After you leave your second sleep study

I have used cpap since 1996. When I was diagnosed and provided a cpap and mask, my medical equipment provider came to my house took 10 minutes on how to use the mask and cpap and left. That was it I was on my own. I felt it was terrible and unprofessional. I don't know how it is now but I hope the initial experiece is better.

It took me several months and numerous masks to get used to it. I thought that I would never get used to it and did not know what to do. I ended up with nose pillows and a humidifier. In my opinion, a humidifer should be part of everyones cpap treatment.

The key to using cpap is to find the right mask that will let you sleep without and leaks or discomfort. This was never told to me by my physician. I had to find out through trail and error.

That's my experience.

for the worse I had to go to my DME providers location (Apria) and had 5 min instructions by tech. He handed me the mask Comfort Classic and Remstar cpap, his businees card and told me to call if I have any more questions. Tech never said anything about nasal pillows or any other possible equipment, and only when I discovered this forum couple of nights into using cpap I started to learn what this is all about. I called provider after first night, had some serious questions and had not have returned call for about a week. Talking about lousy service. I was also told humidifier is optional and received one via mail only after I insisted I have to have one due to nose bleeds.
Like this was not bad enough, before my second night study MD came into my room and handed me ResMed Mirage Activa mask, for that nights study. No measurment was done. The mask was a gift from Sleep Clinic and all I had to do is participate in study program for the next 4 weeks. I have no idea how they came up with my results from that night because mask was obviously too big for me, I had to fight it all night from slipping over my upper lip and continuosly adjust side leaks, and in the process I had 3 apnea events. Later at DME company tech laughed about this and said imediatelly that mask is too big for me but what they have will be better for me. I have no idea how he arrived to that conclusion with just one type of mask and simple measurment with plastic card with nose opening inside.
Ahh, what we all have to go through for a little quality rest at night. Things are better now, I have this imformative forum, I'm checking web sights dedicated to sleep apnea problems but still can't overcome one DME company's dedication to treat me like "one size fits all".

Hi Lana,

It sounds like you had a "Drive By" cpap setup done for you. I guess I was lucky. My first study was a split night, where i wore the mask after the first two hours and the tech dialed in the pressure.

Four hours after I woke up, I got a call on my cell from a local DME who made an apointment to come to my house that afternoon. He spent two hours with me. I was impressed. My first DME experience was what made me think of giong to sleep as a career.

I hope service gets better as far as labs and dme's are concerned. It is about enough to be told you have a serious condition and then be left out of the equation, when it comes to patient education.

Regards,

Titrator