Newbie alert!

Are you supposed to actually be able to feel the pressure coming through the mask? I don't feel anything - just cold air coming out the top which is how the respiratory therapist told me I would know that it is working.

I am moving this post from another area since this appears to be the right place for it. I just discovered this forum and learning my way around it.



I also am still waiting for success with this after about three months. Everyone told me that I would immediately start to feel better - instead I am worse. I had been having difficulty breathing, headaches, sleeplessness, heaviness in my chest for over a year. Doctors ran every heart/lung test possible and found nothing wrong. It was until I stopped breathing in recovery after gall bladder surgery that someone suggested I might have sleep apnea.

The sleep study indicated that I had a "very severe" case. The respiratory specialists kept trying to make me use a nasal mask because "God didn't intend for us to breath through our mouths". I guess I never really realized I was a mouth breather until this came up. I simply could not tolerate the nasal masks - I used a chin strap and I even taped my mouth shut. Finally, an ENT doctor examined me and said my nasal passages are too narrow to breathe through my nose and I would have to use a full face mask.

The problem is that it is just SO uncomfortable and I fight it all night long. The most I've been able to tolerate it is four hours and even that is not consecutive hours. Sometimes I don't even know when I take it off. My symptoms are getting worse and now I have to have oxygen bled through so in addition to the discomfort of the mask and limited movement, I now have a loud oxygen machine blasting away.

I just don't know what to do. This is so frustrating. And on top of all that, I have met someone - after being alone for 8 years - with whom I am soon going to want to pursue and intimate relationship, but that is now an impossibility. Top

dg....

1. To use the forum features fully, you need to register and log in. Once you do that, your username will be in blue and be clickable. Until you do that, you are very limited in what communication can transpire between you and other members.

2. Please take a minute to go up to the User Control Panel (under search, top left) and then to your Profile and then Edit Equipment. Choose your gear from the pull down menus and the choose to show those in TEXT, not pictures. This will put your equipment at the bottom of every post your write automatically, like mine below. Those with the same equipment can help you better than having to constantly ask you what you use!

Once you are fully registered and we know what equipment you are using, we can attempt to help you resolve these issues. It might have been better to start your own threaded discussion... but once you are fully registered and logged in properly, you can do that.

You've landed in the right place.....we can help you, but you have to be willing to learn and become knowledgable and empowered to handle this therapy. Once you have, you will begin to feel better, think better, and that new relationship will be able to blossom. There have been many discussions about handling new relationships and taking the step toward intimacy with cpap as the third party in the room. Do a search for those....

Once we know what your equipment is....those with the same machine/mask/etc. can help you tweak things to get you on the road to recovery.

Hang in there......

dg wrote:The respiratory specialists kept trying to make me use a nasal mask because "God didn't intend for us to breath through our mouths". I guess I never really realized I was a mouth breather until this came up. I simply could not tolerate the nasal masks - I used a chin strap and I even taped my mouth shut. Finally, an ENT doctor examined me and said my nasal passages are too narrow to breathe through my nose and I would have to use a full face mask.

I just don't know what to do. This is so frustrating. And on top of all that, I have met someone - after being alone for 8 years - with whom I am soon going to want to pursue and intimate relationship, but that is now an impossibility. Top

Your respiratory therapist is a fool if that's the way it really happened. I'm a big opponent of starting people on full face masks. After all God DIDN'T intend us to breathe through our mouths. However, if you can't make a nasal mask work, you should use a full face mask. God didn't intend us to sleep hooked up to a CPAP machine, either.

Are you saying the intimate relationship is not possible because of CPAP and oxygen? Many of us here will disagree with you.

Please sign up for an account and then look at the link at the bottom of this post and put your equipment into your profile.

Then let me suggest you start a new thread so we don't confuse your situation with dr_bob.

dr_bob, I can't give you the kind of excellent advice that you are getting from the expert forum members. I can only give you encouragement. I am about 4 weeks into my therapy. When I first got my mask -- nasal pillow type -- I was happy. It is sooooo much less intimidating looking than the nasal masks. I had one or two good nights in the beginning, and then the trouble started. The pillow kept slipping out of alignment; I was waking up to whistles and other air noises. Would adjust the mask and go back to sleep for awhile. This happened something like 5 times per night. Still, it was taking its toll -- my fibromyalgia pain shot through the roof! So, I called my respiratory therapist for an appointment. She looked at the data from my machine and said that all looked good; the leaks were not significant, and I was wearing the mask for 8 or more hours per night. However, I was feeling infinitely worse than I had before starting therapy. She suggested a nasal mask, and I reluctantly agreed. Much to my surprise, I love this mask! I find it much easier to breathe, and my turning over in bed is not dislodging the mask. It's quieter, too.

I'm not trying to get you to make changes in your mask or machine. I'm just letting you know that there is an adjustment period, and it may not be fun. But, getting this therapy working for you is vital to your health and welfare. Keep trying, keep posting and reading here, keep putting your health first.

Good luck,
Barb

Sorry guys, I didn't know I was supposed to register. I'll see if I can do that right now.

dg wrote:Sorry guys, I didn't know I was supposed to register. I'll see if I can do that right now.

Not a problem. It just makes it easier on you and on us.