Two more hiccups to manage. . .

I received my CPAP machine first thing this past Wednesday morning. I left all settings as they were handed to me, filled the water reservoir with distilled water, and went to sleep . . . and went to war with my CPAP machine all night. I got rained on and water up the nose twice - among other issues. Woke up the next morning with my brain cells working to try to get things figured out. A hose cover is on order - should get here some time next week. I turned the humidifier off and went without it the next night - it was a little better, only got water up my nose once. Pft. The next night, I took the hose off of the headboard and out of the Velcro at the top of my head. . .figured if the water couldn't slide down hill to my nose, there would at least be a better chance of not getting it up my nose.

I was right. Next night was fine - but nose and throat were (are) dry. Our house runs at 60% humidity (old house without central heat and air). I purchased the gell nose saline and that helps.

I won't attempt to use the humidifier again until the hose cover gets here, and then I'm going to be very wary of hanging the hose over the headboard and attaching it with the Velcro to the top of my head. (If any one has done this with the humidifier and it worked, I need some assurance that I'm not going to get water up my nose again.)

Storage was an issue. I have a small night stand that is actually too small for the size of our bed. The top of it is used quite a bit, the drawer is too narrow for the CPAP unit to fit into. I placed it on the shelf beneath the drawer - BUT having to get up a couple of times the first two nights to reset the Ramp after I got my nose dry - was a real pain. I couldn't just reach over and push it, I had to physically get out of the bed and take it out far enough from the shelf so that I could actually push the ramp button.

I found a plastic three drawer storage unit with wheels at K-Mart. Wow. It is the same hight as my night stand, so it fits well right beside it. I placed the CPAP unit in the first drawer to keep it lower than my mask - everything else after clean and dry fits just fine in the two drawers beneath it with room to spare.

Last night I simply wheeled the storage unit over to the side of the bed, opened the drawer and I was good to go. My CPAP machine was right where I could push that Ramp button without getting out of bed. (I'm a "learned to sleep" insomniac, any unnecessary movement or talking or stimulus during momentary wakefulness will convince my brain that it's time to get up and I WILL NOT go back to sleep, so staying in bed is of the utmost importance.)

I also found a small, very soft, just like a regular normal pillow but SMALLER - travel pillow at K'mart as well, thinking if I slept with it oblong instead of lengthwise- maybe I could get away with using this (three whole bucks) instead of spending fifty or sixty bucks on a CPAP pillow. I also have a neck that is picky and needs support - so I got my U travel pillow out to see if that might be a good support system for my neck and be able to use the pillow to lie on my side with and still be able to breath.

Welp - pillow works, but the U travel pillow is too much of a good thing - too thick and too hard to sleep with comfortably. So that's a no go. I'll use a rolled towel tonight to see if that might work, and if it does, then I'll make a permanent one to hook onto my small travel pillow. The small travel pillow worked fine - 'cept when I fall asleep I relax and tend to bury my face into the pillow. Pft. So, I'm going to have to figure that one out. Maybe a foam casing will help. I don't know - I'll have to experiment.

**Question** -- I'm prone to a stuffy nose. I do not take Afrin, because if I did, I'd do it allll the time. I'm allergic to the state I live in - but I don't generally become congested, instead the membranes in my sinuses swell and close. I take a 12 hour allergy med that works beautifully for the most part. It seems that the CPAP machine is irritating these membranes . .. is this because I'm not using the humidifier right now? Or is this a general problem, and if so are there things I can mechanically do to correct it? I really want to stay away from Afrin if I can do it.

Other than getting the pillow worked out and the stuffy nose worked out, things are coming along. Heh. . .except yesterday morning when my dog decided she needed to wake me up because I slept in FAR too long. . .it was 6:30AM. . .her life was hanging in the balance all day yesterday. **smirk**

quietmorning wrote: .except yesterday morning when my dog decided she needed to wake me up because I slept in FAR too long. . .it was 6:30AM. . .her life was hanging in the balance all day yesterday. **smirk**

I recently got my CPAP adjusted correctly and am now sleeping a lot better. Except my dog still thinks I should wake up and throw her out for a few minutes or otherwise pay attention to her every few hours the way I was when I was sleeping in short bursts.

So now, when I sleep or even nap, she goes into her crate. Thank God I crate trained her. She's reasonably comfortable with the idea of sleeping in her crate. It's a few feet from where I sleep.

Giving her her daily "dental" bone when I put her in the box helps, too. I say "box" and she runs into the crate. She'd probably be willing to lock herself in if her paws were nimble enough.

archangle wrote:

quietmorning wrote: .except yesterday morning when my dog decided she needed to wake me up because I slept in FAR too long. . .it was 6:30AM. . .her life was hanging in the balance all day yesterday. **smirk**

I recently got my CPAP adjusted correctly and am now sleeping a lot better. Except my dog still thinks I should wake up and throw her out for a few minutes or otherwise pay attention to her every few hours the way I was when I was sleeping in short bursts.

So now, when I sleep or even nap, she goes into her crate. Thank God I crate trained her. She's reasonably comfortable with the idea of sleeping in her crate. It's a few feet from where I sleep.

Giving her her daily "dental" bone when I put her in the box helps, too. I say "box" and she runs into the crate. She'd probably be willing to lock herself in if her paws were nimble enough.

Yes. Jess spent the night in her crate last night. She actually sleeps in the crate all night anyway - the only difference this time was that the door was locked closed. She's moping a little bit today. :-/ I never get out of the bed when I wake up - but she knows I'm awake the minute I open my eyes and usually comes over and gives me a kiss, then goes back to bed. She didn't do this yesterday, though - she was quite insistant. . .NO, MOM, YOU HAVE TO GET UP NOW!! She's a German Shepherd and has taken to the job of making sure Mom get's out of bed in the morning to go to work. . .she just doesn't know when it's SATURDAY!

Yours? Is she a golden?

Hi, quietmorning!

Welcome to the forum! You will get a lot of good support and advice from a lot of really nice and helpful people here on this site! Glad you found this site so early in your CPAP journey! I have tried CPAP twice and failed over the past seven years, but I have learned so much here that I'm sure I will succeed this time!

**Question** -- I'm prone to a stuffy nose. I do not take Afrin, because if I did, I'd do it allll the time. I'm allergic to the state I live in - but I don't generally become congested, instead the membranes in my sinuses swell and close. I take a 12 hour allergy med that works beautifully for the most part. It seems that the CPAP machine is irritating these membranes . .. is this because I'm not using the humidifier right now? Or is this a general problem, and if so are there things I can mechanically do to correct it? I really want to stay away from Afrin if I can do it.

One thing that might help you is a video by Dr. Krakow that I was referred to on nasal stuffiness and what can be done about it. VERY informative and helped me A LOT!

http://sleeptreatment.com/training-and- ... deo-series

Congratulations on your great problem-solving attitude from the start! A huge obstacle a lot of people have to overcome at first is just acceptance of their situation and to make a commitment to make CPAP work, as you seem to have already done! You have already taken a huge step toward success! It can be discouraging and frustrating at first, but keep at it and solve one thing at a time. It can take some time to find the right mask, adapt to the therapy and get everything "just right."

Also, go to the user control panel and fill in your equipment page, using text descriptions, so others will be able to help you better...

Welcome again!

Lori "QF" Dawn

Lori Dawn wrote:Hi, quietmorning!

Welcome to the forum! You will get a lot of good support and advice from a lot of really nice and helpful people here on this site! Glad you found this site so early in your CPAP journey! I have tried CPAP twice and failed over the past seven years, but I have learned so much here that I'm sure I will succeed this time!

**Question** -- I'm prone to a stuffy nose. I do not take Afrin, because if I did, I'd do it allll the time. I'm allergic to the state I live in - but I don't generally become congested, instead the membranes in my sinuses swell and close. I take a 12 hour allergy med that works beautifully for the most part. It seems that the CPAP machine is irritating these membranes . .. is this because I'm not using the humidifier right now? Or is this a general problem, and if so are there things I can mechanically do to correct it? I really want to stay away from Afrin if I can do it.

One thing that might help you is a video by Dr. Krakow that I was referred to on nasal stuffiness and what can be done about it. VERY informative and helped me A LOT!

http://sleeptreatment.com/training-and- ... deo-series

Congratulations on your great problem-solving attitude from the start! A huge obstacle a lot of people have to overcome at first is just acceptance of their situation and to make a commitment to make CPAP work, as you seem to have already done! You have already taken a huge step toward success! It can be discouraging and frustrating at first, but keep at it and solve one thing at a time. It can take some time to find the right mask, adapt to the therapy and get everything "just right."

Also, go to the user control panel and fill in your equipment page, using text descriptions, so others will be able to help you better...

Welcome again!

Lori "QF" Dawn

Hi, Lori Dawn!

I did fill my equipment descriptions out. . .are you able to see them? Maybe I did something wrong. Just in case, here's a copy and paste of them: Machine: PR System One REMstar Auto CPAP Machine with A-Flex
Mask: Opus 360 Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear
Humidifier: PR System One Heated Humidifier
Additional Comments: I'm on a modem right now and will be so until they change me to a smartcard.

Thank you so much for the link - I'm headed there now! It's so good to get even the disturbed 'getting used to things' sleep right now compared to what I was getting. . .this has been such a God send for me.

quietmorning wrote:Yours? Is she a golden?

Sheltie. A real one-person dog. I get such a laugh out of her when I'm sick or in pain from some sort of injury. She walks around with a hang-dog look like she thinks I'm mad at her.

archangle wrote:

quietmorning wrote:Yours? Is she a golden?

Sheltie. A real one-person dog. I get such a laugh out of her when I'm sick or in pain from some sort of injury. She walks around with a hang-dog look like she thinks I'm mad at her.

**lauging** I had a sheltie when my children were babies. He was sooooo funny! I'm sure you enjoy her!