First Time

Hi everybody. I'm a brand new CPAP user and I will be using this space to describe this novel experience. It's fun to talk about myself and maybe some other reader will find my anecdotes informative.

I'm a 34-year-old male, 5' 7", 167 pounds. I went to a sleep specialist of my own volition in October after years of needing more than 10 hours of sleep per day. At night I would generally go to bed between 10:30 and 11; the next morning I would get up at 9:30, feeling like I could still use more sleep. (I have a flexible schedule at work, thankfully.) My waking days were simply too short.

At my first visit to the doctor (Dr. Popper in Thousand Oaks), he checked a few different things. He looked in my mouth, checked my reflexes, my posture, among other things, and then made two observations. First, he said my tongue is too big for my mouth. It's supposed to nestle into the arc of my teeth, but because of its size it must bulge up and back, causing it to obstruct my airway. It's a problem even when I breathe through my nose. Second, he noted that even when sitting up straight, I jut my head forward slightly in order to keep my airway open. It's subtle and I do it subconsciously, which is why I never noticed it before. (This sounds a little dubious to me but I guess it's neither here nor there.)

I had a sleep test on my second visit. The friendly technician glued a bunch of wires to my head, some to my shoulders and legs, and made me wear a nosepiece with little prongs whose only apparent function was to tickle and irritate. I slept poorly that night but somehow we got enough meaningful data to let the doctor make a confident diagnosis.

My third visit was another doctor consultation. The doctor said I had an average of 34 episodes of apnea per hour. (He defined an episode as a period of 10 seconds or longer.) The longest one was 144 seconds. The people I've told about this don't believe that I could hold my breath for that long, even when sleeping. I don't know, maybe it was a measurement error of some sort, but just now I held my breath for over two minutes. The doctor told me that a CPAP machine was my best bet. The surgical option would be more expensive and less likely to fix the problem completely. I believed him.

For my fourth visit I was fitted with a mask and connected to a CPAP machine. Again, I slept poorly. The technician titrated the machine to 11. (This one goes to 11!) The units are centimeters of water, right? I don't know why they don't just use CGS or KMS units, silly if you ask me.

On my fifth and most recent visit, the doctor and I discussed the results of my sleep test and he recommended a couple of CPAP models.

I chose the Resmed S8 Elite II with humidifier. The local supplier, referred by Dr. Popper, didn't have it in stock. It arrived after two weeks. This was over Thanksgiving week, so maybe they just lacked the staff to conduct my orientation any sooner. I went in yesterday and after a half-hour tutorial, walked out with my new CPAP machine! I was very excited.

So last night I finally got to try a CPAP machine at home. I slept much better than I did during the sleep studies but not as well as I usually do. I woke up at 5 AM. One of my nostrils had been whistling slightly while I slept, and in my dream the sound translated into someone calling, "Eve, Eve," repeatedly. But Eve wasn't paying attention. She was on the phone while her sister lay dying in the kitchen. A group of mules, feeding from a three-foot mound of uncooked rice, had kicked her in the head. I slept very lightly and intermittently for the rest of the morning and rose at the usual time, feeling somewhat unrested.

Now that I'm totally roused, however, I feel more clear-minded than usual. I don't think it's my imagination. I look forward to adjusting to this change in sleep quality and sleeping more efficiently.

Hey there! I am a newbie too, so you get nothing from me besides:

Welcome!
Your story sounds like mine and I bet like many others here
Congrats for taking charge of your health- apnea is a very serious thing. You are right, it's amazing that all that horrible stuff can go on while you thought you were sleeping.
Read, read, and more read on this site. These guys are terrific.
and finally... never surrender, never give up - I frequently have that 'one step forward, two steps back' feeling. Don't dispair, it's a journey.