Second Night Didn't go so well...

Okay, night two with my CPAP machine and it didn't go so well.

Since I had pretty severe congesting in my nose, I took some nasal spray and went to bed with clear passages.
It seemed like every time I would drift off I would have a breathing episode. Felt like an apnea episode and I would wake and gasp for air. And with the nose piece in it didn't feel like I could get enough.
So I would take it off for a sec to get my breathing under control and then start all over again, again and again.

My script said 6-16 and the Auto pressure setting on my machine were set to that range. C-Flex was also turned onto max.

I really need to make this work...so any suggesting are appreciated.

Sometimes turning humidity down (or even off) can get rid of congestion, but you have to try it out for yourself and it also depends on how humid your environment is otherwise of course. Whatever you do don't use Afrin as it's addictive and you need more and more to get less and less effect. Why not try a different mask, maybe a FF one, if you have nasal issues?

Patience and a postive attitude really helps.... it's going to take your mind and body some time to acclimate to this new process. Humidity level is really a personal matter. some like it really high and others don't use it at all.

I keep my H5i setting around 4 during drier weather to avoid dry mouth.... but during rainy days or humid weather, it gets set to about 2.5

Try setting your humidity a little higher and see if there is an improvement. if not, try a lower setting

My sleep study showed AHI of 33..... My 1st night at home with CPAP it was 26..... my 2nd night it was 23, my 3rd night is was 18. after about 2-3 weeks of overcoming the overall anxiety, overcoming claustrophia over the full face mask & solving mask leaks - my AHI was down to about 3.

it wasn't until my body & brain really acclimated to CPAP and my AHI went below 2 before I started to feel any changes in my health.

keep working it at.....

Dave

VBCguy,

First, you will need to deal with the congestion if its a chronic problem for you.

Next, have you had a chance to look at the data in SH to see whether the machine was detecting "events" during the time you were falling asleep?

If it was, some of your waking back up may have been triggered by pressure increases.

If it did not detect any breathing events at the times when you thought apnea-like events were happening, then the waking up just as you were beginning to drift off was likely caused by a problem other than apneas waking you up.

What kind of things might have triggered these sensations?

It could be as simple as the novelty of the whole set up combined with the congestion. Your brain has not yet learned to trust the machine and a lot of people go through a period of feeling like they are not getting enough air at the start. Sometimes it's just psychological: You've got this thing on your nose blocking your nostrils since you are using the pillows. Once the seal is established and the pillows are in the exact right place, you don't even feel the flow of the air inside your nostrils. Hence the brain panics and starts to think that there's NO AIR COMING IN because there's this thing on the nose. If you put your hand in front of the vent and feel the jet stream of exhaust flow, that's usually enough to settle the brain down and nip the sensation of needing more air.

Another thing that could be happening is that you are now noticing when your body is transitioning to normal sleep breathing, which is both shallower and more regular than wake breathing. And it could just be that you are noticing this for the first time simply because the whole "start CPAP" tends to make people notice their breathing patterns a whole lot more than they used to.

Great points.
I don't have access to my data. The machine is locked and all of the data is transmitted via a cellular connection on the machine to the company I am getting a free trial from.
I am hoping to hear from them soon. I would like to try a full face mask and ask them about the pressure to see if changes are causing my disruptions.

Thanks again for all of the input and advice.

VBCguy wrote:Great points.
I don't have access to my data. The machine is locked and all of the data is transmitted via a cellular connection on the machine to the company I am getting a free trial from.
I am hoping to hear from them soon. I would like to try a full face mask and ask them about the pressure to see if changes are causing my disruptions.

Thanks again for all of the input and advice.

Just go to apneaboard.com and download the clinicians instructions for your machine... a DME cannot "lock" us out

Nothing is stopping you from looking at the data if you want to.
You can turn on the ability to see the onscreen data in the clinical menu...they won't ever know.
You can even remove the SD card (if it has one in the slot) and use the software and they won't ever know.
If it doesn't have a SD card in the slot...any generic SD card will work. It does need to be in the slot all night to get detailed data.

http://www.apneuvereniging.nl/forum/pdf ... manual.pdf
Above is the link for the manual.
Short directions with pictures here
http://www.apneaboard.com/resmed-s9-cpap-setup

Yes, these include directions on how to change stuff but no one is telling you to change anything....looking is just looking.

Sleep Quality in the clinical menu is by default from the factory set to "usage"...it needs to be set to "On" to get the detailed data. Otherwise all that is gathered and/or transmitted is hours of use.

You can look all you want and they have zero way to know you looked unless you tell them.

thanks for all the info!

I still have my good and bad nights. I think everyone does. Some problems are physical most psychological. Mess with your humidity, like others have said, it should help with the smothering feeling. Sometimes it helps to focus on your breathing other times it helps to think about something else. You will get the hang of it.