New CPAP user, having difficulty adjusting, need help

Hi,

I'm writing for a friend of mine, who is having a very hard time getting started on CPAP.

Equipment: Resmed Airsense 10 autoset with humidifier, heated hose, and resmed Airfit P10 mask. Resmed chin strap. Range 8-13 cm, exp pressure relief set to max.

Difficulties:

I tend to pull off the mask within an hour of falling asleep. I don't like having stuff on my face. I'm mostly not aware I've pulled it off, so minimal cpap treatment so far. I have light facial hair. (#2 buzz length on trimmer). I tried cpap in 2010 and had similar results. Have had some jaw surgeries which helped but did not relieve all sleep apnea.

I'm exhausted all the time, so would appreciate any ideas/tips/etc.

Your friend needs to become "one" with the mask.

One way to do this is to wear the mask (not hooked up to the machine) all evening and all day on weekends. After around 100 hours of having the mask on, you hardly notice it is there.

I would also suggest you take inventory of your sleep hygiene and how you approach sleep. If you drink 10 cups of coffee and play a heart throbbing video game just before you go to sleep, you may not enter into restful and restorative sleep. I believe ChicagoGranny has a list of sleep hygiene items to take a look at. Drop her a line and see if she will share it with you, or do a search.

Most likely the removing of the mask will stop after your brain has had time to accept the new sensations as your new normal. One exception to that would be if mask leaks or air coming out of your mouth gives you a sense of something being wrong so you take off the mask. Do you feel like you get a good seal with your mask? Another would be if your settings are not optimal and you are having apneas that cause you to feel like you can't breathe and you instinctually pull off the mask. Your machine data can tell you if you are having leaks or if your settings need tweaked to give you more effective therapy. With a nasal pillows mask I wouldn't expect a bit of facial hair to matter. Until your sleeping brain accepts the mask, a piece of tape or bandaid style strip across the headgear onto your skin may make removal uncomfortable enough to wake you so you can stop the unwanted behavior.

Friend of remstarcpap here, Thanks for the replies.

To Hosecrusher:

I don't consume a lot of caffeine before bed. My sleep hygiene is not ideal but given my exhaustion from the apnea I have no trouble falling asleep with the mask on. For example last night I fell asleep with it rapidly, but had removed it half an hour later. I had tried using the machine in the am after waking up but not wearing the mask only during the day. Do you have any tips on how to keep the hose out of the way? Can I breathe through my mouth while wearing it?

To kteague:

I have occasionally noticed small leaks with the mask, but nothing bad enough that I couldn't adjust the mask in a second while awake. In my view of my data, the pressure is sufficient for clearing out my apneas so far. Where would you recommend the taping, near the nasal pillows or farther up?

Thanks again

alexapnea wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:10 pm

Friend of remstarcpap here, Thanks for the replies.

To Hosecrusher:

I don't consume a lot of caffeine before bed. My sleep hygiene is not ideal but given my exhaustion from the apnea I have no trouble falling asleep with the mask on. For example last night I fell asleep with it rapidly, but had removed it half an hour later. I had tried using the machine in the am after waking up but not wearing the mask only during the day. Do you have any tips on how to keep the hose out of the way? Can I breathe through my mouth while wearing it?

To kteague:

I have occasionally noticed small leaks with the mask, but nothing bad enough that I couldn't adjust the mask in a second while awake. In my view of my data, the pressure is sufficient for clearing out my apneas so far. Where would you recommend the taping, near the nasal pillows or farther up?

Thanks again

hello, alex and welcome aboard. as to keeping the hose out of the way, google "cpap hose stand" and you'll get HoseBuddy among others.

i'm too cheap to spend money on a stand, so i use string and tie my hose up to the shelving unit at the head of my bed. works for me.

good luck!

Ideally you should breathe through your nose and keep your mouth shut... However, when first starting off it may be beneficial to focus on just getting use to having the mask on your face and not to worry if you are breathing through your mouth or your nose.

Once you get use to having something on your face, the next step is to focus on breathing through your nose.

Ditch the chin strap. It pushes in your lower jaw making obstruction worse. One less thing on your face at night will make it easier. If you are a mouth-breather, then you need a full face mask. I've tried all of them. The one that works for me is the ResMed Fit F10 full face mask. Very light and covers much less of your face. You need to ask others about how FF mask and facial hair work.

CPAPforever wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 20, 2018 10:39 am

Ditch the chin strap. It pushes in your lower jaw making obstruction worse. One less thing on your face at night will make it easier. If you are a mouth-breather, then you need a full face mask. I've tried all of them. The one that works for me is the ResMed Fit F10 full face mask. Very light and covers much less of your face. You need to ask others about how FF mask and facial hair work.

When i originally started CPAP in 2010 I used such FF mask, with forehead stabilizer. But looking at the F10 it seems a bit slimmer. I need to figure out with DME when I can get a new mask...