3 weeks on the hose

Well, I've been "on the hose" for 3 weeks as of last night and wanted to let you all know how things are going.

I started with a pressure of 7 but upped it to 8 when I woke myself up snoring. So far, this seems to be doing okay. I've not bought the software for this machine as it's a loaner and not the final one I want. I have a follow up at the clinic on 11/9 and will go over data with them then. I do use the ramp and it was initially set for 5 but I upped it to 6 for 15 minutes because I have a tendency toward hyperventilation otherwise. The heated humidifier was set to 3 but I turned it down to 2 when I had too much condensation. This seems to be good for me at the moment.

I had a mediocre first night, a pretty good second night, then I struggled for a bit. I woke time and time again, re-adjusting my mask. I still felt tired and had begun to wonder if this was working or not. Why wasn't I getting better?

Then I had to get off caffeine. For a software engineer/technical writer, this was dire. It took me about 4 days to get myself off the caffeine and I felt even more tired. Last week I had a really bad night where I could not get my mask to seal, I was tired and brain dead. Finally I gave up and went without the cpap for the night. That was a real eye-opener!

The next day I was completely wiped out. I was not longer "tired" but "exhausted' and could barely function during the day. The cpap had been making more of a difference than I thought. I went back to it the next night (and figured out the mask issue was user error) and have been trying to go to bed earlier and start repaying my probable years of sleep debt.

The cpap has become almost pavlovian for me now. I used to read in bed and it could take hours to feel sleepy enough to put the book down. Now I put the mask on as soon as I get into bed and read maybe 5 minutes before I put the book down and go right to sleep.

And I seem to have gotten both the adjustments and the sleep habits better set so I don't break the mask seal as often when turning over. I have noticed a bit of an ache between my shoulders in the am, probably from sleeping in one position for longer than I'm used to.

- Maura

You're doing great so far! You have the right attitude. Keep up the good work!

Brenda