just diagnosed RDI=39

[greg21]

CPAP newbie here but not a medical newbie by any stretch. I'm in my mid-20s and have been very sick for the past 3 years. I have fibro, carpal tunnel, back and nerve spasms throughout my body, hyperanesthesia and other crap. Just diagnosed with sleep apnea (FINALLY) with these results from a take home test:
RDI=39
AHI = 9
ODI = 1
RDI <10 is within normal limits, 10-15 mild OSA, 16-30 Moderate OSA, >30 severe OSA
AHI, ODI < 5 is within normal limits.
5-15 is consistent with mild OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea)
16-30 is consistent with moderate OSA
>30 is consistent with severe OSA

Oddly, I slept incredibly well that night. Most nights are way worse than the night of this test which concerns me a bit.
I tried the CPAP, both full mask and nose for the first time this week. I tried SO hard to make it work but everytime I would fall asleep and my body would have trouble breathing I would wake up in a panic and the mask would wake me up immediately. This went out for 6-10 times a night till I would finally pull of the mask and sleep "normally."

It seems some people use humififiers...should I get one for my bedroom? Anything else I should try? Is it recommended not to use sleeping medications (like ambien) with sleep apnea? I'm pretty new to this area of medicine.
thanks!
greg

[KateDaring52]

Many thanks to ur post. I love it.

[JointPain]

Hi Greg and welcome to the forum.

What you describe is a pretty common problem for new users. It takes a little while to get used to this whole CPAP thing. It's a pretty big change. You've never slept like this before and it's going to take some getting used to, but physiologically and psychologically. Unlike before, your body now has to work to exhale instead of inhale. Easy enough, but you need to get used to it. Hang in there and it will be worth it in the end.

There are lots of helpful people on this board who will offer lots of specific advice on the issues you face. One thing you can do to help them is go to the user control panel and select the specific CPAP machine and mask you have, and set the display mode to "text". Lots of the machines look too similar for our old eyes for the pictures to be worth even the few words of text involved (let alone a thousand).

You should also let us know the pressure setting or range you're using, and what "comfort" features (like exhale relief or ramp) have been set for you. The issues for high pressures are different.

A couple of specific things you can try:

Try wearing the mask and using the machine for a few hours every day while you're doing something completely unrelated to sleeping, like reading a book, browsing the internet, or watching TV. This will give your body and mind a chance to get more comfortable with the process.

During the night, if you need to take the mask off for a while, get out of bed and do something else until you're ready to use it again. It's a really good habit to always sleep with the mask. It's a little hard at first, but procrastinating just puts it off (and the bad habit you will have started to develop by then will make it a bit harder than it needs to be).

[robysue]

I tried the CPAP, both full mask and nose for the first time this week. I tried SO hard to make it work but everytime I would fall asleep and my body would have trouble breathing I would wake up in a panic and the mask would wake me up immediately. This went out for 6-10 times a night till I would finally pull of the mask and sleep "normally."

There is a learning curve. And some of us have a harder time than others learning to sleep with the hose on our nose.

But---taking the mask off and intentionally and consciously allowing yourself to fall asleep without the mask on will make your transition more difficult and longer. Everytime you do this, you "reward" that part of your mind that has not yet accepted the necessity of learning to sleep with the mask. And when you sleep "normally" without the mask, it becomes a self fulfilling negative loop:

• You try to go to sleep with the mask on, but you don't think you'll be able to, so ...
  
  You lie there for a long time wide awake OR you startle yourself awake every time you start to fall asleep, so ....
  
  You decide you can't stand it any more and you know you can't possibly get to sleep with the hose on, so ...
  
  You take the hose off and fall into an apnea/hypopnea filled sleep, but that part of your brain that keeps saying, "I CAN sleep without the nose, but I can't with the hose" is rewarded anyway for stubbornly preventing you from getting to sleep early in the night with the mask on, and ...
  
  The cycle repeats itself the next night. And the night after that. And the night after that.

Because panic is part of your problem, you need to work on addressing the anxiety induced by the mask. Perhaps wearing the mask in the daytime when you are watching TV or reading may help get you over the panic-y feeling the mask is causing you. Once you know longer get into a panic because of the mask, it may be easier to work on how to get to sleep with the mask on your face.

And changing masks might help.

[robysue]

It seems some people use humififiers...should I get one for my bedroom? Anything else I should try?

The humidifiers we keep talking about are heated humidifiers attached to the machine. For many modern cpap machines there is an integrated humidifier that can be bought that matches the machine and is designed to work with the machine. There are also nonintegrated humidifiers that can be used with any cpap machine.

The purpose behind the heated humidifiers attached to the CPAP machine is that many people's airways find unhumidified CPAP air very drying---to the point of being very uncomfortable and hard to tolerate. Normally, the nasal passages in the nose that normally warm and humidify air before it goes down into the lungs. But with the extra air being blown into your airway by the CPAP machine, sometimes the nose just can't keep up and properly warm and humidify all that extra air, and without a humidifier, the nose, mouth, and airway can become very dry and irritable. Using a heated humidifier helps the nasal passages properly warm and humidify the air going down your windpipe to your lungs. A room humidifier is likely not going to work anywhere near as well since it won't warm and provide significantly more humidity to the air going down your windpipe at night.

Is it recommended not to use sleeping medications (like ambien) with sleep apnea? I'm pretty new to this area of medicine.

That's really your doctor's call in my opinion. But many newbies do ask for and are prescribed a short term prescription for something like Ambien. You do need to be careful since it is easy to become dependent on prescription sleeping meds. So if you decide to use them, talk to your doctor about what the potential side effects are, exactly how s/he wants you to take the medicine, how long s/he thinks you might need the medicine, and the appropriate way to wean yourself off the medicine at the appropriate time.

[archangle]

Please follow the link below this post and fill in your equipment in your profile.

Do you know what pressure your machine is set at?

How long have you had your CPAP?

Try wearing your CPAP during the day and reading or watching TV.

[Otter]

I tried the CPAP, both full mask and nose for the first time this week. I tried SO hard to make it work but everytime I would fall asleep and my body would have trouble breathing I would wake up in a panic and the mask would wake me up immediately. This went out for 6-10 times a night till I would finally pull of the mask and sleep "normally."

Maybe you're just not used to having something on your face, but if it feels like you can't breathe, it could be your pressure is too low. Just because you only needed x cm h20 that night at the lab doesn't mean that's right for you now at home. What machine are you using? If you're lucky enough to have one that records full data, you can look and confirm whether you were able to breathe or not.