Not sure my cpap machine is fixing my apnea

[x1v16]

Hi all. I am using a quattro air full mask with a Respironics System One Auto CPAP and Humidifier. I am still in the trial period and have been using it on a pressure setting of 12 for 2 weeks now. I am a bit disappointed that I still feel tried as often as I do. I am beginning to wonder if much of the reason I struggle with tiredness is not the apnea at all, but is the fact that I work the graveyard shift 5 days a week and on my days off I try to stay awake during the day instead. If I had to rate my general tiredness on a scale of 1-10 before treatment it probably was a 5/10 and now it is maybe a 4/10. It makes me doubt whether the cpap is improving my quality of sleep significantly enough to warrant paying thousands of dollars for one at the end of the trial. My blood pressure has never been higher than barely high normal and I don't get headaches. I've been told my pulse ox never goes below the low 90's. Is it possible that despite having moderate sleep apnea and a AHI score of 17 that it's not worth it for me to get a machine? Is there another treatment I should be pursuing? My girlfriend has slept in the same bed with me 3 times since I got the machine and says it DOES stop me from snoring. My other feeling is that perhaps the disruption of wearing the mask is making it harder for me to fall asleep so the benefits may be partially negated by that so far.

[Pugsy]

How many hours, using the mask, of sleep do you get each night?
Are those house of sleep punctuated with wake ups?
Are you still removing the mask during the night and not remembering it?
Have you evaluated your therapy with the software available to make sure that there's nothing in there that needs improvement?

2 weeks of therapy...not nearly enough time to expect to see a marked improvement even if you were getting 8 hours straight of the most optimal therapy with minimal to none wake ups.

Thousands of dollars...I don't know where you live but they don't cost "thousands" of dollars. Somebody is making a killing.

Yes, there are alternatives.
With an AHI of 17 an oral appliance might be enough reduction.
Surgery...no way would I do the surgery even for AHI 10 times yours.

Sounds like the main reasons you agreed to this therapy...snores and tiredness.
The machine is doing a good job with the snores.
Not all fatigue is caused by sleep apnea and the machine only fixes sleep apnea issues...and even then it usually takes a lot longer than 2 weeks.

[HerbM]

Yes, the newness of the mask and all the unaccustomed efforts to get 'setup' each night will cause you to lose a bit of sleep at first -- in most cases.

I have had about the easiest transition possible and yet still find myself paying a LOT of attention to my breath when trying to relax into sleep. Even that will keep you up a few extra minutes but any other discomfort of the mask or noise may keep you awake (at first) far longer.

You have a 20% improvement in your feeling of tiredness ALREADY by your estimate (down from 5 to 4) and aren't bothering your girl friend with snoring.

These are not amazing, knock your socks off results but they do offset a little of the trouble and should encourage you to continue the treatment to discover if there are additional improvements awaiting you and if you can learn to adapt to the machine to the point it becomes "normal".

I even like the fact that when it is cold I can pull the covers over my face and not breath stale, hot air. (It's a little thing but there are a handful of these to offset some of the small annoyances of the machine and mask.)

BTW: I figured that my ResMed S9 AutoSet (APAP) machine cost about $866.85 on a 10 month rent to purchase (but the insurance company likely bargained that down quite a bit).