CPAP Newbie. Feeling overwhelmed and frustrated

One of the things that you might find very helpful is to somehow come up with a CPAP "Buddy". Someone you can actually talk to in an effort to help unravel some of the basics. I find that conversation greatly speeds up understanding more than written communication and is often more clear and timely than emails. Also, when responding to a message, it is often necessary to qualify one's answer in extra details which may not be helpful to the reader,

Having said that, it's not always actually easy to do, especially for women. Too many screwballs out there.

Maybe you can get a feel for one or more members here by reading past posts and contact them via a Private Message (PM). I know it took me awhile to get my arms around this subject primarily because we weren't always talking about the same thing. Plus, while I have several friends who have CPAP machines they have either slapped them on and never asked a question, or have tossed them into the closet and forgotten about them. Not much help there.

It can sometimes be difficult to find someone with the same interest level as you. You might have to reveal your general location in order to perhaps better connect with someone.

Good luck,

Phil
Sacramento, CA

yaconsult wrote:The results you posted look pretty good. I am surprised that they set your machine to cpap mode though. Our pressure needs change often due to things like sleep stage and sleep position. You might want to try auto mode with a minimum pressure of 8 at some point and see if the machine thinks you need more pressure at different times. If it doesn't detect any breathing problems then it won't increase the pressure.

The experienced people here can advise you on pressure changes if and when you decide you are ready. You're doing great so far - congratulations!

Thank you, yaconsult! I know the respiratory therapist has a special password or PIN to modify the provider settings...but it sounds like there should be a way to get into them myself, right?

pdeli wrote:It can sometimes be difficult to find someone with the same interest level as you. You might have to reveal your general location in order to perhaps better connect with someone.

I'm in Middle Tennessee! Will edit my profile accordingly.

threeforward_twoback wrote:Thank you, yaconsult! I know the respiratory therapist has a special password or PIN to modify the provider settings...but it sounds like there should be a way to get into them myself, right?

there's no pin, there's no password. go to apneaboard.com, click on the link at the top about setting your own machine, request the clinical manual via email, it tells you not only how to get into the hidden menu, but what all the settings mean.

As palerider said, there's no password or anything - you just need to know which buttons to push. It's a great machine for detecting breathing issues and changing the pressure as necessary to compensate.

Wulfman recently posted a link to download the clinical manual - you can find his post with the link to download here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=111627&p=1071864&hi ... l#p1071864

Realize that there is an adjustment period when changing settings and that we don't sleep the same every night so don't get caught up in changing the settings all time. This is where the valuable advice from the knowledgeable people here is priceless.