recently diagnosed and recent CPAP user - my story

Sorry but I have zero experience with your type of mask so I don't have a clue what you are talking about.
Though I see no problem disconnecting it where it is easiest.
Are you talking about disconnecting for cleaning or just in general for perhaps a bathroom break during the night?

Pugsy wrote:Sorry but I have zero experience with your type of mask so I don't have a clue what you are talking about.
Though I see no problem disconnecting it where it is easiest.
Are you talking about disconnecting for cleaning or just in general for perhaps a bathroom break during the night?

It can be for both. I think I'll just take the part of the mask and have it remained in the hose. Much easier and less chance of actually damaging anything otherwise.
If I just take the hose off, I have to do screw driver like motions back and forth with my hand while holding the mask.

P.S.
Look at the mask link on my signature - the part I'm speaking of is the gray "chin" like at the bottom of the mask.

This part? https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... masks.html

I don't think I would be messing with that part either unless I had to. I would break it for sure.
I am such a klutz. There used to be some sort of universal adapter for quick disconnects but I am unsure if they would even work with this mask since I have never used one. https://www.cpap.com/productpage/hose-q ... nnect.html
Perhaps someone familiar with your mask and this coupler would know if it would help or not.

Pugsy wrote:This part? https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... masks.html

I don't think I would be messing with that part either unless I had to. I would break it for sure.
I am such a klutz. There used to be some sort of universal adapter for quick disconnects but I am unsure if they would even work with this mask since I have never used one. https://www.cpap.com/productpage/hose-q ... nnect.html
Perhaps someone familiar with your mask and this coupler would know if it would help or not.

Yeah, that's it. I put the hose all the way in. Perhaps if I won't put all the way in, I can disconnect the hose with great ease.
Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps this part if the quick disconnect.

P.S.
klutziness has nothing to do with it.

The technician reconfigured the device yesterday and it is now back to "C" (continuous) mode of 11cm.
Someone previously wrote about how to enter advanced setup - I guess I could have done it myself.


He smiled when I asked him about pressing both buttons to enter configuration mode.
He said I'm not supposed to know about that.

Anyways...... I think it is becoming easier to sleep each day. Tonight I slept 7-8 hours and I don't recall waking up. That is probably about twice the amount of sleep I get without the CPAP and quality sleep too.
While I didn't feel like jumping out of bed first thing in the morning and still feel tired, it is a "I can sleep some more" tiredness instead of "I slept horribly" tiredness.
I also noticed that I wake up in the same position I went to sleep in - on my back. Before that I'm pretty sure I wiggled a lot during sleep.
So far, I love my CPAP - haven't slept so much in a single night over the last 13 years.

justacpapuser wrote:He smiled when I asked him about pressing both buttons to enter configuration mode.
He said I'm not supposed to know about that.

This just irks me to no end. Why are we not supposed to know about it? What is the horrible secret that lies within the clinical menu? That we could maybe change the pressure god forbid? Well yeah we can but that doesn't mean we will.
Why this is treated like the national secret treasure is way beyond what I can comprehend. We aren't smart enough to understand all the "complicated" stuff I guess.

Pugsy wrote:

justacpapuser wrote:He smiled when I asked him about pressing both buttons to enter configuration mode.
He said I'm not supposed to know about that.

This just irks me to no end. Why are we not supposed to know about it? What is the horrible secret that lies within the clinical menu? That we could maybe change the pressure god forbid? Well yeah we can but that doesn't mean we will.
Why this is treated like the national secret treasure is way beyond what I can comprehend. We aren't smart enough to understand all the "complicated" stuff I guess.

I actually asked him about it and he said that some people change the settings on their own (or used to on older machines), that is why it is a "secret".
He also told me funny stories about people that don't want to use the machine and just turn it on for a few hours to try fulling the doctor/insurance for some compliance related issue.
I myself can't get that - if the machine can assist me sleeping better and make my life better, why not use it?
I guess some people really have a problem putting on the mask or somehow it hurts their ego if they have to use a CPAP.

justacpapuser wrote:I myself can't get that - if the machine can assist me sleeping better and make my life better, why not use it?
I guess some people really have a problem putting on the mask or somehow it hurts their ego if they have to use a CPAP.

I am with you. While I would rather not use this stuff, I sure don't want to abuse my body any more than I do already.
Some people do feel ashamed...men feel less manly and women feel less sexy.
Some people simply don't know that things can be done to improve on the comfort and adjustment aspects. They hear from their doctor or DME that "you will feel great once you use the machine" and think that something is wrong with them if they don't and they don't push getting their problems sorted out.

My own step sister has had the OSA diagnosis for years prior to my own diagnosis. She used a nasal mask (cover the nose) for years that literally decimated her nose and would periodically go without the machine so that her nose could heal up.
She told me that she felt better when she used the machine but sometimes the nose problem was so great that she just couldn't. So 3 years ago I told her about nasal pillow masks. She had no idea that they existed but didn't put forth the effort to check into them. A few months ago her machine died. She just didn't do anything about it. Didn't make the effort to see about getting a new machine. Her old machine was noisy...husband would complain....too easy to just let things slide. Finally I spotted a good deal on a used ResMed S9 Autoset...I called her up and ask her if she was ready to get back on the cpap wagon and actually do something productive. She agreed so we got her the "new" used machine and I got her a Swift FX along with the new Bella Loops and she is back on track. Loves the machine. Husband can't believe it is so quiet. No more decimated nose and she loves the nasal pillow mask and hasn't missed a night with it. Found out she doesn't need 15 cm pressure all night...that most of the time she gets by with 10 cm which is so much easier to use and only rarely sees the APAP go to 12 cm.

So there are lots of reasons why people quit using the machine or give up on it before really giving things a chance.
Some people just need a good swift kick in the butt. That is what I did to my step sister. I told her these masks were too expensive and if she wasn't going to use it then I would have wasted my money and I don't like wasting money.

I just got back from a Dr. visit. He went over both sleep studies with me. It seems I didn't have apnea or hypopnea events. However, it seemed that snoring did cause me to wake up and there were occasions of RERA (Respiratory Effort Related Arousal - if I remember correctly). RERA happened a lot during REM stage. It seems that there were unusual efforts to breath which woke me up. I also spent a large time in a certain sleep stage (perhaps N1 or N2) which he said was not restorative sleep stage. The second sleep study showed that I spent much more time on that sleep phase and no RERA occurred + no snoring. He also said that my sleep during first sleep study was very fragmented.

I guess I should have asked him, but I didn't, so I'll ask here. Apnea is at least 10 seconds without breathing (for whatever reason) and hypopnea is breathing but lack of oxygen?
So it seems I don't have those because I wake up before even reaching that stage due to unusual respiratory effort (RERA)?
While he said that the study showed me as having mild sleep problems, I feel quite the opposite. Already a week on CPAP I had nights without waking up and slept for 6-8 hours straights on a few occasions.
Never happened to me in the last 13 years or so. So regardless what my sleeping issues are, I currently am in love with my CPAP machine.

Might want to read up on UARS Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome.

You know since you don't really have the classic collapse of the airway thing you can probably sleep in any position you want without fear of making things worse.

You know anything that disturbs the natural sleep cycles disturbs the restorative powers of those sleep cycles.
When you wake up from whatever cause then you have to start all over with the sleep cycles and if we don't get the proper amount of each sleep stage we just feel awful.

I put off telling my doctor I had sleep apnea for years because I was afraid of my mom's machine. It was noisy, an I thought nasal masks were the only option. I also so her go months without using it, and she didn't seem all that happy with it. Once I learned sleep apnea causes high blood pressure, I knew I had to take care of it. My high blood pressure is still high after 8 months with 3 different medications. I had a scare last September with vertigo that was not related, but it sure freaked me out. My doctor has been telling me I am at higher risk of a stroke, and then the ER doctors were checking to make sure I wasn't having a stroke. So that really made me scared.

After I did my sleep study, my mom told me how bad her sleep study was. She also told me that she felt better when she used her cpap machine, but that she needed a new mask. Um, why not get a new one? She did get a new one a couple days after I got my machine and she liked my mask. She has used it every night since, so that is great.

Personally, I have a few reasons that I am determined to use this daily and make it work.

1) I do actually feel better

2) I really NEED my blood pressure to be normal. Upper 160s is very bad. I'm only 39. I do NOT want to have a stroke.

3) My share of the sleep study is over $1000. It is going to take me a good year to pay it off. I am NOT going to pay that for nothing.

4) my share of the apap machine and masks will probably be in the $300 - $500 range. Again, I am not paying for it to be wasted. I simply can't afford to throw away that kind of money.

5) I have strange creepy dreams now when I take the mask off early. Dreams that I am dying, or that I can't find an outlet to plug in my machine. Even while asleep, my brain says I need it, so I should just cooperate and do it.

Last night, I was getting annoyed with the mirage liberty (slight leak in the nasal pillows), I I just switched to the Quattro FX, stuffed a Kleenex in the leaky spot and went back to bed. I think a piece of duct tap on my nose will fix the leaky pillow, so I am going to put the roll of duct in bed near me before I go to bed so that it is handy.

Looking closer at my sleep study results, I decided to post some more info.

Initial sleep study:
AHI: 1.9 events per hour (normal)
overall respiratory disturbance index (RDI): 10.2 events per hour (mild)

impression
* Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep related obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and mild upper airway resistance syndrome. The frequency of hypopnea and Respiratory Event Related Arousals (RERA) was mild but significant during REM sleep.
* Significantly increased amount of stage N1 sleep suggestive of significant sleep fragmentation.

(following are in minutes)
stage N1 87
stage N2 195.5
stage N3 62.5
REM stage 58

Second sleep study (with CPAP):
(following are in minutes)
stage N1 27
stage N2 283.5
stage N3 64
REM stage 89.5


Seems like 30 minutes spent more in REM stage and about 90 minutes more in N2 instead of N1 stage.
Don't know exactly what sleep fragmentation is but perhaps I "reset" certain things too often by going back to stage N1.

justacpapuser wrote:don't know exactly what sleep fragmentation is but perhaps I "reset" certain things too often by going back to stage N1

That's pretty much it. Sleep fragmentation is when we arouse out of a sleep stage and have to start all over with the sleep cycles. Sometimes we are aware of it and sometimes we aren't. Fragmented sleep for any reason will sure mess with how we feel the next day because the body needs to have the normal cycles (and normal amount of time in each cycle) to make use of sleep's restorative powers.

I just wanted to provide an update. I have been using my CPAP for about two weeks now.
I usually sleep 6-7 hours a night now and I only remember waking up once or twice. This is of course an excellent thing because it happened only twice over the last 13 years.
I'm still tired in the morning but a totally different type of tired than before. Usually, around 12pm or so this feeling goes away (I guess I'm not a morning person).
I totally got used to the mask and I don't think I breath through my mouth anymore - I got used to breathing through my nose.

There was only one time I slept for about 8 hours. In truth, I'm a little disappointed because I thought I would be able to get 8-10 hours of sleep.
However, even if I go to sleep on weekdays around 11pm I wake up before 7am (before the alarm clock goes on) and even on weekends I can't seem to sleep more than 6-7 hours straight.
I do hope that the fact that I'm recovering from a really long lasting bad cough has something to do with it too.

Do some people simply cannot sleep more than 6-7 hours straight?

Something weird has been going on for nearly a week now. I find myself waking up at night (I don't know when exactly), and I just find the mask either leaking or so uncomfortable that I just take it off and sleep without it on my stomach. Don't know why - haven't felt it being uncomfortable for a few weeks prior to this. I took of the strap and washed it - maybe I somehow hooked it back incorrectly (up side down or something like that) if it is even possible. Or maybe due to the recent hit I just wake up at night feeling the need to cool off and take off the mask. Duno.