First Night on APAP at wrong setting......

Hello again!

I must report my first night on apap.......it went well despite having the wrong pressure (will explain)! But first, I must mention that my experience with Apria went very smooth.....I went to the local Apria branch to pick up my machine and ready to fight tooth and nail for the one I wanted, but when I got there, they had the one I requested (Apap w/Aflex)! I was there for about an hour, I was given instructions on how to use the machine, put on the headgear and mask, blah, blah, blah. Now here's the kicker, my pressure settings are at 4-8....my RX said "8" (couldn't get my DR to write out a pressure range, but that was ok b/c she put everything else I needed on there). The RT told me it "will not go above 8"......at that point, I'm thinking 'that's not enough of a range, I'll have to run a search or check the yellow lightbulb to find out how to change the numbers'. But since I don't have internet at home yet, I did the best I could and put on my mask and went to sleep at around 9 pm at 4 cms. Hubby checked it at around 12 am and said it was at 6. The baby woke up at 1 am, I checked on him but took the mask off and shut the machine off (can't explain why). Needless to say, I got about 4 hours of decent sleep, still tired, but not exhausted. This makes me hopeful that even though I wasn't at my titrated pressure, I feel ok! Can't wait to tweak it to where it's fully giving me what I need.

I've printed some of the instructions on how to change the settings, and I think I'm going to go ahead and change it to something more reasonable like 6.5-12 cm for now........what do you think?

Anyway, after all my rambling, just wanted say how helpful this message board is. It's great to find somewhere to come for a little guidance when we're at such a weakened emotional/spiritual/physical state because of apnea. I hope to one day return the favor to another noob with my experiences, but for now, I'm positive I'll have more questions!

mommystired wrote:Hello again!

I must report my first night on apap.......it went well despite having the wrong pressure (will explain)! But first, I must mention that my experience with Apria went very smooth.....I went to the local Apria branch to pick up my machine and ready to fight tooth and nail for the one I wanted, but when I got there, they had the one I requested (Apap w/Aflex)! I was there for about an hour, I was given instructions on how to use the machine, put on the headgear and mask, blah, blah, blah. Now here's the kicker, my pressure settings are at 4-8....my RX said "8" (couldn't get my DR to write out a pressure range, but that was ok b/c she put everything else I needed on there). The RT told me it "will not go above 8"......at that point, I'm thinking 'that's not enough of a range, I'll have to run a search or check the yellow lightbulb to find out how to change the numbers'. But since I don't have internet at home yet, I did the best I could and put on my mask and went to sleep at around 9 pm at 4 cms. Hubby checked it at around 12 am and said it was at 6. The baby woke up at 1 am, I checked on him but took the mask off and shut the machine off (can't explain why). Needless to say, I got about 4 hours of decent sleep, still tired, but not exhausted. This makes me hopeful that even though I wasn't at my titrated pressure, I feel ok! Can't wait to tweak it to where it's fully giving me what I need.

I've printed some of the instructions on how to change the settings, and I think I'm going to go ahead and change it to something more reasonable like 6.5-12 cm for now........what do you think?

Anyway, after all my rambling, just wanted say how helpful this message board is. It's great to find somewhere to come for a little guidance when we're at such a weakened emotional/spiritual/physical state because of apnea. I hope to one day return the favor to another noob with my experiences, but for now, I'm positive I'll have more questions!

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Good luck.

Den