I knew it was working, but...wow!

I fell asleep the other night without my machine. I was so tired that I "slept" about five or six hours without it. I woke up with my soft palette/uvula so inflamed that I was gagging. I got up and got a drink of water to moisten everything back down, laid back down and "plugged in" to my machine.

Laying on my back, I wondered how I ever slept before getting my machine. All that inflamed tissue was closing off my airway and I was still wide awake. I knew that I wouldn't be sleeping on my back for the rest of the night. Then the pressure came up and it was all gone. Not only was I able to breathe with ease, I couldn't even feel the inflamed tissue when I swallowed. Gone! My final thoughts for the night went something like this, "I'll never get to sleep with my throat like this. I'll choke. I might as well just get up and..." (woosh goes the machine) "and wow! that's much bett..." (I was out.)

I have had the ins and outs of CPAP explained to me, how it works, etc. I've even explained it all quite a few times myself. I've woken up most mornings feeling like a million bucks since starting therapy. I've even stayed awake late into the night watching movies in a darkened room... But actually feeling the therapy kick in and open a mostly blocked airway to allow completely unhindered breathing was amazing!

Who invented CPAP therapy? I want to give them a big hug!

way to go

I can relate well to everything you just mentioned. To be honest, I'm in no hurry to get off the machine at all in the morning because it makes breathing so easy - almost to the point where it's a bit of an effort to get the old chest muscles working to breath without it for a minute or two.

Checked my stats this morning - 225 days on the machine out of 225 days - and averaging over 8 hours a night. Don't know how I ever got by without it!

What you experienced and described so well, Rob, is one of the things that convinced me five years ago that I needed "cpap."

I had Googled the word "snoring" -- which everyone told me I did VERY LOUDLY since back in my early teens. I had always figured, "Well, sorry I do that, but a lot of people do. I can't help it." Googling to see if there was anything that could quieten my snoring down, I kept seeing "apnea, apnea, apnea." Read up on sleep apnea, did some self experiments at relaxing my throat as much as possible while drifting off to sleep just to see if the descriptions of "sleep apnea" applied to me... WHAM!!... the back of my throat would collapse shut, sure enough...if relaxed.

So, I Googled again for sleep apnea treatment. CPAP.

Googled again for message boards about people using "cpap" to find out pros and cons about the various machines/masks.

Borrowed a friend's old cpap machine and got the instant "able to breathe when throat is relaxed" feeling you got. Wow!! From what I'd been reading, I thought it would work, but..... WOW!!! You're so right!

Hi everyone,

I am brand new to this site & to CPAP. I was diagnosed a few weeks ago. Does it take awhile to feel "well rested"?
It is taking me some time to get used to the mask & stuff. I am usually able to sleep 6 hours with it on & then I get
congested or something & take it off. I have noticed that I still have my daytime sleepiness.

I have my followup appointment with my pulmonologist on January 13th. Also, I am going to my DME supplier on
Monday to see about getting a new mask. I think mine is too big or something.

I am going to be positive about this. It will get better. I have to keep telling myself that.

I am so glad I found this group.

Take care,

I'm glad that others have had similar experiences as I have had. I don't want to be alone in my amazement. That would be like being the only person to know what chocolate tastes like or something!

Stormie: Welcome to the flock!

It does take a while to get that fully rested feeling back. Many people refer to it as a sleep debt that needs to be paid back. Depending on how long you have had OSA and have not had it treated, I'm sure that it's possible that you may be even a couple decades behind on sleep! For me, the first week or two I was in heaven. I'd felt rested like I never had before. Then I hit a little plateau and started to wonder why it wasn't working any more. That passed too, so don't worry. One of my biggest problems now is my sleep habits. I find that I'm still not smart enough to go to bed at a reasonable time. As I'm currently unemployed, I have nothing forcing me to keep a schedule, so I stay up too late. Bad Rob!

That congested feeling may be because you've got your humidifier set too high. Try turning it down a notch or two. A trick I've learned: If you have a runny nose, turn your humidifier way down (or off) and your machine will dry you right out (at least for the night)!

Hang in there and stick with it. It'll take a while to get used to the equipment, especially your mask. Tightening or loosening your straps by an eighth of an inch can make a world of difference in the way it fits. Do a search for your mask in the forums and see what others do to make it work better for them. There's folks out there who have no problem taking a dremel tool and bondo and making some major modifications to their masks to make them fit better. (Ok, maybe that was a slight exaggeration.)

Stormie... if you can swap your machine out to at least a Pro model... do that too!

That may be able to give you a glimpse as to why you're having problems.