Newbie! Getting used to a new sleepy world....

10 years ago I was diagnosed as a 12 and last month I was put in the mild group as a 5-15. Friday after an hour of instruction I took home my new machine. Honestly I was looking forward to it. The lady told me that I was "one of the rare ones who actually want the machine".

Even though I'm not a severe case I still wake up at times with a feeling like my blood pressure is through the roof, my heart rate is up and my stomach is tight. So since I don't like those feelings, I want whatever can make those feelings go away. (I do take BP meds in the mornings and my BP is 118/69)

So I get the fancy new AirSense 10. I've already watched a dozen video's on Youtube. I get home and put the mask on (AirFit20) and watch tv. My system is set for 5-15 with delayed ramp up. I made it 39 minutes with my mask on and I could see my system would hit 9. I can't imagine 15. The force of air from 9 felt like it was shoving my tongue down my throat.

So I wore the mask going to bed but only last 45 minutes ( I was awake and afraid to fall asleep). Why? Because it felt like with the mask on after a few minutes I was becoming a chest breather. I couldn't relax and let my stomach/diaphragm do my breathing. I tensed up and just laid there. If I had a small leak and adjusted the mask WHOOSH came in the air from the hose. It felt like it was choking me with air. I got slightly panicked and tried to let it go, but I eventually took off the mask and slept without my new machine.

UPDATE: OK well I wore the mask for 2 nights. MyAir score was 86 night one and 75 night two. Quick update after using my machine. The first night I couldn’t wear it more than an hour before taking it off. Now the second night I had it on all night and my score from ResMed MyAir was an 86. Which is good. However I felt like crap upon waking. I wear a FitBit watch that also keeps track of my sleep and I was lower in my light sleep and REM sleep WITH the CPAP on all night then when I don’t wear it. So I wore it again last night. I woke up without my mask face down in my bed about 4:30am. I got up for 30 minutes before returning to bed and put the mask back on and slept for another 2 hours. Both mornings I feel MORE tired after wearing the mask. I also have some discomfort in my stomach. I guess I can only hope it gets better, because after a couple of days I’m not feeling better after waking. Because I feel like I'm slightly hung over, with some tenseness and overall malaise. IS this normal??

Welcome to the forum.

Are you with Kaiser by chance or some other insurance that just puts you on the machine and let's the machine find the right pressure?
Did you ever have an in lab sleep study with the mask and machine?

Get SleepyHead.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment
and see my SleepyHead tutorial top of the Announcements page...first post mainly for now.

Please add your equipment to your profile
wiki/index.php/Registering_Equipment_in_User_Profile

Actually all your complaints are normal and could be caused from various things.
Let's start with your therapy itself and see if the settings used are even optimal or not. Until settings are optimal and leaks are minimal and your sleep isn't disrupted a lot...not much chance of feeling better and every chance of feeling worse.
And the MyAir Stuff...just numbers and no guarantee of much of anything in terms of how you feel.

If you want to share your SleepyHead reports..here's how most of us like to see them
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html

What I'm reading between the lines, is that there are ten elapsed years between your initial diagnosis and you first attempt to use CPAP. In other words, there was no earlier attempt.

Is that correct?

In the absence of SleepyHead screen shots I can't really make any suggestions on setup. I second the recommendation to download it and post some screen shots. I would also suggest if you are in the trial period with your supplier that you ask to trial a ResMed AirFit P10 as well as the F20. You may find it much more comfortable and less invasive.

That is correct. It's been 10 years since my initial sleep study and I was a 12 back then. I did not seek a machine at that time. Now ten years later I recently had another test. Although they did NOT put the mask on. My doctor prescribed my setting at 5 and 15.

In all honesty I feel like I only need oxygen at night, not a full CPAP. But I'm not a doctor. I have no COPD or other breathing related issues during wake. MY oxygen level lowest was an 87 at one point during my test.

I just stopped at my doctors office on lunch to have my BP checked since I felt tense and somewhat nervous after waking these past two days on the machine. It read fine at 118/77. I'm 51, not a smoker, overweight but active.

TheBigTenor wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:25 am

In all honesty I feel like I only need oxygen at night

Well....let me ask you a question....just how well do you think that oxygen is going to do if it can't get to your lungs because of an obstruction in the airway?

You might want to watch this video.
There's more to this sleep apnea thing besides oxygen levels anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gie2dh ... e=youtu.be

I think I was just hoping to have a couple nights on the machine and wake up feeling like a new man.

And that I totally understand.
Some lucky people get it and get it fast. Others don't (actually probably most don't) and it can take weeks or months (I know you didn't want to hear that part) or even longer.

I wasn't one of the fast ones...took me probably 4 months before I felt like a new woman...and then it was another 3 months before it happened the second time.

Let's make sure your therapy is even optimal first. There might be something showing up on your reports that is just screaming "fix me and you will feel better".
Gotta start somewhere.....

Ron AKA wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:03 am

In the absence of SleepyHead screen shots I can't really make any suggestions on setup.

Good, stop there. Don't make any suggestions.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:02 am

Welcome to the forum.

Get SleepyHead.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment
and see my SleepyHead tutorial top of the Announcements page...first post mainly for now.

My new Resmed AS10 did not come with an SD card which I see is posted in the Tips n Tricks section of your Sleephead link. So I popped in my own clean and formated 16MB SD card and it gave me the prompt that it was preparing the card and to wait.....well I waited and waited. For 10 minutes. Nothing. Tried it all again....nothing. I recall asking the lady at the place where I picked up the device about the SD card section and she kind of "ignored my question". Could they have disabled the SD card reading capabilities??

I downloaded Sleepyhead and I'd like to get info to share but it's not possible right now. Any ideas?

No, there's no feature on these machines that will disable using the SD card functions.

Do you have a different SD card you can try?

I'll buy a new one tomorrow. They're cheap. I was just excited to actually grab some info and then upload it. Especially since I had two good score nights (although I felt bad waking up) and last night I woke up without my mask (which was off for 3 hours) and I got a poor score through MyAir.

I was told that I need to have 40 nights in a row of use with my machine for my insurance to cover it. I need a minimum of 4 hours consecutive per day. So I made it two days and need to start over again.

I can see how people can get easily discouraged when starting treatment.

Who is your insurance with?

Did you call your insurance company and ask them directly what their compliance hours of use requirements might be?

40 consecutive nights...that's a bit odd and not common. Even Medicare doesn't do that.
All Medicare requires is that a person use the machine for at least 4 hours a night 70% of 30 consecutive nights...so 21 out of 30 nights.
I wonder if your DME is trying to scare you ...wouldn't be the first time they told a whopper to scare someone into compliance.

Oh...you can make up some time while awake...just wear the mask with machine on while watching TV or reading a book.
You don't have to be asleep for the hours to add up and it's within a 24 hour period...doesn't have to be straight through in the middle of the night. It can be 3 hours in the middle of the night and another 2 hours later that morning.

ResMed machines start a new 24 hour reporting period at 12 noon per the machine clock...so a 2 hour nap at 3 PM counts toward any compliance hours needed during the night if you are short.
So it's 4 hours during that 24 hour period...doesn't have to be in the middle of the night and you don't have to be asleep either.

I have Blue Cross....BCN. My wife has worked there for 30 years.

Yes the lady where I got my machine (our local home medical supply company) gave me a number of consecutive days that my insurance needed for me to be compliant in order to keep the machine at no cost to me. I'm 100% covered, if I meet the guidelines. I also thought the consecutive days seemed excessive. However I didn't doubt her since I know her personally outside her job and I wouldn't have any reason to doubt her.

I guess I should call them up and ask them again. I know I have a 20 trial period on my full mask. I think I'd like to try the "pillow" style as she called it. Which is only the nasal piece.

Call up your insurance directly. Don't go through the DME.
The lady that told you 40 consecutive days may simply be wrong and/or misunderstood something or might have even been told the wrong information by a superior.
But get the real stuff straight from the insurance company.
Normally BCBS of any state follows Medicare guidelines.
In fact if there is any compliance requirements the bulk of the insurance companies out there mimic Medicare guidelines.