New memeber,new to CPAP

Hello my name is Michael and 2 days ago finally recieved my cpap machine. on the verge of night 3 of sleeping with this machine and feeling like i have so many questions. i have read and read many posts on here and have viewed many articles on the web about different machines, masks, and how-toos.
i have been struggling with a serious dry mouth, even after using the humidifier that came with my machine. i was told to begin the humidifier at a setting of 2 which i did, woke up and had a bad dry mouth. last night i adjusted the setting to 3 and this morning i noticed the chamber had run out of water (which was full) and my mouth and even high in my cheeks was super dry. my nose seems ok, but my mouth and part the way down to my throat were dried up. the night prior when i had the machine set up at 2, i only usd 25% of the water, but when i had it set on 3 i used all of it. not sure what to do there. i also have had 2 nights of a seriously sore nose at the top (i guess thats called the bridge) and almost have like a redish bruise there. it is not very comfortable and have read that is a common compliant with the mask i have. i have been wearing it here and there during the day and trying to find a happy medium for my nose and for my forehead that has a mark with 2 dots on it almost all afternoon becasue of the top part that lays on my forehead. i also have been playing with the turn dial which also is on the top of my mask. i have not found the perfect recipe yet. i do enjoy the ramp feature on my machine and with my normal setting of 16, which almost is hard to breathe at while i am awake. its very strong and hard sometimes to breathe correctly. i am hoping my body will get used to everything and seem to have slept through the night last night which is a first in a very long time. the night before i only slept somewhere in the area of 5 hours and woke up a few times. the first night i did have some uncomfortable gas pains when i woke up and this morning it was really really bad. not to be gross but i was passing gas alot and had some of the longest episodes i have ever had in my 37 years of being alive. i had to take some "gas x" to relief the burping and the passing gas. its 5 pm now and my stomach still hurts.i read that i may of had my head too level while i was sleeping and i will try to raise my head with another pillow tonight and see if that helps with the bloating.

any suggestions or tips i am willing to try. i am hoping that after a few weeks i can figure this out and get some well deserved rest.
thank you for your time and i hope you all have a good night.

Hello and welcome!

I might be able to help with the humifier. I have the same machine and I was using all the water on any setting (1-5), finally private messaged someone on the forum and they asked me:

1. Where was the machine - Needs proper ventilation
2. Where was my heater vent and windows - Machine has humidity sensors

My heater vent is 3 ft. away from the bed and night stand and the window is right above the bed. I went and bought a magnet and covered the heater vent, moved the machine to the top of the night stand and left the window alone. I have had more water left in the tank since then. I was using the Swift FX and caught a cold so I started mouth breathing (Extreme dry mouth). Ended up getting the FitLife ff mask and have been in heaven since. As for the nose and forehead, look up padacheek.com, I've only looked so far (not purchased yet) and like the idea that they make wearing masks more comfortable.

Hope this helps.

Wow - Not sure what is going on with your humidifier. I have the same machine and if anything, mine puts out way too much humidity for me. I just use it in passive mode - (I put water in it but don't turn on the heater). If it is emptying the entire water container - then it is putting out tons of humidity. Is the humidity in your room dry? When I first started my CPAP I got a dry mouth the first few times I used it just like you. I was opening my mouth while I was breathing but I did not have a full face mask like you do.

Your pressure is quite high. Mine is only at 6.5. It will probably take you some time to get used to that pressure. Give it some time.

The only other thing I could think of regarding your humidity loss would be if your mask is leaking at night. The best way to find that out would be to order the Viewer software from CPAP.COM for your computer. It will show you your nightly mask leak rate. Another way to find out is to look on your display for large leak percentage. It will show you an average per week on the LCD. If you are showing large leaks - then that could be the cause of your humidifier emptying. Even if you don't have a "Large leak" you could be leaking more than you should be which would explain where all the humidity is going and your dry mouth.

You could also go back to your CPAP provider with the SD card in your machine and ask them to read it.

Give this CPAP stuff some time. It takes time to adjust to everything. The best advice I can give you is don't change too many things at once. Try something new and see what happens the next day. If that doesn't work, try something else. Adjusting your face mask is going to take some time to get it just right for you. I'm three months into it and am still messing with my masks.

Also - you might not have the right mask for you. As you probably know, there are tons of masks out there. If this one isn't doing the job for you after a few more nights - take it back and try another one. Eventually you will find something that will work for you.

You will find tons of info and support on this site.

Hope this helps - and good luck.

thank you both for some helpful information. i did check the "large leak" section on the machine and it read 0%. as far as the humidity levels in my bedroom, they are low. the machine is placed inside a small shelf on my night stand. it is approxiamtely 12 to 14 inches off the ground. i will try the 3rd setting again tonight and see if the water drains again completely.
the setting of 16 on the regular air does seem high to me also, but i do know when i took my second sleep test the tech did tell me that he had it up to 18 for me and said that was where i used it best. at the time the number 18 did not make any sense to me. last night though after only 1 ramp selection (which is 30 minutes) i was fine with the air pressure amount and did not wake up even to use the restroom like i have done for more than 10 years. so something is going ok with the sleep. i am still very tired though, and i was under the impression that a good nights rest would cure that right away, but i found today i was fighting the 3pm sleep monster alittle.
the other thing that puzzles me is the " c flex plus" setting. the gentlemen that came to my residence and set up the machine changed it to 3 and i have not changed that. how much difference is there between the 3 different setings? and what would i noticed with it set at 1?

Well I am somewhat a newbie myself but let me share my experience so far. I have been on the cpap for about six weeks now. My setting is 15, not your 16 but very close. I felt with that high a pressure I would never get used to it. Now that time has passed I can tell you this, I still wake up several times at night due to the mask itself but not the pressure setting. Actually, there are times when I wonder if my machine has lowered the pressure by itself because I feel as if the pressure has been lowered, but no, still at 15. So with time I think you may get used to it, even with such a high pressure.

Dry mouth, yep, I still get that. I must say that it is not as bad as the first few weeks. After the first week I was given a chinstrap to help, well I guess it has, not really sure. Bottom line is that some nights are better than other with the dry mouth. Perhaps others have better ideas on that.

The first few weeks were uncomfortable on my nose and the top of my mouth, around the gumline. Now I may feel it but not so much. What I do have is the redness on the bridge of my nose. I cannot say that it hurts but with my light skin the redness is pronounced. I was given a website to check out, I'll try to get it for you.

Anyhow, good luck and stick with it. I have no choice but to use my machine or look for another career. Initially I was very skeptical about the whole thing but I cannot deny the results of using my cpap.

Keep us abreast of how things are going.

Here is the website I was given.
http://www.padacheek.com/

Hang in there. It gets better . I have been on the hose 2 yrs. and I'm still learning. My brother has the same mask and wakes up with a dry mouth every night and uses all his water. I don't believe it's the mask though. He is a mouth breather so maybe that is the problem. Not sure. I have a nasal mask but every now and then get a dry mouth. I would leave the c-flex on 3 because it is more comfortable when you exhale.With a pressure of 16 you need all the help you can get. That's just my opinion. Good luck.

again, thank you thank you for the help. this is just very new territory for me. i have known for sometime that i may have had sleep apnea and finally was able to be tested and have it covered under insurance. i am definetely a mouth breather so, i just hope i can find a happy medium that i can live with and that works. this place is just what i need to find those answers.

Check my signature for a link ("Taming the Mirage Quattro") for help on fitting the mask to take the pressure off your nose.

Is your home exceptionally dry during the winter--like desert dry? If not, I suspect that your problems with dry mouth were due to leaks, even though you have a FF mask. The fitting suggestions I have given may help with this. Quattros leak at high pressure, especially if you are using a ramp feature and fitting your mask at a lower pressure. Opening your mouth while you sleep relaxes your jaw and can contribute to the leaking.

Unfortunately, the data on your machine's screen is next to useless. It won't show much information on leaks because it shows only 7 and 30 day AVERAGES, and that takes a huge and very long leak to show up as even 1% on your screen. You should strongly consider purchasing Encore Viewer software. It costs about $100 and is very detailed. If you look for the "Respironics Data Tutorial" on my blog you will be able to see the kind of information you can get with the software. With that type of data, you'll be able to see if leakage is responsible for your dry mouth--I suspect it is.

Finally, try to practice keeping your tongue on the roof of your mouth. That will seal off your airway from your mouth, and may go a long way in reducing the aerophagia (air in the stomach) that you are experiencing.

You're doing great for your first few nights. It takes time to knock out all these annoyances and get to the good sleep that will be your gift from CPAP.

There is a BIG difference between Cflex+ between 3 and 1. Basically what that is doing is making it easier for you to exhale. The machine reduces the pressure while you are exhaling and then increases the pressure when you breath in again. The higher the number, the more pressure relief from exhaling out. There is a demo mode on your machine which you can try. It's in the LCD settings. Basically it lets you try out the different settings between 1 and 3 without recording any data You can then test out which one feels most comfortable for you.

3 will give you the most exhale relief but it doesn't necessarily relate to the best therapy. I found that I did not get as good of results when my CFlex+ was turned up to 2 or 3. I keep it on a setting of 1. It will also be different for each mask that you use. This is very individual and my pressure is only 6.5 . I found I started getting more Apnea events with the Cflex settings up higher.

Here again - try it at a different setting one night. You won't break anything. The worst thing that will happen is you might not be very comfortable with a lower setting and the best would be that you sleep better.

You can also over ride your humidifier setting on the machine you have to the older way of humidification. The way it works now is the machine senses the room temp and humidity and automatically adjusts the heater based on the setting you put it at. In other words, it is quite variable based on conditions. You can over ride it to just have a constant heat setting all the time, therefore bypassing the dynamic setting.

Do a search on the forum and you will find out how to change this.

ok, so going on night 6 and really struggling still. i tried the recomendation on how to fit the quattro mask which was alot more comfy but it leaked alot all that night. i called my dme which showed me another way in having the mask on which i thought was way way to tight. after 2 nights found out it was. after calling my dr. becuase i had a large bruise on the top ridge of my nose and marks that were lasting longer than 12 hours on my forehead. they had me come in and said i needed to change masks out becuase i had seriously damaged my nose (after a shower it began to bleed pretty good). they called the dme and complained about how this guy had told my to fit the mask. so anyway, i have had this newer mask called the mirage liberty. i like it alot but i think it also is leaking during the night ( i have some facial hair, which is cut down pretty short and trimmed). they also sent me another ff mask that is called a forma, but i cannot use it until my nose completely heals. so, the therapist adjusted my air flow from 16 to 12 which has been better as far as having so much air being forced down. they also had me try while i was there for about 15 minutes a bipap which also was alot nicer and seemed easier to breathe. i did not have to force my exhale out and feellike i was gasping for air, especially over the level 16 i was on. so i was told that the dr. may switch me out to a bipap or change my setting to auto,whatever that means.
i guess most of all i am just frustrated that i am not sleeping very well. it seems like i am even more tired these past few days than i remember being without the machine. so i am hoping for something good to come my way soon. its been hard and i just want to have a good nights sleep. last night i even took some sleep aides which did absolutely nothing. does anyone have any suggestions? i am almost willing to do anything at this point.

i have another question... what is the difference between the c flex and the c flex plus option on my machine? i have looked around on here but there are thousands of choices when you search for it. is the c flex plus just the latest and greatest version or are there significant differences?