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Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:19 am
by Chaddy511
I just started on a cpap 4 days ago. And I feel useless. I don't have thevrnergy I expected. All my family is calling me. And I have tell themitsthe same thing. It didn't work. Imnpretty depresses about it. What can I do

Re: Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:34 am
by Chaddu511

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I've meen through rthe ringer with this exhaustion problem. Quit drugs. ChangEd my sleep hours and habits best I could. I had the sleep study done. Went and bought a resumed elite s9. And a resmed mirage quattro. I've had it for 4nights. And I'm stii exhausted. I was hoping for a cure. I'm at the brink of loosing my house to this. Because I can't get to work. Do you feel my prescribed pressure of 11 may be too low.?
Please help me

Re: Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:53 am
by Julie
Hi - What equipment do you have - what machine, which model number, and which mask? More information would help us to help you..

Re: Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:24 am
by robysue
Chaddy511 wrote:I just started on a cpap 4 days ago. And I feel useless. I don't have thevrnergy I expected. All my family is calling me. And I have tell themitsthe same thing. It didn't work. Imnpretty depresses about it. What can I do(emphasis added)
CPAP is not a magic bullet for most of us: We don't simply feel much better the day after we start using the machine. It takes TIME. In reading this forum and others, it's clear that MOST new CPAPers do NOT feel better right away---regardless of what the sleep doctors might tell us. Most newbies begin to see some improvement in terms of daytime functioning in a few weeks to a couple of months. A few of us are unlucky enough to take several MONTHS to start feeling better.

You are only 4 days into therapy. You need to give it more time before declaring that CPAP didn't work for you. Possibly a lot more time.

Why? Because it takes time to adjust to sleeping with the mask. And some of us go through a period known around here as "paying off the sleep debt"---once your body figures out that it can sleep at night without having to repeatedly arouse itself to restart the breathing, the body sometimes goes through a rebound stage where all you want to do is SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP to try to make up for those years and years of NOT sleeping well.

That's not to say there is nothing you can do except wait to get better. There's actually quite a few things you might need to do in order to make your therapy both more comfortable and more effective. It would help us help you if you registered and posted your equipment---in text please, not icons.

Re: Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:41 am
by Mary Z
Chaddy, it hasn't worked, yet. Are you using it all night? Getting used to the machine and having optimal therapy is a process. Hang in there.

Re: Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:54 am
by JointPain
Ditto to what the others have said above.

If you're already sleeping all night with the mask on you are doing better than a lot of people. That's great, hang in there.

If you're paying back sleep debt and feel you need a daytime nap, take it if you can, but ALWAYS wear your mask when napping or sleeping. That phase will pass.

Re: Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:16 pm
by hades161
Post your equipment, pressure, and problems with the equipment.

The only way people can help is with this specific information. I can only relate a time frame in regards to myself but I knew Cpap treatment was working for me when i stopped having to go to the bathroom every hour at night. When the headaches went away, the falling asleep in the middle of conversations, and the brain fog started clearing up. How long did it take? The bathroom trips ended 2 weeks after getting use to the gear and using it right the rest slowly faded out over months of treatment. Everyone is different and it takes time I was in my late 30s before I started getting treatment and my issues with severe OSA can be traced back to my teens but I didn't get tested until 2001, so I spent decades going untreated.

My titrated pressure is 16, my Apap settings are 14-18 and my untreated AHI was 116.4 but now is under 5.0 and most times its under 2.0.

It will be a fight with the gear for the first few months, mainly getting the right mask your comfortable with but in the end IT WILL WORK.

Re: Newto the cpap. I need help

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:20 pm
by chunkyfrog
It's a learning curve; and a bumpy road.
But, trust me---it is so worth it!