Need a friend to explain this to me

[cpap mama]

Hello and thanks for all the great info on this forum. I am a new CPAP user and was wondering if someone could give me some help interpreting my first 12 days of therapy. Basically, I am keeping my mask on for about 1/2 the night, then ripping the mask off when I wake up and feel claustrophobic. I like my mask and the machine, I just really am having a hard time sleeping with it. I am hoping to get used to this, but was wondering if someone could look at my readout and alert me if they see anything noteworthy. Are the leaks ok? Too many? What does central AI mean? Thank you for taking the time to answer. I have the Resmed9 and this is what the reading says:

12/12 days used
Days >4 hours 8/12
Average use 4.4 hours
Insp. Pressure 11.0
Exp Pressure 7.0
Leak 7L/min
Vt 240 ml
RR 16
MV 4.0 l/min
% Spont T - 100%
Spont C 97.0
AHI 4.3
Total AI 4.1
Central AI 2.0

[BlackSpinner]

Hello and thanks for all the great info on this forum. I am a new CPAP user and was wondering if someone could give me some help interpreting my first 12 days of therapy. Basically, I am keeping my mask on for about 1/2 the night, then ripping the mask off when I wake up and feel claustrophobic. I like my mask and the machine, I just really am having a hard time sleeping with it

Try wearing the mask and having the machine on while you watch TV in the evenings. Get your body used to wearing it. When you wake up try just lifting the mask, taking a few deep breathes and putting it back on. Keep saying to yourself "I breathe easily with the mask on" - say it while you are falling to sleep, when you wake up, when you go to the bathroom during the day, while you watch tv.... turn it into a chant while exercising or doing housework or any other physical activity.

[ameriken]

I felt the claustrophobia when I was titrated, and wondered how I would do when I got the machine. Instead of being beaten down by a machine, I just told myself that's 'all in my mind, people do this all the time, there's no reason to feel claustrophobic or afraid'. That helped and I didn't feel that way when I started therapy. The next thing I did, was on my first night I slept till 5 am with the mask with no problem. I took the mask off and figured I'll sleep the next 2 hours without. A few minutes later, I decided that might start a bad habit, and so I put the mask back on and slept the next two hours with it. I sleep every night with it on with no problem.

So do what BlackSpinner suggests, and tell yourself it's ok and that you don't have to feel claustrophobic. Also, when you take the mask off at night, don't keep it off, give yourself a quick break, and then put it back on for the rest of the night.

You're not going to suffocate with it, nothing is going to happen, and you've got to convince yourself that it's ok to wear it for the whole night.

[Emilia]

Please take a minute to go up to the User Control Panel (under search, top left) and then to your Profile and then Edit Equipment. Choose your gear from the pull down menus and the choose to show those in TEXT, not pictures. This will put your equipment at the bottom of every post your write automatically, like mine below. Those with the same equipment can help you better than having to constantly ask you what you use!

[Otter]

If your machine is data capable, it would be useful to find out when those OAs are occurring. You are averaging just over four per hour, but most of them may come right before you wake up. If that's the case, then the reason that you're waking up feeling that you can't breathe is that you really can't breathe.

Do you wake up in a different position than you go to sleep?

[ahjchicago]

I had a lot of trouble at first for this (for the first three months, actually). I was having so much trouble that I nearly gave up. I had been using nasal pillows which blow air directly into the nose. I found this very irritating and made me itchy.

Now I'm using a nasal mask and haven't taken it off in the night once! Miraculous.

I hope you are doing better with yours soon.

[DaveLP]

Cpap mama, you are among those who understand and have experienced that suffocating, wind in my face feeling. It's common and it goes away as you get used to having a a mask over your nose and mouth. I experienced this during my initial sleep study and I woke up and ripped the mask off my face. The sleep tech came in and talked with me. Once I explained what I was feeling (like my head out the car window at 60mph), she left and came back with a nasal pillow mask. She put it one me and I fell back asleep. She told me that I slept deeply for the next 5 hours and most of that was in REM sleep (the good, refreshing kind).

Nasal pillow masks give you control over the pressure. There's nothing blowing in your face and you decide when you inhale and exhale. Between those times, the pressure just exits the exhale port in the mask and you experience a feeling that you are in control.

That said, you will get used to the full face mask quickly once you use it. As others have said, it's easier to get used to if you put it one while you are awake and watch TV or read a book. That way, you are in full control and can experience it without feeling overcome.

I would ask my doctor/DME to get me a nasal mask to try. It really does help and will probably let you get used to CPAP to the point where you can put on the FFM without that suffocating feeling overcoming you. It gets much better in a hurry. The first few nights can be scary but it passes quickly.

[carbonman]

- say it while you are falling to sleep, when you wake up, when you go to the bathroom during the day, while you watch tv.... turn it into a chant while exercising or doing housework or any other physical activity.

This is excellent CBT.
From my CBT experience, actually create a reminder
to do this throughout the day.
A string tied on a finger, a rubber band on your wrist,
anything that is out of the norm, that will remind you.

Powerful stuff!