First Night on CPAP....

[klockemy]

Last night was my first night on CPAP and I thought I needed to share. I started to bed about 10:30p (so I could make sure everything was good to go). I set the humidifier to 3 and tucked the hose in bed with me, turned on the Ramp and tried to relax. I noticed everytime I started to drift off to sleep, I was gasping. This happened for the full 45 mins the ramp was on. Once I was ramped up, I went to sleep. I slept from 11:15 until 8:30a this morning only waking up twice to reposition the hose. No leaks, no rainout, no inability to fall back asleep. I woke up this morning feeling refreshed in a way that I haven't felt in almost a decade. According to the LCD this morning, I had a 9.7 hour session, Avg AHI of 1.7 and the leak amount was right in line with the specs on my mask. I did remember waking up a couple times to the mask alarm where the hose had come loose from my mask. Here is the real kicker. I was telling my wife about my sleep and proceeded to tell her about my dream. You don't understand, this is a revelation for me, I haven't remembered dreaming in 10 years. I know there are some minor things to get over, but I guess you can call me a poster child for CPAP, immediate effects. Thank you all for your support and advice. I am sure that I will be hanging around here for a while to come.

Kevin

[kteague]

Kevin,
Congratulations on getting off to a great start!!! Based on your description, I'm wondering what pressure your ramp is on. My first machine was set to 4 and I felt like I was suffocating. Since you couldn't sleep until it finished ramping, you might want to consider increasing the ramp pressure and even shortening the time of the ramp. If you happen to fall asleep earlier, the rest of that ramp time is unprotected time as you are not yet at the therapeutic pressure. Other than that, sounds like you've got a pretty good handle on things.
Kathy

[DyannaK]

It sounds like overall you had a great night My only suggestion is you might want to change the 45 minute Ramp. You could knock it back to just 15minutes or you could try turning it off completely. Good luck

[klockemy]

Thanks!

My script is for 10cm and the ramp is set at 5cm during 45 mins.
I think I will play around with it tonight and see what kind of compromise I can come up with. (Increasing ramp pressure vs decreasing ramp time).

I can't believe how great I feel. If I didn't freeze the Mrs with the exhaust all night then she would be just as excited as I am!

[BleepingBeauty]

Wow! Congrats on a fantastic first night of therapy! I'm jealous!

Before you know it, your 10 cm pressure will feel like nothing, and you'll stop using the ramp altogether. 5 cm is pretty low, and I concur with Kathy above, in that I'd feel like I was suffocating at that low level. In the meantime, do consider upping the starting pressure and/or cutting down the ramp time.

Best of luck, although it sounds like you're beyond needing any!

[plr66]

Congratulations on your successful first night! I would personally set that ramp at 7-8 and for just 15 minutes since you don't seem to have been bothered at all with the full pressure of 10 through the night. Some people, including myself, just don't need the ramp at all, and adjust to the full pressure within the first few breaths taken after turning on the machine.

[klockemy]

I am sure it won't all be fun and games but any progress was better than where I was.

[Gerald]

Kevin.....

Actually, it is....."all fun and games"......

It becomes a "game" to defeat what is trying to kill you.......and you can enjoy experimenting with new techniques to make it more comfortable.

You're off to a great start....you'll do well.

The suggestion to change your ramp pressure upward is a good one. Mine is set to start at 8-cm.....and last for 15-minutes.

Gerald

[Uncle_Bob]

You don't understand, this is a revelation for me, I haven't remembered dreaming in 10 years.

Kevin

Oh i think many will understand

Congrats on the great start Kevin.

[dels]

Good News, I am happy for you!

[klockemy]

Thank you again, everyone! I am going to fiddle with the ramp settings tonight and see which one is better. Thinking 7 or 8 for 15 minutes sounds about right for me. Can't wait to get a card reader and software, just waiting to save up the $200 for it. Can't wait to see the results on paper instead of the LCD screen. One other thing that I am doing today is the 'teflon fix' for my Quattro. I noticed that some of the condensation in the mask (not enought for rainout) was leaking out of the pivot in the mask, when I was laying on my side. I can't thank everyone on this site enough for their willingness to help. It has really eased the transition to the lifestyle and took alot of the mystery out of it.

Sweet Dreams All!

Kevin

[Gerald]

Kevin.......

You might want to consider throttling back on the humidity setting.

If you aren't mouth leaking, you might want to try a humidifier setting of "1".

Rainout is not fun, so experiment a little with the lowest possible setting.

Because I have reduced my mask and mouth leaks to a minimum, I can do just fine with a setting of "1".

Gerald

[klockemy]

Oh ok, I will give that a go and see if it does any better than last night.

On my equipment, if I turn the humidity knob to zero, do I still get passover humidification or does it turn it off completely?

[Hawthorne]

If you set your humidifier at 0 and have distilled water in the water chamber you will get pass over humidity.

I find pass over humidity just right most of the time for me. Sometimes, in the winter months, I use a setting of 1 or 2.

[klockemy]

If you set your humidifier at 0 and have distilled water in the water chamber you will get pass over humidity.

I find pass over humidity just right most of the time for me. Sometimes, in the winter months, I use a setting of 1 or 2.

I might give that a shot tonight. NC is pretty humid during the summer.