My First Week With A CPAP Machine

I am very happy to posting this

After a full week with my ResMed 10 with heated hose I can honestly say I feel like a new person. I also have a full face mask from ResMed since I am a mouth breather.

My sleep study showed my AHI was 65. I had a take home test and the data didn't fully show 4 hours because I could not sleep on my back with the wires on so I bet my AHI was actually a little higher. Possibly even 75.

So after a full week I slept 7 straight nights with it:
Averaged around 6 hours a night, although last night I got a full 7. Which is way better than the 8 hours I used to get without the machine. I feel better even after just 2 hours of sleep with the cpap than the 8 without it.

I only have to go to the bathroom once a night although last night I didn't at all. One time is okay for me since I am used to doing it 4 times a night.

My AHI has dropped to 3. In one week it went from 5 to 3 so I feel I am getting used to things. I predict in the future it drops closer to 2. I can't believe I went down from 65 to single digits right away.

I had alot of leakage until I tighted my full face mask to a really snug fit. After doing that the leakage went way down.

I feel like a new person, no more brain fog, no more falling asleep while eating lunch and no more barely making it through the afternoon.

I definitely accepted this as a life long lifestyle change.

I posted after my first night and people were asking me for my OSCAR data......I just realized the SD card was empty so I have to purchase an SD card and upload that later.

I am still learning how to be a morning person and what to do with all my energy first thing in the morning.

Very thankful for this board.....I learned alot from other people's experiences using CPAP.

I am very optimistic for the future using this and I am very happy that I finally accepted I needed to use the machine. I used to dread putting on the mask, now every night I thank GOD for it. My family believes that I would have died in 10 years from a heart related issue if I didn't do this.

For anyone reading this who is not part of the board.....just go and do it. I struggled with it years ago but trying now I realized the struggle is worth it in the end.

Congratulations. Looks like you are going to be one of those "duck to water" people.

FWIW...I am still waiting for the "change to a morning person" but it's something I joke about. I have never ever been a morning person and why I expected cpap itself to change me into something that I never was....it's just not going to happen.
An unrealistic goal for me that I learned to accept years ago. Some people just aren't ever going to be bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing in the morning...and I am one of those.
I am happy that you got to realize that happy milestone.

It will only get better with more time and experience. Good job.

Hi BG50,

Congratulations on your immediate improvements! Like you, I took to APAP therapy like a duck to water. I was diagnosed in November 2011 from an at home overnight sleep study at 73.8 AHI with O2 desaturations as low as 74%. The change that started back in November 2011, from barely surviving 15+ years of untreated Sleep Apnea, was drastic and positively life changing. I hope your journey will follow the same path and you will look back in a year or after many years and see how amazing something as simple as sleeping with a machine, hose, and mask can be. When it is successful, it can completely transform many areas of your life through improved and restorative sleep.

Though it has been a number of years since my 1 year mark using APAP therapy, I was able to search and find an older post from that time (under my former user name of 2 B Sleeping Soundly) that you may be able to relate to, especially over time. My hope is that you will gain clarity and appreciation of where you once were and where you are now... https://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... 45#p766845

This forum and it's knowledgeable and wise members were a Godsend for me in the beginning, but continue even to this day to impact my lifelong journey as a "Hose Head". May you find the same success and blessings from its people, posts, and pages!

John

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 21, 2021 10:02 am

Congratulations. Looks like you are going to be one of those "duck to water" people.

FWIW...I am still waiting for the "change to a morning person" but it's something I joke about. I have never ever been a morning person and why I expected cpap itself to change me into something that I never was....it's just not going to happen.
An unrealistic goal for me that I learned to accept years ago. Some people just aren't ever going to be bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing in the morning...and I am one of those.
I am happy that you got to realize that happy milestone.

It will only get better with more time and experience. Good job.

Pugsy tell me something.....what is the difference between "sleep apnea events" vs. AHI vs. Central AI vs. Total AHI?

After 3 weeks of therapy my AHI is around 2 to 3 average. I will gladly take that right now since it's much lower than the 65-70 was experiencing before. I believe over the next year for me to get completely used to the machine it will drop lower. My pressure is averaging between 11 and 14 overall.

Are you able to tell me what those scores are I am seeing on the machine?

BG50 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:58 am

Pugsy tell me something.....what is the difference between "sleep apnea events" vs. AHI vs. Central AI vs. Total AHI?

After 3 weeks of therapy my AHI is around 2 to 3 average. I will gladly take that right now since it's much lower than the 65-70 was experiencing before. I believe over the next year for me to get completely used to the machine it will drop lower. My pressure is averaging between 11 and 14 overall.

Are you able to tell me what those scores are I am seeing on the machine?

The machine LCD data is the short version of what is available.
I strongly urge you to take the time to get OSCAR as it is more detailed plus there's an explanation of what all it means
OSCAR https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... stallation
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... rpretation

The bottom link is for interpretation of the data you will see.

And the sleep report data you can see is also explained in the provider manual.
Do you have that manual?
https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf

I could explain the numbers you see on the LCD screen of the machine but I need to know exactly what you are wondering about.

AHI....hourly average of all the events added together

Sleep apnea events...catch all for obstructive apneas, central apneas, hyponeas totaled together.
The pressure number you see on the LCD screen isn't an average...it's a 95% number and all that means is your pressure was at OR BELOW that number for 95% of the night. It is NOT where you spent 95% of the night and it is NOT an overall average.

For more detailed response I need a more detailed question.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:12 am

BG50 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:58 am

Pugsy tell me something.....what is the difference between "sleep apnea events" vs. AHI vs. Central AI vs. Total AHI?

After 3 weeks of therapy my AHI is around 2 to 3 average. I will gladly take that right now since it's much lower than the 65-70 was experiencing before. I believe over the next year for me to get completely used to the machine it will drop lower. My pressure is averaging between 11 and 14 overall.

Are you able to tell me what those scores are I am seeing on the machine?

The machine LCD data is the short version of what is available.
I strongly urge you to take the time to get OSCAR as it is more detailed plus there's an explanation of what all it means
OSCAR https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... stallation
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... rpretation

The bottom link is for interpretation of the data you will see.

And the sleep report data you can see is also explained in the provider manual.
Do you have that manual?
https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf

I could explain the numbers you see on the LCD screen of the machine but I need to know exactly what you are wondering about.

AHI....hourly average of all the events added together

Sleep apnea events...catch all for obstructive apneas, central apneas, hyponeas totaled together.
The pressure number you see on the LCD screen isn't an average...it's a 95% number and all that means is your pressure was at OR BELOW that number for 95% of the night. It is NOT where you spent 95% of the night and it is NOT an overall average.

For more detailed response I need a more detailed question.

Ok Pugsy....I apologize for the delay. I installed OSCAR and have used it the past few days although I have had the machine for almost 2 months now. What can you tell me about all this

Ok thats all the data. I dont know if I screenshotted everything properly or if there is a better way. Honestly I wasnt sure if what I was doing was right.

I am just up to almost two months on my Resmed 10. Its gone great and a I feel like a new person. To put into context I used to "sleep" for 8 hours before and had an AHI of 65 although I believe that number has gone higher since the slept test was a few years ago.

I appreciate all the help in advance

There is a better way and less work as well. You can get all that we really need in one screen shot...if we need anything else
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html

And on the graphs you have omitted the time from the start of the session at 00:04 until approx 03:15 on your graphs.
See the dark shaded area on the left of the events graph...you have omitted all that stuff.
You probably inadvertently zoomed in on that section from 3:15 on for some reason.
Full detailed graphs have no shaded areas.

Though I don't know how critical it might be considering your overall AHI is just a little over 1.0.
It appears that your machine is essentially setting a new minimum pressure though ...but you omitted all that in the dark shaded area.
Your statistics support an overall average of around 10 or 11 minimum and the section of the pressure graph you do show support that.

Are you okay with the starting pressure of 4 cm? Is it comfortable or rather suffocating feeling?

The other thing we always need to know is how are you sleeping and feeling? Numbers and graphs all by themselves don't mean much.
If you are sleeping good and feeling good...that's the important thing.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 04, 2022 1:00 pm

There is a better way and less work as well. You can get all that we really need in one screen shot...if we need anything else
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html

And on the graphs you have omitted the time from the start of the session at 00:04 until approx 03:15 on your graphs.
See the dark shaded area on the left of the events graph...you have omitted all that stuff.
You probably inadvertently zoomed in on that section from 3:15 on for some reason.
Full detailed graphs have no shaded areas.

Though I don't know how critical it might be considering your overall AHI is just a little over 1.0.
It appears that your machine is essentially setting a new minimum pressure though ...but you omitted all that in the dark shaded area.
Your statistics support an overall average of around 10 or 11 minimum and the section of the pressure graph you do show support that.

Are you okay with the starting pressure of 4 cm? Is it comfortable or rather suffocating feeling?

The other thing we always need to know is how are you sleeping and feeling? Numbers and graphs all by themselves don't mean much.
If you are sleeping good and feeling good...that's the important thing.

I can say I feel like a completely different person. I went from waking up every hour or two and going to the bathroom 4 or 5 times every night to now I fall asleep and wake up six and a half hours later in the same position without ever moving.

In the afternoon I used to fall asleep anywhere and could fall asleep in under a minute because I could barely keep my eyes open. That never even happens now.

My wife used to count how long I would stop for sometimes and it could go from 30 seconds to 45 seconds not breathing. Now my wife is nervous because she sees me sleeping and I don't move or even make a sound the entire night. She is not used to it. She just hears some light noise from the Resmed. Also the house doesn't shake anymore from my snoring haha

That machine changed my life. I used to have another Bad habit which was waking up at 2 or 3 am and get something to eat. Thats probably the worst thing you do while your sleeping but I was doing it all the time. That never happens now. If happens that I need to go to the bathroom now I am practically stumbling over there because I am so sleepy, there is no way I could go eat now. I am now extremely sleepy when I wake up.

Even though I do see mixed reviews, I am ready to buy a smaller ResMed traveling device. I have accepted my cpap as this will be as long as I need it and if that is forever then that's what it is. So I just want to make my life as easy as possible traveling with it.

I just keep getting upset that I didn't do this 5 years ago when everyone was telling me to. I am very thankful for everyone here and reading everyone's experiences......it has helped alot.

Sounds like you are taking to cpap like a duck to water and also one of the overnight miracle success stories.
People will hate you for that.

Be aware that those tiny travel machines can be annoyingly noisy. I am sure you have read that complaint about them and the extra noise may or may not bug you.
If you buy a travel machine...make sure you can return it if you hate it for any reason.

They had to give up something to get the tiny size and one of the things they gave up was sound insulating foam.

Also...if you really need very much humidity and the travel machine doesn't have a humidifier...you might not like what happens to your nasal mucosa.
Some people can get by without much, if any, added moisture and they are fine but some people, like myself, would give up cpap before I gave up my added moisture.

Congrats on your success without much in apparent problems. Good job.

Kudos! Wonderful to hear a dramatic success story.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 08, 2022 9:31 am

Sounds like you are taking to cpap like a duck to water and also one of the overnight miracle success stories.
People will hate you for that.

Be aware that those tiny travel machines can be annoyingly noisy. I am sure you have read that complaint about them and the extra noise may or may not bug you.
If you buy a travel machine...make sure you can return it if you hate it for any reason.

They had to give up something to get the tiny size and one of the things they gave up was sound insulating foam.

Also...if you really need very much humidity and the travel machine doesn't have a humidifier...you might not like what happens to your nasal mucosa.
Some people can get by without much, if any, added moisture and they are fine but some people, like myself, would give up cpap before I gave up my added moisture.

Congrats on your success without much in apparent problems. Good job.

There actually is one big part I left out and that is the doctor told me to take melatonin as needed to get to sleep.

I have only used melatonin once or twice the first time I tried to use a cpap five years ago and I felt that it did nothing to help me sleep. It was only 1mg. I have otherwise never taken melatonin before.

So this time around I started at 5mg and wow that just knocks me right out. So that helped get to me sleep. I have been cutting the doses so after two months I am down to 1.5 MG of it. I plan in the next month to cut down to 0 so I dont need it. But it has helped alot.

For anyone struggling to fall asleep with it I highly recommend using it in the short term.

I am glad you had good luck with the Melatonin.
I can't take it myself. It causes me to have extreme vertigo and lord knows I am a dizzy enough broad as it is.
It's not totally benign for SOME people so I always advise caution with it and tell people to check out the side effects (and there are quite a few) just as I would any other medication or OTC product.

You are lucky...no unwanted side effects and it helps you sleep. That's a win-win.
Continue with the taper off though. Melatonin is a hormone that is naturally produced by the pineal gland and I have read that long term use of melatonin can make the pineal gland lazy and not want to produce what it is supposed to produce.
We don't want our glands to get lazy.