Surviving...

I've been using the Quattro since Tuesday. So far, this mask has lasted the longest for in me terms of comfort and compliance.

I feel pretty decent when I first get up in the morning, but after about an hour or two, I feel just as bad, if not worse than I did before I started my therapy. I've tried taking naps during the day, but I end up just lying there. Right now, I feel like I could end up face-down on the keyboard at any minute.

I'm averaging over 7 hours a night with the mask, and my AHI is sitting around 2.1. I don't have the card reader yet, so I have to make do with what's on the display...

I guess I still have a lot of sleep debt to make up.

if its a nose only mask you may be mouth breathing and so getting no CPAP benefits

Harry... a Quattro is a full face mask.

Cygnusia wrote:I'm averaging over 7 hours a night with the mask, and my AHI is sitting around 2.1. I don't have the card reader yet, so I have to make do with what's on the display...

Hi,

Did you have a formal sleep study done at a sleep lab? If so, did you get a copy of the sleep study? What did it say, and what type of disorder did they say you had? If they just gave you an auto machine and sent you home to auto-titrate, they may have missed what your real disorder is. There are sleep issues that are not treated well with CPAP, and some that can actually get worse. If you didn't have a sleep study, or was not happy with your study, perhaps you want to have another one done in a hospital setting. I had mine done at a major urban cardiac center. If I as much as wiggled my nose, they had it documented and analyzed.

It is also possible that you have more than one issue. For example, lets say that you have traditional OSA, and the machine treats it well. You might have something else that has now come to the forefront with the OSA being successfully treated. Again, that is something that a MD is probably going to have to look at, possibly with a follow-up sleep study.

I remember how bad I felt pre-treatment, so I can probably imagine how frustrated you are right now. Please hang in there, life can and does get better when these issues get figured out.

-john-

I went to the Sleep Center of Murfreesboro, and I was diagnosed with moderate OSA. I don't have my study yet (although I have every intention of getting it) and from my first follow-up my doctor told me that I was basically "fixed." My AHI's went from 30+ down to less than 2.

I think part of my problem is that I've gone through several masks in the space of a month trying to find the one that's right for me. Every time I start a new mask I'm basically resetting the cycle to get used to the CPAP. Now that I have pretty much settled in, maybe I can get in the rhythm of using it and improving.

I have a sleep debt of about 10 years to make up for, so I just gotta settle in and ride this out.

Well, I finally have my new mask. I dropped off my loaner Quattro and the Activa I got on the first day, and picked up my fresh new Quattro. It feels a little different than the loaner... the silicone is a little bit more resistant, and the connector to the mask itself is designed differently. Now I wonder how old that loaner was...

Anyhoo, I used it for the first time last night, and it seems to be off to a good start. I ended up have to "visit the facilities" in the middle of the night, but that's pretty rare for me. Silly me took the mask off before I went, but I was awake enough to make sure it was back on and leak free before settling in for another 4 or so hours of sleep.

I'm gonna reset my averages tonight and see what my nightly scores are...