareness of the mask is making me tense up my neck like crazy, and I am waking up with headaches again. I find myself messing with it all night: pulling it away for a moment, just to make sure it's seated right, for example. The result is that my Dreammapper program (or whatever it's called) is telling me I'm having a HUGE number of disconnects each night...even though, as I said, my AHI stays between 1 and 4, mostly.

I know I had more questions, but I can't remember them right now. I figure this is enough to start with! I really want this to work, and I wish I could go back to how I felt when I started on it, when I was amazed by the comfort and quiet and pleased with the results, rather than stressed at the idea that I'm tethered to this contraption forever.

Any ideas, suggestions, answers, explanations, whatever are welcome. And I'll post more questions when I remember them.

Thanks to everyone for being here and sharing this weird experience!

Well dry throat and headaches sounds to me that the air is going the wrong way. You don't mention what your pressure is set at and could be it is opening your mouth and air is escaping.
You may have to consider a full face mask to keep the air escaping out from your mouth.

I am not familiar with your mask but it could be time to replace the cushions. They only make them to last so long so you have to replace them and if you are 8 months in it maybe time.


I wish you well..

Sleep2Dream wrote:I'll post more questions when I remember them.

You haven't asked any questions.

Sleep2Dream wrote:I raised the humidity and heat to the highest level and that seemed to help somewhat, but not always.

Most people don't do well on the highest setting. Do you live in an arid climate?

Start with getting the software available to see exactly what might be going on in terms of leak (mouth opening maybe) and AHI and number of disconnects.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

If you want to post an example of a typical night detailed report for forum input
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur
and examples of what we like to see (we don't want or need all those graphs)
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

Once you make sure that there is nothing in terms of the therapy itself that might need some work then you move on to whatever issues you are having readjusting to the mask and machine.

Hang Fire wrote:

Sleep2Dream wrote:I'll post more questions when I remember them.

You haven't asked any questions.

Well, I posted thoughts and am looking for responses.

Sleep2Dream wrote:I raised the humidity and heat to the highest level and that seemed to help somewhat, but not always.

Most people don't do well on the highest setting. Do you live in an arid climate?

I do not. Though we have had the wood stove going pretty constantly, as we do every winter. And I have a humidifier in the bedroom. But setting the humidity and heat on the highest levels seems to be keeping down the dry throat issue.

Pugsy wrote:Start with getting the software available to see exactly what might be going on in terms of leak (mouth opening maybe) and AHI and number of disconnects.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

Dreammapper is reporting no significant leaks ever. My disconnects generally seem to range form 4-9 (does it record a disconnect every time I pull the cushion away from the nose to re-settle it? The recent two nights I had a lot of trouble with it, the recorded disconnects were 18 and 11. AHI ranges from .7 and up, but almost never goes above 5.

If you want to post an example of a typical night detailed report for forum input
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur
and examples of what we like to see (we don't want or need all those graphs)
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

Once you make sure that there is nothing in terms of the therapy itself that might need some work then you move on to whatever issues you are having readjusting to the mask and machine.

I forgot to mention that I'm only using the device for 5-6 hours usually; I often ditch it after 4:30am or 5am.

I am trying really hard to NOT think about it and just breathe and sleep. Last night was a little better.