Very New User feeling so overwhelmed....

Toudchown! That's a really cool way of putting it!

Oh yeah, fbauouls stuff there you!

Hi all,

Well its been an adventure for sure and to be brutally honest without all the wonderful suggestions and support, I dont know what I would have done... I have experienced, claustrophobia, anxiety, insomnia, and down right fear and with each new feeling/emotion I jumped on here knowing that someone else will have experienced it, that its normal and that what Im experiencing is normal and OK..

There has been a lot of experimenting with pillows and uncomfortable nights but right now I am going to bed from 10pm and rising between 6 and 7am (although one bathroom break during the night)

My ramp is set to start at 8 and is set at 14

My Ahi for the last month was 3.1
mask leakage was 7 mins for the thirty days

What I have learned and what has worked for me:

The bedtime routine is Crucial
education ... knowing about your machine and sleep apnea
support of others ... Critical
State of mind... you can argue and make up as many excuses as you wish, but at the end of the day, routine, mask on, bed, sleep
Pulling my mask off in my sleep, now tie my hair up in a pony tail with head band underneath, wakes me up when pulling it off
toilet breaks, I dont remove my mask, disconnect at the hose.
Its normal to rebel ... to reach acceptance and be `one` with your machine, takes time, dont get me wrong I have a love/hate relationship but the improvement in my quality of life is well worth the struggle

I still have my moments, I have acquired a chronic back ache due to sleeping on my back ( I do have a wedge but its not helping so far). I know my pressure needs to go up and I am still snoring and I will admit to the odd moments of panic, but its OK, its NORMAL ... and Rome wasnt built in a day.

I cannot thank the people enough on this forum for their continuing support and a special mention for robysue whose advice and ideas have made my insomnia so easy to manage before it became a huge issue.

My recent mistake is buying the software to read my chip and finding it doesnt work with a 64 bit processor.... doh!!
if they are all this small then my new life with my old buddy cpap doesnt seem so bad after all.

warm wishes and kind thoughts to you all xxx

Hi u have the same mask as me,and mine starts of at 4,i do get panic attacks sometimes i just take mask off, control my breathing then put it back on!! something that works well is i read a few pages in bed with mask on,if takes my attenion away from my mask,i usually fall asleep with book in hand,but it works for me!! hope u find your way!! Good luck x x

You didn't say which Operating System your computer is running on, but I have sometimes been able to make software designed for 32-bit Windows XP run on my 64-bit Windows7 computer by running it in the XP Emulator. You create a "virtual machine". There may be other workarounds that somebody could offer. I haven't had any experience with any of the CPAP machine software, but there are plenty of other computer geeks here who have. Don't give up on it yet!

pollyanna40 wrote:Hi u have the same mask as me,and mine starts of at 4,i do get panic attacks sometimes i just take mask off, control my breathing then put it back on!! something that works well is i read a few pages in bed with mask on,if takes my attenion away from my mask,i usually fall asleep with book in hand,but it works for me!! hope u find your way!! Good luck x x

Pollyanna, You haven't asked but I'll mention it anyway. Have you tried to raise your start pressure to eliminate those panic attacks? At a pressure of 4 you probably feel suffocated and can't breathe. Most people can't breathe at less than 6cms. It might make it easier for you.

Hang in there - it will get better! I've been on CPAP therapy for about a month now and I know my first several days were much like yours. I'm not sure I kept my mask on more than 1-2 hours the first 2 nights. The important thing is that you put it on and try to keep it on for longer the next night, and the next. My 3rd night on therapy my goal was to keep the mask on at least 4 hours and I did. Within the week I was wearing it all night long.

With regard to the anxiety, the warm air is what made me feel anxious and panicky. Also, the sensation of being very aware of my breathing made things worse. I started off with a humidity level of 2, and am now at a 3 because I find it more comfortable. I got used to the warm air very quickly and now I don't typically notice, except every now and then if I wake up in the middle of the night. Like other posters said, if you can wear your machine during the day - or even for 30 min. before bed while you watch TV or read, it may help you get over the being conscious of your breathing...and eventually it will just become breathing as normal.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but is there any exhalation relief set on your machine? I don't know what mine is, but I know that the pressure I breathe out against is less than the pressure I breathe in. That helps

Just keep trying. Challenge yourself to keep your mask on even longer tonight than you did last night. The panic/anxiety definitely got better for me within a week and I hope it will be the same for you!

barbara8912 wrote: . . . I know it is early days and perseverance is the word, I just feel so alone ...

Thank you
Barbara

By the wonderful response I see you've received on this forum you probably don't feel as alone anymore. Welcome! It took me several months to feel like therapy was 'normal'. I found this forum key in learning about my equipment, reports, and getting the right mask. I hope you find it as helpful as I did.

If not for this forum I would have never went back to cpap after I walked away from it and my life would have been nothing compare to what I now know it can be. If using the cpap provides a medical benefit or makes you feel better then just hang out here and you can work it out. I know I am not suppose to say the people here know more about this than the doctors but....the people here know more about it than the doctors, and they care. You cant ask your doctor for advice every single night but you can ask a few thousand people in your position what they think 24/7 here. People here saved my life more than any doctor thus far. Fantastic support group here.

Cuda wrote:You cant ask your doctor for advice every single night but you can ask a few thousand people in your position what they think 24/7 here. People here saved my life more than any doctor thus far. Fantastic support group here.

Amen to that Cuda. I feel the same way. Thanks to everyone for your support. I hope I can be like all of you when I grow up!

Years later this is still true for me Cuda!