Could I really be this lucky?

[waxteeth]

I've had my machine for 3 weeks (Resmed S9 and Swift mask).

I had some initial pain on the tip of my nose but aside from getting used to the headgear on my pillow and having to move the hose with me when I roll over it's pretty uneventful.

I was really worried about mouth breathing but the tech guy said it feels very strange to open your mouth with the machine on and often people just stop opening their mouths. I think this is turning out to be true for me. It feels very strange to open my mouth with the thing running and I look at my data screen as soon as I wake up and every day is smiley face so far.

I can't say that I feel super well rested yet but my wife says I've totally stopped snoring and I'm sleeping like a rock. My ahi readings have been less than 1 (around 0.5) all nights except one night that I figure was a fluke.

I've had a few times I knocked the mask off and woke up to the whizzing air but that's about all.

This might sound crazy but as much as I've read I expected more problems. If anything I'm getting more comfortable with it to the point I'm suspicious it's doing anything at all.

Yeah..I actually have a strange paranoia this is too easy to adapt to and my leak rates and low ahi readings just must be wrong.

Has anybody here just had an out of the box easy transition to cpap and effective treatment from the initial settings on the machine from the day you took it home?

My follow up phone assessment is a few days away when we will dig deeper into the data..maybe then they will uncover some issues but so far it's all shockingly ok...

[OboeVet]

Sounds to me like you have a great attitude, probably a good durable medical equipment (DME) team, and deserve an easy and great start. As to the feeling great all at once, I think it depends on how oxygen deprived you were and for how long. There are a lot of factors that go into feeling totally refreshed in the morning. You are indeed fortunate, but don't be lulled into expecting every night to be a cake walk! All of us have odd-ball nights with high AHI or leaks, or even nightmares in which we wake up panting. Simply shake them off, maybe get up for a minute or two, then sleep away.

Congratulations! All the best to you.

Don

[Newbie Woman]

You're not alone with your good fortune. I felt better almost immediately. I've certainly had some bad periods, but generally if I read for answers here, I find them. If not, I post and someone helps me.

[mobychick]

Good for you! You seem to be taking to it very well. Many people (and their spouses) would make a big deal out of things like the mask coming off in the middle of the night. I think I did Please keep us posted (edit) Having said that, you seem to have had relatively few problems so far. It sounds like you got a good mask for your features straight away which is a huge advantage!

[Pasta]

It's entirely possible that you just happened to get the settings right on the first try and then got used to it right away. And from what I hear most people usually don't start feeling a lot better until later. I got started on an auto-CPAP a year ago and got used to it immediately. By the second night I really liked it, it felt like power assist for my inhaling haha. Unfortunately I didn't feel a lot better, just a little. My AHI had dropped from the upper 20s to between 8 and 20. Turned out I had complex apnea and started getting central and hypopopneas. A few weeks ago I finally got on an ASV and felt better immediately. Biggest difference was my mood at work, way less irritable. It's been an adjustment period this time though because the higher pressures of an ASV would blow my mouth open. So now I have to deal with a chin strap until I get used to it, but still no big deal. Now my AHI is about the same as yours, average 0.5, maybe once every two weeks above 1.

I guess the moral of the story is, I got used to cpap right away with no problems, and when I finally got put on an ASV they got the settings right on the first try (and it was complicated), so I don't see why they couldn't happen at the same time haha. Especially since most people only need a basic cpap.

[waxteeth]

As I read the above I think I also got lucky that the extent of my condition isn't as complex as some here.

The S9 is the right tool for the job as it were and (fingers crossed) I won't need more complex treatment.

I'm interested to see what my follow up data reveals. I'm not very tech savvy to understand the sleepyhead software and graphs I see posted here so I'll be trusting the med people and how I'm feeling to gauge progress..

[bwexler]

SleepyHead provides a ton of data, but you can bite off one graph at a time, ask questions here, and learn what it means.
Then move on to the next graph and learn it. First thing you know you will be answer questions here for other newbies.

[socaljohn]

I tried an s8 autoset advantage first with a wisp mask and then moved on to the s9. WIth the S9 I took to it very quickly and had the same minor under nose irritation from a new swift fX mask. I feel much more alert during the day and look forward to sleep. I have found myself going to bed earlier than normal and waking up very early after 7-8 hours of sleep. My setting is at a 6 so I do sometimes need to open my mouth or feel to make sure the machine is on. Wife is happy that snoring and waking up out gasping for air are things of the past. She did ask me how long I had to use this thing though? I told her probably a very long time. I would have to say my experience has been very positive. Wanting to try s9 auto and will probably try and avoid the expensive Dr. visits for sleep checkups.

[bv1800]

I have one of the machines that many refer to as a brick, so I can't offer any data, beyond the fact that, with a couple notable exceptions (e.g., when I was up late & had to be up early, so I only got 4 hrs of sleep), I've been lucky & have gotten 7+ hrs of use per night, since I started using a cpap, in early December. I noticed a dramatic improvement, in my mental state, upon awaking, from day 1.

Yeah, you really could be that lucky.

[OhHelpMe]

Has anybody here just had an out of the box easy transition to cpap and effective treatment from the initial settings on the machine from the day you took it home?

Many people have this experience. So they don't feel any need to participate in a forum. The population here is naturally skewed toward people who have problems (and grouchy, fatigued people who sit around playing on the computer).