New CPAP user struggling along

[Randal]

Hello CPAP users,

Thank you for the posts which I have found helpful. I have been on the CPAP (Res Med Esape II) for 3 weeks now.
I am having trouble feeling comfortable wearing the mask for more than an hour or two.

I started with the nasal pillow, which I did not find comfortable because it was inside my nostrils. I switched to a nasal mask. It is more comfortable, but I find that my nose often stuffs up with it and I end up breathing through my mouth.

It seems the answer for me is a full face mask. I have tried this for 2-3 nights (Quattro FX). It is hard to be comfortable with such a large apparatus on my face! It is not that it is terribly physically uncomfortable; I am talking about psychologically uncomfortable. I am able to fall asleep with it, but then I wake up about 15 minutes later and feel very anxious with this on my face and take it off! Then I end up sleeping with no CPAP at all. I am getting frustrated. I think I need to be patient, no? It takes time to get used to the full face mask, correct?

All in all it has been 3 weeks with different style masks and I have not once slept the whole night with one. I assume it is not unusual to take a few more weeks to feel comfortable. Can you share with me your thoughts and experiences? I have a good sense that the CPAP will help me, but I am frutrated that I cannot seem to wear it for the night.

Does someone have some wise advice for me??
Thanks,
Randal

[BlackSpinner]

I have been on the CPAP (Res Med Esape II) for 3 weeks now.

Does someone have some wise advice for me??

Run and try to get it replaced with an Elite - though this brick works well You will never know if you are leaking or doing badly.

For the next week spend the evening while you watch tv wearing your mask and have the machine going. You need to get used to it.

Do not take the mask off when you wake up, just lift it or jiggle it. You are rewarding bad behavior. Instead plan a reward for keeping it on. When you wake up think only of the reward. Also plan a long distance reward like a relaxing vacation - chose one where you have been before. When you wake up and when you go to sleep imagine yourself at this vacation. If it is on a beach, see the image, remember how it smelled, feel the gritty hot sand and hear the water, taste the drink. Basically you need to tune in to another nicer station.

[Artcarved]

You have to stick with one mask. To be on Cpap therapy for such a short time and bouncing from one type of mask to another, you will not get use to sleeping any length of time. Try to keep a mask on a few minutes longer each day. Maybe it's your pillows that need to be replaced. Try sleeping on your side. I have to sleep with 2 pillows in a slight upright position because I have reflux. By morning I have slid down and wake up flat on my back. I have been on Cpap since May. I took me about 5 weeks to feel comfortable and I can now fall asleep on my left side.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum Randal.

While it is common to feel anxious and apprehensive using these masks I would strongly urge you to resist the temptation to take it off an leave it off. Bad habit to get into and one that is easy to get and hard to break.

The nasal pillows... inside your nostrils and uncomfortable?? I hope you weren't trying to cram the whole thing in your nostril. Only the very tip of the small cone goes inside the nostril. The bulk of the mask is outside and the rim rests against your nostril. The most common mistake is getting it too tight, wrong size pillows or someone tries to stick the whole thing in there. That is going to hurt like hell. With proper fitting these masks should at most only offer very minor tenderness maybe at the outer nostril area because it is virgin skin. One of the members here has some helpful hints on how to fit this type of mask. Perhaps something there will help you.
http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/swift- ... ing-guide/
Additionally this little barrel cozy is quite comfortable against the skin.
http://www.padacheek.com/PACSwiftII_Barrel_cozy.html

For minor skin tenderness you might try some Lansinoh ointment. Found in the baby section of walmart Nursing mom's use it to help with cracked nipples. It won't harm the mask.

If you want to stay with full face mask... there is just more surface area to deal with. The is a long thread here somewhere with lots of hints on how to use the quattro FX.
Janknitz has some hints about the regular quattro. Some may help you.
http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/taming ... e-quattro/

Finally your ResMed Escape is a machine that will never offer you any sort of data which might help you... like just exactly how much leak is going on or even if pressure is optimal.
Please read this. You are new into therapy and there is a good chance that you can get your machine swapped out for a full data machine. PLEASE read this for sure
http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/

[ameriken]

When you feel uncomfortable and want to take the mask off, you have to put it right back on and go back to sleep with it.

Something you can do to acclimate yourself to it is just wear just the mask around the house during the day (no hose or machine). Wear it while watching tv or reading. Take some short catnaps with it (and the machine). When you are close to going to bed, say about 20 or 30 minutes prior, put the mask on and turn on the machine and read, watch tv, or whatever until you are ready to sleep.

You have to win over the psychological battle. The CPAP is not going to hurt you and you have to convince yourself of that...it is for your benefit. You've got to get to a point where you are more afraid to take it off when you sleep than you are to keep it on.

Remember: wearing the mask while sleeping does no absolutely no harm. Nada, nil, zero, zilch, nothing.

However, NOT wearing the mask while sleeping can be deadly. You really should be more afraid to take it off than to keep it on while you sleep.

Good luck!

(And BTW, you have one of the best masks out there, so no, it does not have to take a few days to get used to it. I wore it my whole first night and have done so ever since without ever taking it off during sleep).

[Mary Z]

Randal, I would expect you to be doing better by now. It is not ok to wake up and take your mask off and not put it back on to sleep. You could try one of the PM pain meds with benadryl to see if this helps you sleep through the night.
Good luck, keep us posted, hopefully with some encouraging news.

[robysue]

Randal,

As many others have already told you: It's critically important to break the quickly forming habit of just ripping the mask off when you become uncomfortable and anxious. Right now you are rewarding the unconscious part of your brain that keeps screaming: NO! NO! NO! I DON'T WANNA SLEEP WITH THE MASK. Every time you take that mask off and go to sleep, it feeds that unconscious and INCORRECT belief that getting used to CPAP is just not mandatory.

Others have given you many tips on acclimating yourself to the mask. BlackSpinner's advice to try to visualize a better, more relaxing place when you wake up uncomfortable and panicy may help. But if it doesn't, then what to do?

If you find that you absolutely cannot tolerate the mask on your face on more second, you must force yourself to get out of bed and go into a different room. And in that room that's different that your bedroom, focus on settling yourself down (mentally) and allowing yourself to start feeling sleepy enough to try masking up again. Things you might try to get your mind off the anxiety the mask is inducing in the middle of the night include: Making yourself a coup of warm milk or chamomile tea with honey in it, reading a boring book, listening to some soothing music, or even working a crossword or soduku on paper (not on the computer). Go back to bed only after you are both calm enough to put the mask on your face and sleepy enough to get to sleep in a timely fashion.

And BlackSpinner's advice about trying to get that Escape II swapped out NOW for a full efficacy data machine is spot on.

And Pugsy's advice about giving the pillows another try where you are conscious of the correct way to fit them to your face is also well worth paying attention to.

[Cuda]

My first attempt at CPAP was with a full face and I made the mistake of taking it off when I woke up because "I just wanted to get some sleep". I have now learned "the worst night with your mask is far better than the best night without it." Even recently I take off my mask once in a while once I know I will not get back to sleep with it on and get "a few more hours of sleep". This was also a mistake. I try now to get back to sleep with the mask and if I cant I just get up. For me sleeping without the mask does nothing for me, I know that now. Of course sometimes I just wake up and the mask is on the floor and I do not remember doing it.

[ameriken]

My first attempt at CPAP was with a full face and I made the mistake of taking it off when I woke up because "I just wanted to get some sleep". I have now learned "the worst night with your mask is far better than the best night without it."

LOL, that's my sig!

[jcurt172]

Randal, I'm just entering my third week with cpap and have the FX as well. Since I'm such a newbie I don't have the sage advice given by all the nice people on this site but I'm exactly where you are and can relate 100%. I just keep telling myself that "this too shall pass" and try to remember that persistence will pay off. The goal is nothing less than your health and worth every effort. I had a pretty good night last night, not great but pretty good. I know that the road ahead holds good nights and bad ones but I also know the balance will shift toward the good ones if I can just take one night at time. Hope this helps 'cause I think I exhausted my list of cliches..

[ameriken]

Randal, I'm just entering my third week with cpap and have the FX as well. Since I'm such a newbie I don't have the sage advice given by all the nice people on this site but I'm exactly where you are and can relate 100%. I just keep telling myself that "this too shall pass" and try to remember that persistence will pay off. The goal is nothing less than your health and worth every effort. I had a pretty good night last night, not great but pretty good. I know that the road ahead holds good nights and bad ones but I also know the balance will shift toward the good ones if I can just take one night at time. Hope this helps 'cause I think I exhausted my list of cliches..

jcurt172, your attitude and encouragement are right on and worth repeating. Good luck and keep up the good work!

[Cuda]

Ameriken, I stole the line from someones sig but since I am a hosehead battling leaks I had no idea who. Thanks for claiming it!

[ThirdOutOfFive]

Welcome to the wonderful world of "PAPpy!" I am 4 weeks into this lifestyle. Up til last night I would have said that I was doing OK -- having some adjustment issues, but nothing that bad. Last night, hubby was rudely awakened by a loud sound and a brand new noise from my machine. Hum. . . . Now what?

My advice is to do what I am doing. Read the posts here. Ask questions here. Get advice here. Take things one at a time, because if you change 3 things at once, you will not be able to tell what change made what effect.

Good luck, and good sleeping.

[ameriken]

Ameriken, I stole the line from someones sig but since I am a hosehead battling leaks I had no idea who. Thanks for claiming it!

I'm just glad it helped. Good luck!