Can't get used to the jet-pilot look alike situation

Hi everybody, I'm Nick the Greek and 1 week now I'm trying to become a hose head and get used to the reverse vacum cleaner machine
When I was a kid I dreamed off being a jet fighter pilot, that is not what I had in mind when they brought me last week the Vpap machine with the nose active gel bla bla nose mask.
First night I slept great and next day felt like a million dollars
From day 2 and onwards I have changed my sleep apnea syndrome to insomnia (I can't get no sleep)
The "reverse vacum cleaner" does not let me sleep. However I did settings like wait for 30 minutes low and then charge or start charging with no delay the result is the same.
For some reason I can not fall asleep. When I take it off I sleep like a baby.
A week now I can't get to work as I go to bed 5 am in the morning (abit difficult to get up at 7am and drive to work)
Any tips to accelerate the "getting used to" phase?
PS: I've accepted the situation mentally and I'm motivated to use it. But I still can't get used to it

Hi,

I like your positive attitude about it all. I've only been on this thing one week myself. Hopefully others will respond to your post. If not, be sure to also post in the first section, CPAP and Sleep Apnea, as most people check out that part most of the time.

I've heard of cpap, bipap and autopap....what is yours? Do you have the nose-only mask? Are you able to breath with your mouth closed ok? Does your machine have a ramp feature, which starts the pressure off low and works up to the required pressure? And do you have a heated humidifier?

I have the bipap, and my prescribed pressure is high, 18. I end up using the ramp alot, especially if I wake up in the night. At that time the pressure is full force and I find it hard without the ramp. Other people find different masks more helpful, but I haven't that experience yet. Good luck to you. I suspect you'll adjust fine.

Linda

Welcome to the forum Nick,

Because you refered to your machine as a VPAP I assume you are using a ResMed bipap machine. I also assume because you're starting out on a bipap your pressure setting is rather high. Maybe you can get your doctor to adjust your pressure to a lower setting so you have an easier time getting used to the "reverse vacuum." A lower pressure to start is better than no cpap at all. You might also ask to try a different mask or a nasal pillow interface like the ResMed Swift. These are much less intrusive and may seem more like normal to you. There are also some sleep medications your doctor can prescribe if none of the other things help.

Did you have the daytime sleepiness symptoms of apnea before you started on your machine?

Thanks everybody for you replies
Good news everybody I started falling asleep finally

To Linda:
Yes I have a bipap machine that the company I'm using calls it vpap
And yes it is with a nose mask and a heated humidifier and ramp feature.
I tried starting with low pressure at 4 for 30 min but then when it was going to 10 it was waking me up. It even managed to open my mouth.
I noticed that when I start at full blast, by the time I'm almost asleep it tends to lower which is good. Actually my wife was monitoring that when it starts to relax as I said it goes to 8.9 which is between 8-12 that I've been told it is the average. Are you adjusting well yourself?

to wading thru the muck!
Thanks for the welcoming, your forum is really good and helpfull.
I'll start with your question:
Daytime sleepy? That is a polite mild understatement of what I've been through.
I've been yawning all day sometimes 3-4 times per minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There were times that my collegues would complain to me as I would kick them off yawning as well. This yawning was one of my alerts that there could be something wrong. That it is not normal to yawn that much and almost falling asleep during driving back home!!! Once I actually stoped parked the car and had a sleep for an hour at a parking lot.
Sometimes in the mornings I was feeling like I've never slept - sleeepy with a headache and that would last the whole day.
Gaining weight as well, blood pressure affected.
I was a living example of what the medical journals describe as symptoms.
That is why when once I was browsing thru journals I came across all these symptoms I asked my wife to keep an eye on whether I stop breathing.

I do have plans to check out the latest nasal pillow as you suggested

I'm positive about it though. I prefer to sleep with the octapus now rather than going to bypass operations in 20 years and then developing dementia 10 years later. Just lost my father from the above and yes he used to stop breathing at nights. I wish I knew back then.
I try to look things positive, after all sleeping with the loving octapus is nothing like cancer (lost my mum from it).

To everybody who feels miserable about it all I can say is what Woody Allen says:
Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.
Horible are all terminally ill situations etc. Miserable are all the rest.
So when you wake up in the morning feeling miserable you should be thangfull you don't feel horrible

Up the hose heads - We sleep better and we can proove it

Hi Nick,

Glad to hear you are finally getting some sleep. Sounds like you did some fantastic detective work on discovering your sleep apnea. With your positive attitude I'm sure you learn to live with your machine. You're right about the fact that things could be much worse for us hoseheads.

Hi wading thru the muck!
Last night I even slept more hours plugged in to my vpap.
I noticed that when I completely relax just before falling asleep the pressure
drops to 7.5 and at that moment the octapus is not pressuring me at all and stops making advances towards me.
There is some sort of pressure balance created with my neck and as a result I breath normally without noticing the octapus.
It is not nice to hear one day that we have to do that but we have to be positive about it.
As you know there are lots of very bad things that can happen if we do not take care of it. Preventive medicine is what matters.
I'm very happy using a mask if that minimises some possibilities of me dying in a car accident or even worst being paralysed on a bed for the rest of my life. Not to mention all the rest implications .

OK we use a mask. So? Pilots do it, scuba divers do it, astronauts do it, music stars do it after concerts.

Up the hoseheads

Hi Nick
I send you a private post from Greece .did you receive it