First Night for me with my own CPAP

Hi everyone. This is a great site. I have learned alot in the last month or so reading people's testimonials and stories. It has let me know that i'm not the only one out there with sleep apnea and that i CAN do this. I just turned 38 and have been a loud snorer all my life. I'm overweight but my weight has fluctuated all of my life and the snoring has been the one constant! My poor wife has had to sleep with ear plugs since we've gotten married 5.5 years ago. She urged me to get a physical and ask about my apnea. I started researching sleep apnea and i had alot of the symptoms. Overweight/large neck/sluggishness during the day. So i went to the Doc. My labs came back ok, but it turns out that i have hypothyroidism. There is a link between that and apnea and the doctor prescribed a sleep study.

Had my first sleep study on Dec 8th, found that i had obstructive sleep apnea and had my titration study scheduled for Dec 29th. The titration study for me was awful the second i tried my first nasal mask. I started to get severe anxiety as the pressure entered my nose. I was worried that i wouldn't be able to deal with the study all night. The technician had me try some others and i tried a full face mask by Resmed, the Mirage Quattro. The full face was definitely the way to go for me and my anxiety started to fade a bit. Once i had all the wires/tape/whatever attached to me, the anxiety returned. it took me forever to get to sleep and i woke up once. The next morning i didn't feel better like i wished i would. My technician told me my pressure # which is 12. I waited a week after the study and no one called. I called the sleep lab and my doctor's office to see what was going on. The doctor's office faxed me over the letter the sleep lab gave them and told me that they would be contacting me.

The sleep lab prescribed me a Resmed S9 Escape w/humidifier CPAP. I asked if i could be prescribed the Quattro FX mask as the strap on the forehead bothered me more than anything when i was trying to fall asleep with the Mirage Quattro. After i got off the phone, i came on here and realized that the S9 Escape was the bottom of the barrel for Resmeds and it didn't show any data. I called the Dr. back and asked if i could get the Resmed S9 Elite and she said yes.

I'm thankful for this site b/c it has educated me on machines/masks/etc before getting my equipment. The DME delivered it to my house this afternoon and it's set up to use tonight. I'm hoping that my comfortable enviornment of being home and NOT being hooked up with dozens of wires and straps makes a difference. God willing, this CPAP will help me out.

Thanks again for this site!

So I guess we should say happy sleeping. Let us know how the first night goes.

Welcome Josh, good job on getting your machine switched! Keep us posted and good luck!

Welcome to the forum.

Can I offer something? Don't feel discouraged if you don't wake up and feel the "miracle" tomorrow morning. While there are a few lucky souls who do take to all this very easily and have superb results rather quickly, those people are not as common as you might think. Most of us it has taken some time. Some of us it takes a lot of time. I don't want to rain on your parade but I also don't want you to feel bad if you don't have the miracle you read about tomorrow morning even though I know you desperately want it.

I was well educated in regards to all the ins and outs. Looking forward to wearing the mask. Zero issues with anxiety. Thought for sure with my "attitude" I would have immediate spectacular success.
Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Just luck of the draw which I won't go into right now but just to let you know that sometimes when all the things point to success...it doesn't always come immediately.

Good luck on your first night tonight and good job on getting educated early. It does make the work easier and it is work and there will be bumps in the road but with good attitude and education the bumps can be kept to a minimum.

Pugsy wrote:Can I offer something? Don't feel discouraged if you don't wake up and feel the "miracle" tomorrow morning.

QFT. I spent my first night on CPAP lying there awake for 4 hours. Stick with it. Your body acclimates. I just finished my first full week, 2 years after being diagnosed. Don't wait as long as I did to "figure it out."

Pugsy wrote:Looking forward to wearing the mask.

Silly as it may sound, I let the "little boy" in me run wild the first few nights... imagining I was a fighter pilot with an O2 mask on when wearing my full face mask. LOL! I was on a mission (I really was, in my own personal terms). Whatever it takes

Thanks for the replies and encouragement. My first night was a mixed bag which is to be expected. took me forever to fall asleep and once I did, I woke up 90 minutes later to go to the bathroom. After coming back to bed, it took a long time to get back to sleep. woke up this morning breathing with my mouth open(have a full face mask) and I think I swallowed too much air!

I hope it gets easier to fall asleep, I'm guessing it will as I go forward. The most encouraging point was tolerating my prescribed pressure while awake and not getting anxiety.

I thought there was an onscreen sleep report on the S9 Elite? I'm not seeing it, could someone tell me how to get this?

josh73 wrote:I thought there was an onscreen sleep report on the S9 Elite? I'm not seeing it, could someone tell me how to get this?

Answered in another thread but for someone missing that thread and seeing this thread.
In the clinical menu the default setting for Sleep Quality is "Usage" which only shows hours of use.
It must be changed from usage to ON and then full data will be scored. Until then, the machine only collects hours of use. Another night of sleep will be needed to see the additional data. The change is not retroactive.

Pugsy wrote:Answered in another thread but for someone missing that thread and seeing this thread.
In the clinical menu the default setting for Sleep Quality is "Usage" which only shows hours of use.
It must be changed from usage to ON and then full data will be scored. Until then, the machine only collects hours of use. Another night of sleep will be needed to see the additional data. The change is not retroactive.

Wow, do you mean it doesn't even put the waveform and apnea data on the SD card to be read by the software if Sleep Quality is set to "Usage?"

-edit--- it only records if SQ is set to "On".

archangle wrote: Wow, do you mean it doesn't even put the waveform and apnea data on the SD card to be read by the software unless Sleep Quality is set to "Usage?"

That is what Randy J said in the other thread. He confirmed that absolutely nothing is recorded when setting is "usage". So if a DME doesn't change it (or the patient)...they don't ever have anything except hours of use when they check the SD card. This means that it is more than just turning off the ability of the patient to see the data...the data is never available. Geezz how in the blazes do they ever hope to monitor a problem... I guess they might go into the settings and turn Sleep Quality on....let the patient struggle with things for another month....then check the efficacy data. P..s poor care IMHO.

Well, I have it set to "on" now in the clinician setting. At least it shows my ahi from last night and the usage. I hope I get more information tomorrow morning.

Pugsy wrote:

archangle wrote: Wow, do you mean it doesn't even put the waveform and apnea data on the SD card to be read by the software unless Sleep Quality is set to "Usage?"

That is what Randy J said in the other thread. He confirmed that absolutely nothing is recorded when setting is "usage".

Geez, reminds me of something I said to a friend the other day. "Now they're just screwing with us."

My S9 VPAP is set to usage. That just controls what data is shown when the patient pushes the info button. It still records all the data that I download to SleepyHead. IF you push the info button and clinician button at the same time for 3 sec, it displays hours, mask fit and AHI.

DrPepper00 wrote:My S9 VPAP is set to usage. That just controls what data is shown when the patient pushes the info button. It still records all the data that I download to SleepyHead. IF you push the info button and clinician button at the same time for 3 sec, it displays hours, mask fit and AHI.

Okay, thanks... I was just reporting what Randy J said. I don't use a Resmed machine myself.

Yeah, Pugsy. That is why I qualified it with my machine. It is a different one than Randy's and may behave differently. All these machines seem to have their own way of doing things.