New user/first night experience

Hi everyone -

I had an eventful day yesterday:

1. I got the preliminary results from my sleep study.
2. I discovered this site!
3. I purchased the Respironics Pro S1.

Before I describe my first night with the device, a little bit about me:

1. I’m a 49-year-old male.
2. I’m 5’7”, 180 pounds, and would like to get down to about 170.
3. I’ve always found it difficult to lose weight. Despite eating a reasonable diet and working out a lot, as I’ve gotten older the weight has been harder to keep off.
4. My wife tells me that I snore, and that the snoring has gotten worse over the years. Note that she’s never said anything about me gasping or choking in my sleep.
5. Aside from increasingly waking up once or twice a night, especially in recent years, I didn’t have many other apnea symptoms: I’m very active and athletic during the day, fairly cheerful and energetic, have low/normal blood pressure, and so on. In terms of sleepiness, my Eppworth score was something like 4.

When I went in for my study, I figured they’d tell me that I had –mild- apnea at worst. Needless to say, I was surprised to learn that my AHI was 54, and SaO2 level was 88%.

So – after digesting that bit of information, I used the machine for the first time last night. It took me a while to fall asleep, and my sleep was a bit choppy – I woke up a few times, but these felt different (more relaxed and clear-headed) than when I would wake up prior to treatment. I slept a total of 6 hours, and according to the machine, my AHI was 3.8.

Aside from the choppiness (which I attribute to getting used to the device), my main complaints this morning are dry mouth (I guess I need to up the humidity level) and my lower front teeth are a little achy – not sure what that means.

Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it Since it appears that I’ll be a CPAP user for years to come, I look forward to participating in this very helpful forum.

Welcome to the forum! It sounds as though you have taken to it well.
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I wouldn't rush with the humidity for the dry mouth. It is not always the answer. I get dry mouth when I open my mouth while sleeping, usually due to nasal congestion. Increased humidity makes that worse for me, but may very well be the opposite for you.

Hey schneider4 - I am also new to the forum. (Joined yesterday) I started my BiCAP on the 13th. If your are taking any kind of sleeping pill or other medicine you need to look at the side effects. I just found out that my sleeping pill side effect was dry mouth. Stop taking it last night and did not have dry mouth. Also don't pull the straps two tight on the mask. I did the same as you and had sore jaw in the morning. I would work with the straps and try to make them not so tight. Good luck.
Bob

Welcome!

Your lower front teeth are right where the lower part of the Full Face Mask rests, so if this continues for more than another night, I'd suggest loosening the straps a bit.

The Quattro FX is a non-gel mask, so the idea is to let it inflate a little bit, like a balloon. If the straps are too tight, you end up leaking MORE, which was a bit hard for me to grasp until I tried to loosen them a little =)

Do a search for Quattro FX Leak in the forum search bar. You'll find all sorts of nifty tips on fitting that particular mask.

Hope that helps!