How do I know CPAP therapy is working?

bdp522 · Post by **bdp522** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 6:43 am

You need the 'experts' to get the Rx for your machine. You need them to get your insurance to pay for your equipment. Then you need cpaptalk to get everything working for you! The real experts are here! We are the ones who have to lab rat masks, and make this all work. We are the ones who will try anything to get this therapy to work for us. We aren't doctors(most of us anyway) BUT we are quite an inventive group and always willing to help!
I'm glad to see that you are finally getting some better results.

Brenda

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 7:11 am

For anyone who thinks that the FF mask is a solution to mouth breathing, I'm here to tell you that it may salvage the therapy value (because the air pressure doesn't escape); but the discomfort from dry mouth resulting from breathing through my mouth nearly destroyed my compliance.

I slept with my mouth taped for the second time last night, from 10 PM until 5:50 AM and wouldn't have awakened even then if the dog hadn't gotten me up. That's by far the best night's sleep I've gotten with CPAP yet. I even forgot to activate the heater on my humidifier, and I still had no trace of dry mouth this morning. A virtual miracle! Merry Christmas.

msteve · Post by **msteve** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:15 pm

One more quick question for the experts. Even though taping my lips has eliminated the mouth breathing and the very uncomfortable dry mouth, it does not change the fact that I still tend to wake up early (3:30 or 4:00 AM) after 5 1/2 or 6 hours of sleep. I'm so uncomfortable at that point after being taped shut and strapped in with the mask headgear and the chin strap that I can't stand it any longer and take everything off to finish my night's rest without CPAP. Have I gotten adequate treatment at that point? I don't think I can force myself to sleep longer than that with the equipment. Maybe if I start getting out of bed at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning, I'll get tired enough that I'll be able to sleep a full 8 hours with the gear .

neversleeps · Post by **neversleeps** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:05 pm

Any amount of time you use it is of benefit to you! While adapting to cpap therapy, it is not unusual to start out using it only a portion of the night as you adjust to sleeping in a mask. Let's face it; it's quite an adjustment! You'll find your tolerance will increase over time and eventually you'll be able to use it all night. And, while it might be hard to believe now, eventually you'll discover your sleep is worse if you don't use it all night! Ideally, you would use it for all sleeping hours-- even naps, to avoid the damage caused by untreated apneas.

Sleepless in St. Louis recently made a good analogy on this topic:

Sleepless in St. Louis wrote:As tempting as it is to think that you have alread put in your cpap time and that the rest is gravy, you are still stressing your system by sleeping even a short time without breathing correctly. It's sort of like dieting for 23 hours and stuffing yourself full of junk an hour. While the dieting was good, you lose the advantage if you don' t follow through. I feel that you'll be able to increase your compliance as you get more and more used to your new situation. This will become a moot point over time.

Good luck and congrats on discovering tape! Isn't it amazing what a difference it can make!

Mask