Newbie

Recent sleep study done with oral appliance in place came up with many disturbances and arousals but not enough
For apnea diagnosis. sleep study many years ago showed mild obstructive apnea. E N T said I wouldn't tolerate
Cpap.
Took delivery of equipment 10 days ago. When am I suppose to jump out of bed ready to party, hasn't happened yet.
Leaks on mask and getting use to things I guess. Called Dr twice his week and have not heard back. Have questions.
This morning I felt pretty good it not great.
How long should I wait. Should I get another Dr. Who returns calls. Not sure how they came up with pressure setting as I slept very little on studies
Or should I just throw machine out the window.
In all fairness snoring issue has been corrected
Thanks in advance
Larry C

Wow, you're impatient!

This is something that can take a while to sort out... many components to deal with (not hard though), and unless you really don't care about living a better life, let alone living a longer one that you would without Cpap, don't talk about throwing it out.

I would not necessarily count on your doctor for 'maintenance' issues... they're great on the science when they've been educated (and too many just haven't been), but not so hot when it comes to equipment, how to use it, what to expect, how to track progress, which masks will work better for you and why some won't, etc. etc.

What oral appliance was in place during the sleep study? Seems to me that it would be counterproductive to getting a good picture of your real condition and future needs to have worn it, though not knowing for sure what it was, it's hard to say. And where did you find that ENT who said flat out(?) that you wouldn't tolerate Cpap? He should be disbarred, or whatever they do to doctors. Outrageous!

This forum has some very knowledgable, well educated and experienced users here who've dealt with every issue you can imagine, and if you can e.g. tell us what pressures your machine's set at, that would be a good start to figuring out what's what, as would a little more info such as how many hours you sleep, what your pre-sleep habits are (e.g. do you drink lots of coffee, or alcohol?), do you exercise right before sleeping? Have you been diagnosed with acid reflux (GERD), or anything else recently? Are you taking meds of some kind - it's amazing what can impact the process here... so get back with a bit more info and we'll try to straighten things out... but please don't expect it all to act like a one time injection and all your troubles will be over in a flash... you took some time to get where you are, and it may take a while to get back. Oh, do you sleep on your back (the worst position for provoking apneas) and/or know if you mouth breathe once asleep?

Larry C wrote: Took delivery of equipment 10 days ago. When am I suppose to jump out of bed ready to party, hasn't happened yet.
Leaks on mask and getting use to things I guess. Called Dr twice his week and have not heard back. Have questions.
This morning I felt pretty good it not great.
How long should I wait.

I know you don't want to hear it, but: It takes time.

Almost no one wakes up feeling ready to "jump out of bed ready to party" after only 10 days of PAPing. And unreasonable expectations that CPAP will magically make you feel fantastic after only a few days tends to make the situation worse.

Fact is: There is a lot to get used to when starting CPAP: Leaks and the feeling of the mask. Aerophagia. Dry mouth. A feeling of being tethered all night long. Trouble getting to sleep because of all this stuff on your face. Trouble staying asleep because of all this stuff on your face. And so on and so forth.

The wonder is: Most of us do learn to sleep with a mask on our face and once we're sleeping soundly with the mask all night long, every single night, most of us do start to notice real improvement in how we feel---even if we never experience a morning where we wake up feeling as though we're on top of the world and can do anything we want to.

It takes some newbies a few weeks to a month or so just to learn how to sleep comfortably with the machine. And after you start sleeping well with the mask, it often takes a few more weeks to another month or so before you start to feel better.

In other words, only a very few people start feeling fantastic almost immediately after starting PAP. Most people start to notice a few (subtle) signs that things are getting better in a few weeks to a couple of months. Some people don't notice much of a difference in how they feel until they've been PAPing for 6-12 months. And a few unlucky people never notice much difference in how they feel during the daytime.

And so at the start, all you can do is keep using the mask and hoping you'll start to feel better sometime in the first 2 or 3 months. And keep in mind that the signs that you're feeling better can be subtle: For some people the first sign that PAP is doing something positive is fewer trips to the bathroom at night. For me it was the fact that I started to wake up without hand and foot pain about 4 1/2 months after I started PAPing.

Should I get another Dr. Who returns calls. Not sure how they came up with pressure setting as I slept very little on studies

You need to get copies of the sleep study results for both studies. The full report with summary graphs will run about 3-7 pages and in order to understand your condition, you need the full report.

Or should I just throw machine out the window.
In all fairness snoring issue has been corrected

If the snoring has been corrected, then PAPing is already doing you some good. Keep at it and be patient. It takes time.

Thanks for your reply. My impatience come from many years of poor diagnosis and frustration.
I'll get all my facts together and keep posting. Wish me luck