Hi. New here and to CPAP, I HATE it

The 4 hours a day, is the time required for compliance, to justify the need to keep the machine. By taking the machine off after 4 hours, you are telling your mind not to adjust to the treatment, making it harder to embrace.

It sounds like who's running you treatment is clueless, and is counting on the auto to do their job for them. Jim

As long as the focus is on hating treatment, adjustment will be harder, and you can hate it more. Without my treatment, I wouldn't be here to like it or hate it.

@Dani, if you don't have a copy of your prescription, please ask your doctor or DME to give you one. You have a right to have it, and you should have it any time you travel in case you forget/lose/break a piece of equipment, as you wouldn't be able to replace it without the Rx ... and you are entitled to it. My doctor mailed mine to me, and I took it to the DME, who made a copy of it and gave it back to me.

Dani, I am assuming that you have had your second Sleep Study, correct?

Here in Canada, and it might be different other places, they give you a machine and a mask right after the first sleep study but you then have an appointment with the doctor about 3 weeks AFTER the second nights study.
Thats the one where they truly can figure out your proper settings so if you haven't had the second study you DO need to have it.
Then see the doctor and get your prescription.

You are one step ahead of most people in that your doctor prescribed for you the S9 AutoSet. You have the best machine and you will come to love it ONCE its set up properly.
Most are given the S9 Escape which doesn't give us much data at all.

Anyhow if you do still need to do your Second sleep study and see the doctor after that.........then don't worry for it will all c hang around once you do have the right prescription but if I read your post right, I think it said you were at a pressure level of 20? If so, I personally haven't ever heard of anyone that high but i wouldn't be able to handle it either if so

Dani:

In addition to the Rx for your machine, you will also need to have a copy of the sleep study report(s). In the titration section, in case you had a titration study, there will be information about what pressures were needed to eliminate the obstructive apneas and the hypopneas you experienced in the lab. In the original diagnostic study, there will be listed the numbers and types of apneic events that happened during the study.

Using the Rx and the sleep study documents, you can figure out what will be needed in terms of inhale pressure (IPAP) and exhale pressure (EPAP). Since your machine is an AutoSet, you can get excellent information from the machine about what is going on.

Get a copy of SleepyHead and take a look at your data.

If you don't have the humidifier turned on, please do so as that will help with the nose bleeds. It is likely, from your description that the humidifier is turned off or worse, you never put any water in it in the first place.
Please always use distilled (NOT Purified) water in order to keep the humidifier tank from growing scummy things that make it difficult to clean. At least in the beginning, dump the water every morning and refill the tank with clean, distilled water. Later, when you get more accustomed to how the machine uses water in your environment you may choose to only dump the water once every so many days. I have been on CPAP for almost 4 years and I dump every day. With the cost of distilled water, that practice costs me less than 5 cents a day.

Finally, do list your equipment. I have a link on how to do that in my signature block.

With help, this difficult start will be overcome and you not only won't hate the machine so much but your health will improve. Let us know what we can do to help.

JDS74 wrote:Dani:

In addition to the Rx for your machine, you will also need to have a copy of the sleep study report(s). In the titration section, in case you had a titration study, there will be information about what pressures were needed to eliminate the obstructive apneas and the hypopneas you experienced in the lab. In the original diagnostic study, there will be listed the numbers and types of apneic events that happened during the study.

Using the Rx and the sleep study documents, you can figure out what will be needed in terms of inhale pressure (IPAP) and exhale pressure (EPAP). Since your machine is an AutoSet, you can get excellent information from the machine about what is going on.

Get a copy of SleepyHead and take a look at your data.

If you don't have the humidifier turned on, please do so as that will help with the nose bleeds. It is likely, from your description that the humidifier is turned off or worse, you never put any water in it in the first place.
Please always use distilled (NOT Purified) water in order to keep the humidifier tank from growing scummy things that make it difficult to clean. At least in the beginning, dump the water every morning and refill the tank with clean, distilled water. Later, when you get more accustomed to how the machine uses water in your environment you may choose to only dump the water once every so many days. I have been on CPAP for almost 4 years and I dump every day. With the cost of distilled water, that practice costs me less than 5 cents a day.

Finally, do list your equipment. I have a link on how to do that in my signature block.

With help, this difficult start will be overcome and you not only won't hate the machine so much but your health will improve. Let us know what we can do to help.

I don't think Dani is on bi-level, so if not she won't have an IPAP/EPAP setting. We can see for sure once she has listed her equipment.

Dani,
I didn't want you looking all over for a setting you may not have. Also if your max setting was 20 sounds like you were set 'wide open' which is sometimes done for titration, but frequently changing pressures this can bother some people. If you are hanging in the high pressure range & EPR doesn't help, you might need a bi-level machine. For now, just baby steps, commit to yours self that you are going to leave the mask on all night, not just 4 hours. Also follow BlackSpinner's advice, this will help your body accept that alien on your face at bedtime a lot better.

Remember you are not alone, you have us now. Ask all, the questions you want, we will help.

Jen

Thank you everyone. So much to sort through! I didn't think it would be this hard and was getting very discouraged.
Adjusted the EPR and almost forgot I had it on while watching TV, much easier to exhale.
Will look at the sleepyhead software as well.
Thanks again I will be sure to read over everyone's suggestions, it really does help!

But is it so hard? Now you know about the EPR (for starters), you should be happy, and hopefully get better sleep. And as you deal with one problem at a time and find solutions to each, you will feel better and more in control, plus less exhausted.

Not only crank the EPR up to max (it reduces the pressure when you exhale), but also press the 'ramp' button when you first turn the machine on. The ramp feature cuts the pressure down substantially and will allow you to be more comfortable and fall asleep. Then the pressure will then gradually increase back up to normal levels once you are already asleep.

You may want to talk to you doctor about getting tranquilizers to start with, to cut your anxiety and allow you to go to sleep more quickly. Then you can more easily get used to CPAP, especially with the ramp and the EPR, etc. Once you acclimate yourself to the system, which will occur in time, the problems will all seem like a distant memory.

Dani wrote:Thank you everyone. So much to sort through! I didn't think it would be this hard and was getting very discouraged.
Adjusted the EPR and almost forgot I had it on while watching TV, much easier to exhale.
Will look at the sleepyhead software as well.
Thanks again I will be sure to read over everyone's suggestions, it really does help!

Yes it is a lot of new things to learn while your brain is not cooperating from lack of quality sleep. I was a software developer used to doing research on new stuff and I found it overwhelming too at first but I noticed after a month or so of using it 8 hours a night suddenly all sorts of complex stuff was a lot easier to understand. Stuff that I had been slogging through months before were suddenly crystal clear and dead simple.

PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP, please: I am a relative newbie myself, and started in May. It has been 2 months for me and I am still playing around with masks. I still have not found a good fit for me!
I loved the WISP nasal mask and it never leaked on me. I have spent hundreds of dollars on mask liners, different sizes (which I am selling unopened by the way on here) and my nose got a bruise on it. I liked this mask and now red nose and the bruise has not gone down yet. I hated nasal pillows (still not great) but I am trying to get used to those too now. Got used to it but for some reason when the pressure goes up on me, I wake up with tons of air leaking all over my face like a hurricane. I wake up with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth etc from air. BUT I am determined to not give up.

My point is this: It could take 4 months or longer to get used to it. Try to wear it for 1 hour a night and if you need to throw it off on the floor, do that. But at least 1 hour a night and see if it gets any better before giving up. Remember, don't be hard on yourself. Like I said, I am 2 months into it and wear it now every night with minimal success and a bag in my closet full of unopened masks, like a mask "hoarder" that will not work for me. Just give yourself lots and lots of time, even if it takes 6 months. This will not all come together after just a few weeks..... give yourself months to get used to it.