1st night...

[Bignate76]

Just picked up my goodies this morning. Tonight will be my first night (other than the split-night sleep study) on the C-pap. If I filled out the profile correctly my equipment should be listed below!

Will be starting at 14cm and kicking up to 16cm.

Haven't been this excited about getting in bed since I was a kid waiting on Santa!

I'm sure I will be hanging around from this point on, just wanted to say hi.

[Nick Danger]

Nice to meet you, Nate. I hope everything goes well. Lots of advice and ideas are available here if you need help.

[Bignate76]

Well the first night was interesting, but went very well (I think).

1.Woke up once and noticed a dry(ish) mouth. Guess I'll look into a chin strap.
2.Had some issues with leaks if I tried to sleep in a position other than my back. May have the wrong sized mask.. The supplier only had one size.
3.When I took the mask off for a potty break(I need to check that Subway's health score before I eat there again lol) I noticed a sweet, almost cologne smell.. weird
4.My wife woke me up at one point because I had an arm sticking straight up and was swinging it back and forth. I was dreaming about a bee! Can't remember the last time I remember having a dream.
5. I drove to work this morning and for the first time in years and years I didn't start to nod off repeatedly at the school car pool or the 20 minute drive to my office. Fantastic!! I'm still yawning, but I'll take that for now.

Still learning about my machine but the first night showed:
6.4 hours used
no greater than 4 hr usage (Thanks Subway)
AHI 2.7

My split sleep study had me at 127 events before the mask (40 apneas 87 other? I guess drops in O2) or 109 events per hour.

[Pugsy]

Congrats on getting past the "first night hurdle"
It will get easier and better.

[palerider]

3.When I took the mask off for a potty break(I need to check that Subway's health score before I eat there again lol) I noticed a sweet, almost cologne smell.. weird

first, congrats on noticing improvement the first night! and.

3) this has been discussed at some length before, and the general consensus is that you're smelling yourself, or your bedsheets/pillow.

it's a scientific fact that your nose becomes numb to continuous smells, and you just spent several hours breathing air that's coming from some distance from your nose as well as air that's been a bit more filtered than you're used to, so when you first take your mask off, you're getting different air than you've been breathing all night, and your nose goes "hey, that's new" until it gets used to it again.

could be detergent, could be your cologne, could be your shampoo, etc.

at least, that's the theory that I think has the best likelyhood of being right.

[Singer34]

good for you!

Last night was actually my first night too believe it or not. Its funny what you said about cologne I definitely noticed the baby shampoo they told me to wash the mask off with when I took the mask off this morning.

the other thing is, I have a face mask, AirFit™ F10, and I was a little thrown by the venting, thats alot of air, as were my cats lol, but it went quite well for me too.

good sleeping.

[Sheriff Buford]

This is great news! The fact that you are dreaming indicates that you are getting deep - restorative sleep. It was probably the type of sleep the apnea was preventing you from getting. You may want to wear the mask at night while watching tv, reading, listening to music, blockin' out the wife... etc...This will help you get used to wearing the mask. Before long, it will become second nature.

Sheriff

[Nick Danger]

Nice job, both of you guys! Keep it up.

[palerider]

the other thing is, I have a face mask, AirFit™ F10, and I was a little thrown by the venting, thats alot of air, as were my cats lol, but it went quite well for me too.

interestingly, most masks vent around the same amount of air, but they do it in different ways.

most vent 18-22liters/minute at 4cm pressure up to around 45-55lpm at 20cm. each mask has a chart or graph in the back showing what it's expected vent rate at a particular pressure is.

some of the newer masks have diffusers that can either attach, or are built in to convert that focused stream of air into something gentler and less cat ruffling

[ChrisD]

Congrats on your first nights success! Glad you were able to see the improvement so quickly.

Good luck on your treatment and I hope it all goes well.

Chris