My introduction

[hoss555j5]

Hello, all. I'm new here and am just about to start CPAP therapy. I've been reading through all of the threads for newbies and there is a treasure trove of information on this forum. I applaud you all for that and appreciate the community you have built here.

I was actually diagnosed with OSA about two years ago after a sleep study. I just never did anything about it. To be honest, I'm sure I've had it for 10 years or more but who knows? Consequently, I got some issues. Typical stuff. Obese, blood pressure issues, etc. A couple weeks ago I decided to go to the doc and was complaining about my lack of focus, mild memory loss and some other symptoms and he probably wanted to smack me upside the head before he said "yeah, you have OSA and never did anything about it".

So here I sit, waiting for my order to be delivered by FedEx. It's supposed to be here today and I'm oddly like a kid on Christmas to get it all. I got myself a AirSense 10 AutoSet with the heated tube. Also got an AirFit F20 mask as I heard it's one of the better options to use if you have a beard. I tried to do all of the research I could. I didn't have the luxury of having a provider coach me or provide a fitting. If I went to the place I was referred to, I would have rented an AirSense 10 for 13 months at which time I would have spent the same as just buying one. I was told I could buy one instead from them … at nearly three times the actual cost that I could get it for online. I was then told that I could get the monitoring services and coaching from them but only if I signed a contract to buy all of my supplies from them. As you can guess, those are also at a significant markup. So I'm going it alone. Just me and my research skills. I will maintain reports via OSCAR and send them to my doctor from time to time but when I have questions, I may be doing some quick searches on this site or bothering you fine folks for some answers I can't find.

I'm actually very excited to get started. If this can address a lot of my symptoms over time, I'm all in. Even bought myself a little end table to put it on.

Anyway, that's my story. I look forward to many discussions with you guys.

[LSAT]

Welcome..I can tell by reading your post that you will be an early success story. Attitude is key.

[DreamDiver]

Welcome..I can tell by reading your post that you will be an early success story. Attitude is key.

+1

Welcome!

Chris

[paultn]

Welcome,

I am still a noobie myself having only started my therapy in March.
However I can say that the people here are fantastic and always happy to help out with their wealth of knowledge.

Im sure you will do great on your journey to better sleep

[Julie]

Suggestion - I'm not aware that many, if any, doctors are knowledgable re Oscar (designed by ex forum member), to put it mildly, and strongly suggest you post here for expert knowledgable feedback.

[zonker]

Hello, all. I'm new here and am just about to start CPAP therapy. I've been reading through all of the threads for newbies and there is a treasure trove of information on this forum. I applaud you all for that and appreciate the community you have built here.

welcome to the zoo!

just some nitpicking stuff to get out of the way, if you don't mind.

please stay in this thread for all of your questions for your first few weeks or so here. it helps the forum members keep track of you and your progress.

julie has pointed out oscar and i'm sure you've done enough reading to see how important that is for gathering data. but also, please, when you get around to posting, make sure you also mention how you felt or if you woke up a bunch or just whatever. data is important but how you sleep is important too.

good luck!!

(now where's that damned fedex truck?)

[Okie bipap]

Welcome to the forum. You will find a lot of people here that are willing to help you. Some will spoon feed you gently while others take a more direct approach. It will not take long for you to find out which category people fall into. I try to think I fall somewhere in between the two extremes. As mentioned previously, one of the best tools available for self treatment is OSCAR. This is an open sourced software that many of us use. You will find a lot of help here with an occasional joke or barb thrown in just to liven things up a little bit.

[hoss555j5]

Okay, so I'm two days in (FedEx showed up shortly after my post). It's an adjustment for sure. Here's been my experience so far.

Day 1 - Took a while to get a seal but the green smiley face finally showed up. I woke up 3 hours and 47 minutes after going to sleep to use the restroom and then in my sleepy haze, didn't put it back on after that. The MyAir report showed that I lost the seal during that time though. Don't know when.

Took a nap the next day. Used it for 1 hour and 4 minutes and it held the seal the whole time.

Yesterday morning I had trouble again securing the seal but after about 5 minutes, I finally got it. Slept for 5 hours and 10 minutes and the seal remained.

That's been the biggest challenge so far. The seal. I'm also getting some pressure-type pain already on the bridge of my nose. That reminded me that when I ordered the F20, I thought I had ordered it with the memory foam but apparently I ordered the silicone. I put in an order for a memory foam replacement and we'll see if that helps. Any opinions on this change?

I'm waking up with dry mouth each time despite taking the humidifier off of auto and setting it to 6. I might have to try a higher setting.

The only concern I think I have so far is that once in a while … it's happened maybe 3 times … I seem to wake up with the feeling that I'm drowning or like I've held my breath a second too long. I've never experienced that before when sleeping but I imagine that's what's been going on that required me to use a CPAP in the first place but now I can sense it because I'm in a different kind of sleep? I don't know. I will keep tabs on it to see if it keeps happening.

Any feedback or suggestions are always greatly appreciated.

[Julie]

Hi - could you tell us what pressure settings are?

And have you looked at Padacheek.com liners to help with the seal which might also help with the humidity problem.

[Sheriff Buford]

You are doing great. Keep it up! As was mentioned before, you have a great attitude! To me, the hardest part is getting used to wearing the mask all night. Step 2 would be getting your good seal. The seal Is usually measured by leak rates, which, if they are high.... then it will affect the quality of therapy. The only way to know about the leak rates is to view your therapy numbers using Oscar or the screen on your machine. Oscar is a free program you can download here. Then take the memory card outta your machine and Oscar will download the info off the card. You may have to buy a memory card if you weren't provided one with your machine. You won't need an expensive one. The dry mouth indicates that you are mouth breathing at night. The type of mask you are using allows you to mouth breath. My mouth is dry every morning and I keep my mouth open most of the night. For me, my dry mouth is tolerable. For some people, it drives them nuts. If you are ok with it, don't worry about it.

Keep us updated and download a Oscar graph of a typical night. The instructions are in one of the sticky note at the top of the home page.

Sheriff

[DreamDiver]

...

Any feedback or suggestions are always greatly appreciated.

Making progress!

Keep working on the large leak. Once that's solved, it usually helps eliminate the dry mouth thing. With this mask, the only leakage should be coming weakly from around the swivel joint at the mask elbow. During some of your daytime naps, try moving around in various positions to intentionally find ways the mask might leak. Move or relax the muscles on your face. Just play with ways to make the mask leak. Reseat and cinch straps as necessary.

If the mask is too tight, it may become just as leaky as a mask that is too loose. Tight headgear also tends to be painful on the nose bridge with this mask. It's best to find a strap tension that is in the middle so the mask floats on your face.

Also, Julie's suggestion of mask liners is great. I make my own, cutting them out of old cotton t-shirt material.

Sheriff Buford's suggestions of OSCAR is spot on. See the link in my signature.

Many of us find we have to try several masks before we find one that fits. I hope this won't be the case for you, but best to know beforehand. Check out the link for papcap in my signature. For me at least, this is the only piece of headgear equipment that is required regardless of mask. It reduces mask torque - when your head turns but your mask doesn't.

Chris

[zonker]

The only concern I think I have so far is that once in a while … it's happened maybe 3 times … I seem to wake up with the feeling that I'm drowning or like I've held my breath a second too long. I've never experienced that before when sleeping but I imagine that's what's been going on that required me to use a CPAP in the first place but now I can sense it because I'm in a different kind of sleep? I don't know. I will keep tabs on it to see if it keeps happening.

Any feedback or suggestions are always greatly appreciated.

well, think of it this way. for x number of years, you went to bed and x number of hours later, you woke up. nothing complicated about it at all, right?

now you have to go through this rigmarole every night just to get some sleep! your anxious that you are doing things the right way. your brain is now more aware than ever that there is an "alien on your face". your brain is really trying to take it all in while all YOU want to do is sleep.

for many of us, this takes a bit of practice. but there will come a time when this is second nature. you'll have relaxed to it.

keep at it. and when you get a round tuit, get oscar. my air doesn't give you enough information to fine tune your sleep. it's more of "what a GOOD boy" you've been encouragement. once you are used to your rig, try downloading oscar and provide folks here with good data.

good luck!

[hoss555j5]

Dang, you all are awesome. I appreciate all of the tips and encouragement.

I have OSCAR downloaded and installed. Just wanted to wait for the weekend when I get full night's of sleep to have more data before running any reports. I'll post some stuff on Monday to get more feedback.

I'll look into all of these suggestions and find what works best for me. Thank you all for the support!

[zonker]

Dang, you all are awesome. I appreciate all of the tips and encouragement.

I have OSCAR downloaded and installed. Just wanted to wait for the weekend when I get full night's of sleep to have more data before running any reports. I'll post some stuff on Monday to get more feedback.

I'll look into all of these suggestions and find what works best for me. Thank you all for the support!

hat-tip.gif

apologies if this was mentioned before, but please post said charts right here in this thread.

it would be muchly appreciated.

[Okie bipap]

Sounds like you got off to a better start than I did. I only had the mask on for two hours the first night. That is all I could stand of that blasted thing. It took me almost a full week before I could stand the mask all night. I just hit my five year point this month and continue to use the machine all night every night.