New User with questions

[TooTiredforFun]

Hello,

I am in my first week using my CPAP - it's been tough getting used to it and as I read thru these posts realize it's not a "magic pill". I feel like my waking episodes are just as frequent as before, but may have more to do with being a light sleeper and every little change in noise from the mask may be waking me. Early this am I started hearing a "whistling" noise in my nostrils and shut the machine off at that time (around 5:00 am) I have mild apnea with my pressure set at 7. The machine has A-flex which I believe lowers the pressure on exhalation but I'm still learning all the bells and whistles and terminology and not sure what the setting is for that. The tech that came to the house to set me up was very thorough but I didn't retain a lot of what he told me. He is supposed to check back with me after the first week to see how I am doing and I am keeping a list of things to ask but here are a few that maybe some "veterans" can help with....

What causes the "whistling noise"? Is my humidifier too high? It's on 2 because i was waking with very dry throat ( I sleep with a closed mouth confirmed by DH and sleep lab)
Will I ever stop feeling like my nose is "running"?
I am waking with headaches... didn't have them before but have neck problems and wondering if it's a "positioning" thing
I find the vent on the nasal pillows to be very strong and very loud - is enough air getting into my nostrils? Seems like it's mostly going out the vent.
I have the straps "snug" but not tight (where the tech put them) but I feel like the pillows shift frequently during the night - just the way it is? And if I am not getting leaks then this must be ok?

Sorry for so many questions.... I'm sure I will have more as I peruse through all the information on this forum.

[DreamStalker]

It is more than a magic pill for me ... it was/is a fountain of youth.

The mask is the key to successful therapy. The bells and whistles don't add all that much.

Sounds like you may have mask leaks. Adjusting the headgear may help .... sometimes more snug or possibly even more loose. Just experiment.

Hose management is another possible cause. The hose may be pulling the nasal pillows off your nose and break the seal. Make sure that is not happening.

If you start to get dry mouth, that may be a sign that you are losing the seal by opening your mouth while asleep. There are several techniques to deal with that problem as well.

Once you get all the leaks taken care of, your treatment should help get rid of your headaches and allow your body to heal and rejuvenate.

Best wishes!

[jweeks]

Hi,

These are all good questions.

The mask is designed to vent air. It does seem like a lot, but that is normal, and you are still getting a lot of air. You can test this by opening your mouth wide open when wearing the nasal mask--it will feel like you are caught in a hurricane. In fact, be careful doing that experiment because it really scared me the first time it happened by accident.

My Swift LT whistles from time to time. I have found 2 reasons so far. One is water in the exhaust holes. Taking the mask off and tapping it against my hand will often clear it out. The second is water getting between the pillows and my nose. This can cause a leak, and it has even lead to blisters on my nose. What helps is putting a very thin layer of Lansinoh on your nose (or on the outside of the pillows where they touch your nose). You can find lansinoh in the baby products isle of a drug store or supermarket--look for the purple tube.

I was extremely noise sensitive as a kid. I found that I don't notice my CPAP machine at all when I sleep better, which I have since I started using the machine. Having some white noise might help. I used to run a box fan at night to create some noise along with enjoying the background airflow.

The humidifier setting will vary widely. In Minnesota in winter, I need to set it at 4 out of 5 because the air is so dry. But down in Fort Myers, I have it set at 1 because it is pretty humid down here. In general, dry throat is from mouth leaks. You might want to try a night or two with a chin strap just to rule out low levels of air leakage. It only takes a little. Until recently, I ran at a really high pressure, and I needed both a chin strap and tape over my lips to keep air from escaping.

Please hang in there...there are solutions to these issues, but sometimes it takes a frustratingly long time to work out the solutions. What makes this harder is accumulated poor sleep from your pre-CPAP days causes a bit of brain fog that can make it even harder to solve these issues. Don't worry, you will work this out over time.

-john-

[TooTiredforFun]

Thanks John

I did try the "open mouth" trick and you are correct - it was like a hurricane came out of my mouth! thanks for the warning!

the whistling went away - I suspect you were on point with water being in the pillow or barrel. No problem yet with blisters ( knock on wood!)

I am doing better with the amount of airflow from the vent now that I understand I am getting the pressure I need. The tech put me on a Small pillow and I wondered if the Medium would be a better fit - even though my stats show no large leaks I kept feeling like air was escaping all nite so though maybe my fit was off. The medium seemed like less volume of air "escaping" the vent, but then I could not fall asleep for anything last nite and my nose got stuffed up even after I adjusted the humidifier - the only change in routine was the change in the pillow size - finally pulled the mask off around 1:00 am because I thought for some reason that was my problem but alas it was just a case of insomnia last nite!

Noise is still an issue for me - I was a sound sleeper until I became a mom (over 35 years ago) - I swear some hormone kicks in that allows mom's to hear the slightest noise - unfortunately it never goes away - so between the noise from the vent and fighting with the hose I am still waking frequently. I don't hear the machine at all - just the vent. I tried going back to the nasal mask but I am a side sleeper and that just hurt my sinuses and kept dislodging so went back to the pillows. I find the vent air the most disturbing aspect and can't get used to the air blowing on me during the night - have tried to rotate the hose so it's "over" my head not down on my chest but then the air is blowing towards my mouth so really uncomfortable.

I find tucking the hose under my arm helps to keep from any pulling against the pillows and less drag when I do turn during the night. I do have a heated hose which feels warm when I first go to bed, but I find during the night it has cooled off - does the heater shut off after a while? We live in the Northeast and had extremely cold weather this week and we keep our thermostat at 60 degrees at night so even cooler in our bedroom on the second floor - we were in a very cold spell this week so wondering if all these elements affect the performance. I don't see any rainout in the hose and just a few teeny drops in the nasal pillows some mornings.

Daytime sleepiness is getting better but not where I hoped to be by now - I know I have to be patient but we all want a "quick fix" right?

As you said it takes a while to adjust and I am not throwing it out the window just yet. I"ll give it a few months till I see my sleep Doc again and see what he thinks of the stats.

Thanks again for all the helpful information.....

cindi

[Always tired]

TooTired,

The mask is the key to successful therapy.

+1

A mask that you don't have to constantly be concerned about and fiddle with is really the key. Hose mangagement is essential and you will just have to experiment with the hose hanging from above or coming in from the side.

The dry mouth is most likely from opening your mouth at night--perhaps experiment with a chin strap. Is the whistling noise constant or just on inhale or exhale?

Suggest you go into your profile and edit your equipment to "text" so we can see the type of equipment you use. After that, and assuming your machine is data capable, download Sleepyhead and start to track your numbers. This will really be an eye opener re your leaks and members of the forum can assist you.
A T

[ninjatrigg]

Hello all, this is my first post. (sorry to hijack the thread)

Anyone know if sleepyhead works with my machine?
I have had my machine for about a year now and would love to see the results of my sleep.

I didn't know anything about cpap when I was diagnosed and my supplier gave me the Icon.
I wish I got the Resmed S9.

[Pugsy]

Anyone know if sleepyhead works with my machine?

SleepyHead will work. You won't get all the graphs or quite as much detail but you will get some information. Enough information to get you pointed in the right direction.
Large leak territory is around 60 L/min on the Icon...so stay below that area.

[ninjatrigg]

Hmmm...

I open up the sleepyhead software, and try to import from usb, and it says "machine data not found"

Any ideas?

[Pugsy]

I open up the sleepyhead software, and try to import from usb, and it says "machine data not found"

Most common error is people go into the USB device (SD card) instead of stopping at the drive letter where the SD card sits.
So if you are seeing anything other than the drive letter in the "choose" box you have gone too far.
Otherwise confirm which machine you are indeed using and what operating system you are using on your computer.
I am not sure if the Mac version was ever updated to support the Icon. The windows SH was but I don't know about the Mac version.

[ninjatrigg]

Windows 7
Imported from the drive letter.

Keeps saying network timed out.
Im using my work pc, ill try it on my home pc and see if there's any differences.

[Pugsy]

I only know of one other Icon user who has had success with SleepyHead.
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=64174

You might drop her a note and see if she has any ideas on what might be missing in your steps.

F & P Icon support for SleepyHead is/was severely limited. I know it will show some data because I have seen the SleepyHead reports from the Icon but they are pretty limited.

[archangle]

Anyone know if sleepyhead works with my machine?

SleepyHead will work. You won't get all the graphs or quite as much detail but you will get some information. Enough information to get you pointed in the right direction.
Large leak territory is around 60 L/min on the Icon...so stay below that area.

I wonder if it requires updates and/or patches? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84781

[Pugsy]

I wonder if it requires updates and/or patches? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84781

I don't know for sure. It shouldn't have required anything special because F & P support was offered right when SleepyHead Beta was released last year long before any of the patches. The one update is for sure needed though.
Jencat has it working with her Icon BUT she also had to get the patch file because we originally needed SleepyHead for her husband's 60 series machine. She was using the Infosmart software from F & P until she had to get something for her husband's machine so we decided to try to SleepyHead.

To ninjatrigg....
On the off chance that the update (the first and so far only update) has failed the most common problem is Windows security blocking it. Solution is to open SleepyHead under the "run as administrator" command line (right click on SH icon) and then the update will go through just fine.

What version of SleepyHead do you see being used right now?

[ninjatrigg]

Anyone know if sleepyhead works with my machine?

SleepyHead will work. You won't get all the graphs or quite as much detail but you will get some information. Enough information to get you pointed in the right direction.
Large leak territory is around 60 L/min on the Icon...so stay below that area.

I wonder if it requires updates and/or patches? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84781

After I installed the patches, it worked!
Thanks!!!

How do my numbers look? my leaks seem to be going up.

[TooTiredforFun]

TooTired,

The mask is the key to successful therapy.

+1

The dry mouth is most likely from opening your mouth at night--perhaps experiment with a chin strap. Is the whistling noise constant or just on inhale or exhale?

Suggest you go into your profile and edit your equipment to "text" so we can see the type of equipment you use. After that, and assuming your machine is data capable, download Sleepyhead and start to track your numbers. This will really be an eye opener re your leaks and members of the forum can assist you.
A T

Thanks AT - profile updated successfully! The whistling is just on inhale/exhale - think it happens when moisture gets caught in between the mask and my nose
Sleepyhead did not work with my system so I have downloaded the Encore Basic 2.0 and started looking at my results.... seems I am doing okay.

NO major leaks
AHI average after two weeks is 1.2 - my "flags" are far and few between....
constant pressure at 7 - checking into why this was set at constant when I thought it was going to be "auto" with a high and low end pressure - have a call into my sleep doc
if I were opening my mouth at nite would that show up in the report somewhere - as a leak maybe?
thanks for all the info.. these forums are truly a godsend!

Cindi