New user saying hello

[Paul_H]

Greetings to the forum:

I'm in Duncan, BC, on Vancouver Island.

I am new to the forum, and new on a CPAP machine. Four weeks now on the machine, a ResMed S9 Autoset. I just wanted to say hello, and kudos to whoever started and maintains this forum; it is a valuable resource, with some good people here. Kudos also to the developer of SleepyHead, which is a fine little program. I am on a Mac, and cannot use the ResMed software without investing some cash into running a virtual Windows machine on my Mac. I plan to contribute to SleepyHead when I can afford to make a contribution.

My experience has probably been typical. For the first week or two I hated the damned thing, felt suffocated and claustrophobic. I gradually got used to it a bit, and changing from a nose mask to a nose pillow mask made a huge difference. I at first found the nose pillow mask to irritate my nostrils, but my nose seems to have adapted now. I've had my first two nights of 8+ hours of sleep, the past couple of days. The results are demonstrable. I awake feeling rested, I have far more energy, and I've started working out again for the first time in several years. Also, I work at home as a tech writer, and I no longer start falling asleep in front of the monitor half way through the day, as I was doing often.

I had severe obstructive apnea, measured at 60 in my test. That is down to an average of 5.7 over the past 4 weeks. Not a great number, but still a spectacular improvement. I believe I've had this thing for 15+ years now, undiagnosed.

That's about all for today, as I just wanted to say hello. I will be asking some questions soon, about SleepyHead, and about my S9 machine, but I will save them for another day.

Regards,

Paul Harris

[Sheriff Buford]

Welcome to the forum Paul! There's lots of info on this site. The key to success is finding a comfortable mask that doesn't leak. What have your leak rates been?

Sheriff Buford

[chunkyfrog]

Welcome, Paul.

[tattooyu]

Welcome, Paul. I'm really glad to hear you've adjusted fairly quickly and are getting positive results!

[Guest]

Hi, Sheriff Buford, and the others who welcomed me. Thank you for your welcoming.

Until I switched to the nasal pillow mask my leaks were all over the place. I had a full nasal mask, and after putting it on, and adjusting it for leaks, I would sleep for a while. However, if I awoke for any reason, or had to use the bathroom, I would often have to wrestle with it for 10 or 15 minutes to get it set so that leaks were minimal, and by that time, I would be fully awake again. The leaks have decreased radically with the nose pillow mask. Last night the figures were: Median - 3.60, 95% - 6.00, and Maximum - 13.60. From what I've been reading, I think these are pretty good numbers. I don't know what these numbers represent, which brings me to a complaint about SleepyHead, which is, I wish there were labels on the Y-axes to indicate the nature of the units expressed there. We are told what is being measured, but not what the units of measurement mean. Of course, the X-axis is time, so no problem there.

Paul

[Pugsy]

which brings me to a complaint about SleepyHead, which is, I wish there were labels on the Y-axes to indicate the nature of the units expressed there. We are told what is being measured, but not what the units of measurement mean.

Check out the SleepyHead glossary
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/s ... r_Glossary
Take your mouse cursor and hover over the y axis and a little box should pop up telling you the units of measurements as well as a short description.

If you can't get it to pop up...I will try to get a screen shot but it's a bit difficult on this particular computer.
But try just moving the mouse cursor over the words to the left of the graph...like Leak is L/min

Welcome to the forum.

[Paul_H]

Thank you for that info, Pugsy. I can do this, but unfortunately the labels are very hard to read, and only appear momentarily. The text is kind of gibbled up, and almost impossible to decipher. Maybe it's just the Mac version that does this, or my iMac, I wouldn't know. It would be nice if the pop-ups appeared larger, clearer, and longer, or were added permanently to the Y-axis labels.

Paul

[Pugsy]

It may be your Mac or desktop resolution or your Mac SH version. Mine are easy to read even without my glasses but I am using the Windows version.

If you will go to the glossary and study it just a bit....the values are also listed there and with just a bit of time you can learn them and you won't even miss them. I never use that pop over feature.

Anyone else using a Mac having this same problem with the popover value feature on SH not being readable?

[Paul_H]

Thanks Pugsy. I will study the Glossary and get up to speed on the terms. Lots to learn here!

Paul

[JCWarrior]

Welcome Paul! I'm new here (and to CPAP - Going on 2 weeks) as well. I agree, this forum is sooooo helpful. I appreciate it a great deal.

I'm also starting to acclimate to CPAP. Still have some difficulty falling asleep. Become awakened by (I think) CA's during sleep transition and sometimes feel panicky/claustrophobic when that happens and I feel the mask (nose pillows) on my face. Especially if I have the urge to sigh, yawn or clear my throught.

Just gonna take some getting used to I suppose.

[chunkyfrog]

Happy birthday, Paul. Stick around; there are lots of really nice people here.

[Paul_H]

Thanks, JCWarrior and Chunkyfrog:

Yes, this form is definitely a boon.

And thanks for the Happy Birthday, too! I didn't realize it would become a thing that was visible to anyone else. Today is also International Workers' Day. By rights, I should be taking the day off work, but my company doesn't see it that way. I work at home as a tech writer, so it's hard to take a day off, sometimes, aside from holidays.

Regards,

Paul