First night with CPAP last night - few questions

I had my first night last night on CPAP. It wasn't as great as I might of expected, but then again could have been worse. I made it through the whole night with the mask on taking it off only a few time to get a drink of water. I started at 2 on Humidifier and then went up to 5 and I didn't have dry nose or mouth towards end of night. I did sleep but woke up a great deal, getting used to wearing the mask. I am committed to this, my father probably died of complications to sleep apnea at 62, looking back at his snoring and episodes of non-breathing. I believe I can do it.

This site has been great getting prepared, avoiding a few problems already before I even started.

Question - I have the Resmed S8 elite. Not sure how I can access readouts. IT comes with a card, but that will not interface with my computer. Do you need a specific card reader for the data card? According to my DME my S8 is set up so bascially all I can do is turn on, and I think I can adjust my ramp time, but I think that is all. If anyone has the S8 would appreciate some tips on it's use.

Idget

Did you need to get a drink and raise the humidifier setting because of dry mouth? If that is the case, you need to look into mouth leaking on this site. It is a big problem and causes treatment pressure to blow out the mouth and ruin the treatment. If you don't have dry mouth, you are one of tthe lucky ones.

Good luck, you have come to a great source for help with your treatment.

TerryB

TerryB

Thanks for reply. Not sure which is the case, but when I turned up humidifier my dry mouth problem seemed to improve. Whether I have mouth leaks,not sure at this early stage. How can you determine whether it is a mouth leak?

TerryB wrote:Did you need to get a drink and raise the humidifier setting because of dry mouth? If that is the case, you need to look into mouth leaking on this site. It is a big problem and causes treatment pressure to blow out the mouth and ruin the treatment. If you don't have dry mouth, you are one of tthe lucky ones.

Good luck, you have come to a great source for help with your treatment.

TerryB

Idget's profile shows a Quattro full face mask.
Actually, I've experienced dry mouth (and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth) with my Quattro, too......but not with my UMFF.
Don't know why that happens.

Den

I had my second night last night with my cpap and I still woke up alot but I lasted all night with the nasal mask. I did have a dry mouth and would like to know if your humidifier resolved it. My friend advised that if I still woke up alot I needed to tell the dr. because it may be something else. Good luck for you (and for me too).

deglorious

Uping the humidity to 5 (on a scale of 1-6) improved the dry mouth, but I was using a full mask. Apparently, there is a problem with mouth leak with those using the nose only mask. But I am a newbie here only on my second night (tonight). Good luck, the support here with answers is great. Hope you have a better night!
Idget

Idget wrote:I had my first night last night on CPAP. It wasn't as great as I might of expected, but then again could have been worse. I made it through the whole night with the mask on taking it off only a few time to get a drink of water. I started at 2 on Humidifier and then went up to 5 and I didn't have dry nose or mouth towards end of night. I did sleep but woke up a great deal, getting used to wearing the mask. I am committed to this, my father probably died of complications to sleep apnea at 62, looking back at his snoring and episodes of non-breathing. I believe I can do it.

This site has been great getting prepared, avoiding a few problems already before I even started.

Question - I have the Resmed S8 elite. Not sure how I can access readouts. IT comes with a card, but that will not interface with my computer. Do you need a specific card reader for the data card? According to my DME my S8 is set up so bascially all I can do is turn on, and I think I can adjust my ramp time, but I think that is all. If anyone has the S8 would appreciate some tips on it's use.

Idget

PM me if you need the book of spells (clincian manual) for your machine and you too can be a wizard at understanding the data from your machine.

Without the software, you can only extract data from the LED menu and then record in spreadsheet program or in the ancient tradition of paper and pen. Our forum sponsor sells the software and card reader if you prefer a more modern method of data analysis.

deglorious wrote:I had my second night last night with my cpap and I still woke up alot but I lasted all night with the nasal mask. I did have a dry mouth and would like to know if your humidifier resolved it. My friend advised that if I still woke up alot I needed to tell the dr. because it may be something else. Good luck for you (and for me too).

Dry mouth with a nasal mask usually means you are blowing your treatment out your mouth. You have a leak problem that needs to be resolved. Search taping, polident strips, chinstraps, and training for mouth leaks.

Best of luck

Idget wrote:Question - I have the Resmed S8 elite. Not sure how I can access readouts.

Hold down the left and right buttons on your S8 Elite for about three seconds.... an Efficacy menu option should appear, so select that and you can look at your data for the night (provided you do it before noon).

Idget wrote:IT comes with a card, but that will not interface with my computer. Do you need a specific card reader for the data card?

You need an ACR38 smart card reader and ResScan software to readily access data from the card.

Cheers,

Bill

Thanks for email, after some investigation I figured out I needed the card reader and softward. Only one problem, I own a MAC and the software is for Windows based PC. Unless someone else out there has a MAC and know a solution for MAC users I will have to use the readout from the machine.

Idget,
I'm a beginer myself, also using the Resmed S8 Elite and comfort gel nasal mask. On my first night I turned the humidifier all the way up, and wore the chin strap.... no dry mouth, so next day I started trying it without the chin strap and foundout that my pressure setting ,11 was enough to help keep my mouth closed. So last night I tried it without the chinstrap all night , I'll know tomorrow if it's working without the chin strap, I wrote down how to get the data from the machine out of Bills post. Good luck and best wishes to all.

Duke