2nd night on CPAP - not so bad

So the second night was better. I found some tips on adjusting the F&P FF mask.

The DME had set me up with the wrong size rubber seal part and had even shown me incorrectly how it was supposed to fit.

I actually loosened the straps up quite a bit and adjusted it lower on my face, and all is well now. No leaks. I fell asleep in 15 minutes and slept for 6.5 hours. I usually have to get up a time or two to pee... not last night.

While I don't feel like Superman, I feel like I can at least do math in my head again this morning. Also, It must be super-dry in the house. I filled the humidifier up to the full mark, and it was empty this morning except for a few drops... set on "2"

My wife says I didn't thrash my legs around last night.

Maybe tonight will be even better.

JQP

Congrats on your good night. It should get better and better now. Don't let yourself be stressed by occasional bad nights. We all get them from time to time. You'll find that you get more and more good nights and less of the not so good nights.

Brenda

I usually have to get up a time or two to pee... not last night.

New to CPAP? Second night on it? Welcome... you have hundreds of knowledgeable people here to help you, friend.

I've been on CPAP over a year now. I use an F&P HC431 FF mask, and love it.

Yes, don't over-tighten the straps, it's counterproductive. When they're too tight, the mask can irritate your nose-bridge and other places (cheeks, etc.) and your chin can be pulled backward, which can make your tongue press back too far into your airway and block it (hello higher apnea count!). If the straps are too loose, however, you'll get leaks that wake you up (bad) and decrease treatment effectiveness (also bad). Find the happy medium of strap tightness, the "sweet spot". Neither extreme, very tight or very loose, is good.

Now for some even better news, that as a newbie, you may not know. If you're doing well on your SECOND NIGHT EVER, you're in for a treat. Your CPAP-using will VERY soon become a near-zero hassle thing. People get very, very used to it, given some time. I sometimes wake up and can't even tell if I'm wearing it at all! I have to reach up and touch it to make sure. THAT is how adapted you'll likely become! It ends up being a total breeze, once you're used to it, and once you work out the kinks (eliminate rainout with a fleece hose cover, find correct strap tightnesses, find optimal routing method for the hose, etc.). That's the hard part... the initial adjustments and "zeroing in" on the right way to set it up.

Once the optimal setup is achieved, and you get used to it, eventually it's like brushing your teeth... that is, just one more boring, routine, easy thing to do before you sleep.

It's very common to be very upset and/or freaked out and/or hate the mask the first couple of nights, and to think "I'll NEVER be able to sleep with this thing for the rest of my life, I'd rather die!", but in just a week or two, maybe a month with some people, you'll be amazed at how easy and effortless the whole affair becomes.

So take heart! Stick with it... provided you do the trial-and-error "grunt work" up front to arrive at the best setup for your needs, your body will acclimate to the gear, and then you'll see exactly what I mean!

Lastly, come here with any/all problems and questions. We're here to help!

Good luck!

Last post is mine. Ack!, I quoted the peeing statement, but forgot to address it! My bad. So here goes.

Getting up to pee at night, often several times, is one of the indicators of sleep apnea, actually. Of course, it's also an indicator of other conditions, so a doctor ought to have a look at you. But, I too used to get up several times a night to pee, but since I've got on CPAP over a year ago, it dropped to ZERO, from day one. I've never got up to pee in the last year, not even once. So that problem will go away, for you, unless you have other problems that can cause it (enlarged prostate, etc.).

The medical explanation for why untreated sleep apnea causes nighttime "pee breaks" is complex, but suffice it to say that it does cause them. And now you'll likely get to enjoy a lack of such "pit stops" and the disruption to your sleep architecture that they cause.

If you want the medical details, do a search. It's been discussed here thoroughly. Basically the apneas decrease O2 in the blood, so the heart beats faster to move more blood to the tissues, hence more O2 also. The faster, stronger beating raises blood pressure. Brain sees high blood pressure, and it knows the USUAL cause is too much fluid in the bloodstream, so it takes action to remedy this by releasing hormones that cause the kidneys to extract fluid and make you have to urinate. Extra fluid in the bloodstream is NOT the cause of the high blood pressure in this case, but that's the brain's standard response. CPAP prevents the initial cause (low blood O2 sats), which prevents everything else "downstream".

Hope that helps!

Thanks!

Yes, second night ever, besides the sleep study.
I didn't do well the first night because of all the leaks, but the whole mask on my face thing doesn't really bother me at all. I can see how some people could be freaked out by it though. I tried the nose only mask, but the second I fell asleep, my cheeks would start flapping with all the air coming out (13cm). After 4 or 5 times of that on my sleep study, I said forget it.

I'm hoping this therapy will be helpful to my BP. I'm only 36 but my BP really shot up within the last year. Doc put me on meds, which have some crummy side effects... I hope I can lose those.

I do wish I had a little better machine to work with. I figured I'd try it out for a week and then try to sweet talk my doc into writing me an Rx for something nicer with data.

JQP

If you don't mind the mask on your face, you're way head of the game already! Great!

Your BP will almost certainly come down once you're on CPAP for awhile. It may well come down to normal. I've been able to slash my dose of BP medicine in half since going on CPAP, and once I stop being a lazy bum and start exercising more and eating less, I fully expect to be able to DITCH the stuff entirely.

Yeah, get a good machine. Mine's a Remstar Pro M-Series. It's a CPAP, not an APAP, but CPAP works great for me. And it has full data, exactly like an APAP. Plus nice features like C-Flex and a great integrated humidifier, and it's small and quiet too.

Cheeks flapping from air coming out of your mouth? Well, many folks on here would suggest putting a big rubber band around your head to hold your mouth shut, or maybe the lovely "hostage tape" over your lips. Me, I think that's ridiculous, and a FF mask is the clear answer. I love mine... especially when I'm congested. Open mouth, take huge breaths if I want to. Great stuff.

Flapping cheeks are no fun.

The FF mask works great for that, although sometimes when i open my mouth, I feel like one of those people jumping out of an airplane with my mouth open... you know, the wind blowing up your cheeks like a chipmonk?

Oh well, par for the course.

Hmmm. I never got the "inflated cheeks" thing with a FF mask. Maybe my pressure's not as high as yours, or maybe my cheeks are stronger, or something. Who knows. But, it might go away with time, as you acclimate to the pressure. Maybe I got it way back, and can't remember it because it's gone now. Not sure.

Oh, one more thing... if your mask's "forehead spike" (as it's sometimes affectionately called) leaves a red rectangle on your forehead or otherwise irritates it, take about 3 feet of toilet paper and fold it up repeatedly until you have a roughly 2-inch-square pad. Center it under the forehead spike's (rather lame) silicone cushion pad. It breaks up the sharply-delineated rectangular border between pressure and no-pressure, which also breaks up the red rectangle irritation mark on your forehead. It can also help with nose-bridge irriration, since it moves the mask slightly away from your nose bridge by a few millimeters (don't worry, the silicone seal expands to compensate).

Hope you have an even better night tonight!

[quote="jqp"]So the second night was better. I found some tips on adjusting the F&P FF mask.

The DME had set me up with the wrong size rubber seal part and had even shown me incorrectly how it was supposed to fit.

I actually loosened the straps up quite a bit and adjusted it lower on my face, and all is well now. No leaks. I fell asleep in 15 minutes and slept for 6.5 hours. I usually have to get up a time or two to pee... not last night.

While I don't feel like Superman, I feel like I can at least do math in my head again this morning. Also, It must be super-dry in the house. I filled the humidifier up to the full mark, and it was empty this morning except for a few drops... set on "2"

My wife says I didn't thrash my legs around last night.

Maybe tonight will be even better.

JQP