Titration Study Tomorrow Night

Any tips? Or just relax, follow instructions, and try to get some sleep?

It's really going to be about the same as your PSG. Just relax and everything will be ok. I know it's hard to sleep with all those wires etc. attached but it is doable. the best advice just relax. If you have a favorite pillow or something bring it. anything to help you get comfortable. Good luck

karessamom wrote:It's really going to be about the same as your PSG. Just relax and everything will be ok. I know it's hard to sleep with all those wires etc. attached but it is doable. the best advice just relax. If you have a favorite pillow or something bring it. anything to help you get comfortable. Good luck

I thought having the cpap on for the first time would be more troublesome than the wires.

And definitely yes on the pillow. The worst thing about my PSG was their moronic pillows.

My 2nd sleep study was less than two weeks ago. Like you I thought that I would never sleep. My sleep lab gave me some Lunesta to help put me to sleep. The only issue that I had with the 2nd visit was with the mask leaking initially. The techs detected that and came in a couple of times during the first hour to readjust and finally to change my mask out. I though I would not sleep as they wanted me to lay on my back as long as possible. Being a side sleeper this was the hardest part. In the morning, at about 5.30am they woke me up. I asked the tech that I felt like I never slept and he said that I had. It is really no worse than the 1st trip except for the CPAP noise. They were using a bigger type of CPAP machine which is not as quiet as the newer models like the one that I had. I would recommend taking some earplugs as that can help.

Best of luck.

Even after being an experienced cpap user I was retitrated when I was still having sleep and daytime symptoms. I thought it would be a great time to try out a different mask - WRONG! I wish I'd had the presence of mind to tell them this mask simply was not going to work out instead of fighting it the entire night. If the mask ( not the feel of the air) is leaking like a seive or making you utterly miserable, ask them to address it rather than waste the night like I did. Yep, they saw that I hardly slept the whole night, but they didn't get to see the real reasons as the mask issues dominated. If I had trouble addressing that even not as a newbie, I know it can be hard for a first-timer to know if the issues are just a part of that experience. But you might get lucky and fall asleep like a log till morning. Did that my first split titration. Try to look at it as your first opportunity to achieve some safe and sustained sleep once the get you up to an effective pressure. Could be a few very good hours in store for you.

Keep in mind that the first time you feel the pressure of the air thru the mask it may feel very strong but you habituate very quickly to that. By morning that same pressure will feel like much less. Now I sometimes need to stick my hand up to the exhaust vents to make sure that the CPAP is still blowing air at all. I will admit I never got that comfortable during the titration itself but the first blast of air was definitely the worst. I found that focusing on the feel of the air made adjusting easier but you might prefer trying to ignore it.

As others have said, if the mask is leaking that's a different story. You don't get used to that at all and it will only get worse as the pressure gets raised during the titration. Or it might start leaking later in the night as the pressure goes up. If air is leaking out from around the seal into your eyes or onto your face have the tech adjust the mask. Don't try to tough that out. Either the mask isn't adjusted right or it's the wrong mask. It took several tries with different sized masks to get the leaking stopped during my titration. Don't try to live with leaks!

You can't hurt the mask by tossing and turning. The hose should swivel so if it's in the way just move it. You can't hurt the hose either.

All masks have vent holes to help wash out the air you exhale. This is not a leak. If the air stream is blowing somewhere that bothers you should be able to either change it's direction or change position. I've sometimes bounced it off my forearm and back into my face. I still get careless every now and then and offend my cat by blowing air in her face.

The pressure may keep you from talking even if the mask only covers your nose. I can talk now but I couldn't do it when I first wore the mask. So much for the techs instruction to "call out if you need anything". Ask the tech how you get their attention if you need them. (In a pinch disconnecting the oxygen sensor works pretty well for that.)

I wish I'd asked the tech how to take the mask off. Figuring it out for myself in the middle of the night when I was half asleep wasn't fun. It's not really that hard by the way - you can always just yank the mask off.

If you try more than one mask ask for the name and model number of all of them including any that don't work and write it down. You might want to know that later.

Most important of all warm socks and pillows!

MidnightOwl wrote:Keep in mind that the first time you feel the pressure of the air thru the mask it may feel very strong but you habituate very quickly to that. By morning that same pressure will feel like much less. Now I sometimes need to stick my hand up to the exhaust vents to make sure that the CPAP is still blowing air at all. I will admit I never got that comfortable during the titration itself but the first blast of air was definitely the worst. I found that focusing on the feel of the air made adjusting easier but you might prefer trying to ignore it.

As others have said, if the mask is leaking that's a different story. You don't get used to that at all and it will only get worse as the pressure gets raised during the titration. Or it might start leaking later in the night as the pressure goes up. If air is leaking out from around the seal into your eyes or onto your face have the tech adjust the mask. Don't try to tough that out. Either the mask isn't adjusted right or it's the wrong mask. It took several tries with different sized masks to get the leaking stopped during my titration. Don't try to live with leaks!

You can't hurt the mask by tossing and turning. The hose should swivel so if it's in the way just move it. You can't hurt the hose either.

All masks have vent holes to help wash out the air you exhale. This is not a leak. If the air stream is blowing somewhere that bothers you should be able to either change it's direction or change position. I've sometimes bounced it off my forearm and back into my face. I still get careless every now and then and offend my cat by blowing air in her face.

The pressure may keep you from talking even if the mask only covers your nose. I can talk now but I couldn't do it when I first wore the mask. So much for the techs instruction to "call out if you need anything". Ask the tech how you get their attention if you need them. (In a pinch disconnecting the oxygen sensor works pretty well for that.)

I wish I'd asked the tech how to take the mask off. Figuring it out for myself in the middle of the night when I was half asleep wasn't fun. It's not really that hard by the way - you can always just yank the mask off.

If you try more than one mask ask for the name and model number of all of them including any that don't work and write it down. You might want to know that later.

Most important of all warm socks and pillows!

Thanks very much for the advice. I just got back from the neurologist, who gave me the results of my sleep study night from a couple of weeks ago (so far I only knew I would have to come back for the titration, but no details). AHI of 74, about 2/3 apneas, 1/3 hypopneas, just a few centrals. No positional component. Oxy desats down to 74%, with 30% of the time below 90%. No troubling cardiac events. Garden variety OSA.

As you "suit-up", be sure that your feet stay warm. Don't let your bare feet get cold while they're attaching the wires.

Once the wires are in place, see if there is some way that they can be "bundled".....and either taped to the mask hose...or suspended from overhead. You don't want to try and sleep in a nest of wires.

Finally, watch out for a possible vinyl mattress cover. Vinyl mattress covers make some of us hot or "clammy".

Do everything you can to get the temperature and bed covers just like you have a home.

Good luck......

Gerald

Hey Gerald, last study I had the wires were bundled in what looked like a hose cover. It was either zippered or velcroed, can't remember for sure. But it was loads better than a bunch of tangly wires tugging and wiggling all night. I think that should become standard procedure.

I had forgotten about the uncomfortable mattress cover but it contributed to a miserable night. If I do it again I think I'll take a comforter to put between the cover and the bottom sheet.

Covering the wires sounds like a good idea. I'd think it would help them stay on better too and make life easier for the techs. I think mine were bundled but not covered and that worked pretty well. The setup for my first test was fine but when I went for the titration a different tech had the wires hooked up with too little free play making it hard to turn over. And that made it harder to sleep.

Kteague......You'd think they'd come up with a better way to handle the wires.....but, I suspect that none of the people at the sleep centers ever go through their own titration program. You were fortunate....but most of us had to fight wires....tangled wires....wires that were too short.....wires that our sub-conscious was afraid we'd pull off.

Midnight.....The last sleep test I had, I made them take off the vinyl mattress cover.....and I still spent a miserable night....because the soft mattress they provided had "tempur-style" foam....and that roasted me alive....on the mattrress side. My other side froze....because they couldn't regulate the room temperature correctly. My feet froze because there was no carpeting on the floor when I was getting "wired up"....and my bare feet lost most of their warmth before I got into bed.

Most of the night I just lay there in misery.....one side baking....one side freezing.....feet like ice....and wires in a tangle that wouldn't allow me to turn.

I told them the next morning...that what they billed as being a "5-star accomodation"....was actually far worse than a "Motel 2-3/4". I slept better on a straw mattress in a youth hostel than I did at their crummy sleep center.

I won't go back. I wouldn't send my dog there....I'd titrate him myself.

Gerald

I called the sleep center where I had my titration and asked to come up and try on masks to find one which would work for me.

The mask specialist was very helpful, and said he wished more people would do this -- he spent several hours trying on different masks with me.

It made my first night with a mask much easier.

OK, it's over. That wasn't bad at all. Comfortable bed, comfortable nasal mask (Respironics gel something), quiet machine (Resmed VPAP). Down at 10, woken up at 6, probably slept a good 7 hours of that time. The technician was atrociously lazy. He took all of 2 minutes to slap the mask on me and pronounce himself satisfied. But it was comfortable. He made it clear that the only reason for the entire night was to allow him to come up with a pressure number by morning. Not for me to learn anything about what kind of masks might suit me, or anything like that. This was a hospital setting sleep center, and that may have a bearing on things.

I could tell there were leaks, but I tried to find head positions to minimize them. Ocasionally, my cheeks would puff out with air. So I either need a chin strap or a full mask I guess. I woke up at 4:30 for about 10 minutes and was almost unbearably happy. Because I knew that I was going to be able to do this. Do CPAP.

Hi,

Glad to hear that things went well.

My first 2 sleep studies didn't work out--they couldn't find a treatment that worked. Things came together on the 3rd try. After what seemed like an hour and a half, they came and woke me up. I was really disoriented. I thought that the test had gone badly, and I was being sent home as a failure. Then they told me it was 7:30 AM, and the study was over--I had 8 hours of good sleep. It was the first time I actually slept in about 3 years, and I was totally shocked that it was already the next morning. That was the moment when I knew that this was going to work, and there was light at the end of the tunnel.

-john-