glad to have landed here !

[cowboyman]

As a new member of this society, I am glad to have found this sight ! I am on my first week of cpap,and feel better and have been able to drive my 82 mile round trip to work without wanting to pull over ! my first couple of days were not so bad , I wont say I slept all night , maybe 4 hours a night . I did get cocky thinking I could toss my chin strap aside after reading a post from a guy who said He could do without it , that was a mistake ! anyway I have lots of questions later on !

Cowboyman

[chunkyfrog]

Welcome, CBM.

[JohnBFisher]

Welcome! Glad to see you registered your equipment. Your next big task is to get the software to allow you to monitor your own therapy. Some doctors and DMEs try to discourage this. Simply ask them how it is any different than diabetes. A diabetic is EXPECTED to monitor their blood sugar levels. It is important to keep it in control to help them stay healthy. And it's important for us to monitor how we sleep to stay healthy as well. Afterall, if you can die because of a car accident because you got bad sleep (let alone all the other health problems that sleep apnea causes), then it is REALLY important to monitor your therapy.

Anyway, pull up a chair and do some research. There's a lot to learn. But this is a great place to do so.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum. Please check your private message box..upper left next to user account control.
I sent you a link for the provider manual for your machine.
In my signature at the bottom of this post is information on software.
I do recommend Sleepyhead...it is easier to manage and actually gives more information.

Don't get in a rush to lose the chin strap just yet..it takes time to teach the mouth to stay shut.
I taped for about 2 months..and that did the trick for me...others take longer and some people..well they don't seem to get the mouth to stay shut. Hope you will be one of the lucky ones.

[jweeks]

anyway I have lots of questions [...] Cowboyman

Cowboyman,

Welcome to our world. As for questions, feel free to "fire for effect". When I first started, there was another poster here who was about 60 days ahead of me. He ran into every issue that I had, but about two weeks before I hit any given problem. By the time I needed an answer to something, all I had to do was lookup the answers to his questions, and I was set.

BTW, I also dislike using a chin strap. I resorted to using tape on my mouth, but I found that I still need the chin strap to keep my jaw from dropping and causing additional breathing problems. After trying every chin strap on the market, I finally found one that is easy to use, comfortable, doesn't fall off, and isn't too tight. It was called the "Topaz" when I bought it, but it is now called the "Puresom Ruby Adjustable Chinstrap".

-john-

[cowboyman]

John thanks for your reply ! I will take in consideration all you have advised me. my last post sounded very up beat for a weeks worth of cpap , as of last night I went down hill ,feeling wiped out today , I know I had some nasal leakage a few times and I don't know why I did not tighten down a bit more,I may have had longer leakage than I thought and had apnea as a result. anyway now I wish I was software ready and had more knowledge to read what happened . My insurance is renting for three months and I dont know proper procedure . thanks again for responding !

Cowboyman

[chunkyfrog]

Software is available for download--links will be shown you.