Oh gosh Cyn, I sure hope you will keep trying.  I just told my hubby tonight that I had a great night's sleep last night.  Didn't get to bed until nearly 11:30 but didn't even wake up to his alarm this morning and slept straight through until 7:30 am!  I feel super today too.  Maybe you need to go to a respiratory therapist like I do.  She fitted me for my nasal pillows and has been SUCH a great support to me.  You just need to find something out there that works for you.  Maybe there is a problem with your machine.  I set my humidifier on 2 and it's just perfect.  I have had one or two nights where I woke up with water in my nose but I'm wondering if it was just the humidity in the air was extra high those nights or something.  I am no expert but I think you should keep trying until you find something that works for you.  Life is too short to go on not getting adequate sleep.

The 1,000 hours must be true for some of us.  I am half way (3 months and some 550 hours on my Res Med V pap III unit.  With a bi-level pressure of 23/16, I have tryed four different masks and am scheduled to spend a third night in the sleep clinic later this month. (My doctor says I may have to go to a different machine.  Thank God for Medicare!)  I am currently using a full face mask, an FP 432 Flexfit.  I tryed the nose maske, but my pressure was too high.  Then, I tryed a Quatro, but the mask did not seal as well, unless I tightened it and bruised my face.
  
  Is your AI (apnea index) supposed to go down with use of the mask?  I was diagnosed with 23 apnea's per hour on my test and it still runs about 20 per hour.  ONe night it was as low as 8.

  Only 450 hours to go!  I am taking my CPAP on a fishing trip to Alaska next week.  I have a battery convertor so that I can run it off a 12 volt boat battery!

ojanderson

ojanderson wrote:

Is your AI (apnea index) supposed to go down with use of the mask?  I was diagnosed with 23 apnea's per hour on my test and it still runs about 20 per hour.  ONe night it was as low as 8.

Yes.  The whole idea is to get your AHI under 5, which is considered "normal".  If on your best nights you are still an eight, you still have mild sleep apnea and will still suffer from it's effects.  You need to figure out what it is that isn't optimal and adjust.  Either your pressure isn't quite right, you have large mask leaks, mouth breathing, something.

If you are used to the mask now and sleeping with it all night, your number isn't going to go down on it's own.  At this point it's no longer a matter of getting used to it.

Put on your detectives hat!

Thanks Dimples.  It's really getting me down though.  I'm having more unrelated(to apnea) issues in my life now with my hubby who is recovering form knee replacement surgery one month ago.  His depression is really getting to me and I'mhaving a lot of trouble caring about whether I sleep or not!

I have to keep trying though, things have to get better one way or another!  I'm supposed to be getting an appointment with someone to do a better fitting, but it's an hour and fifteen minutes drive over to that hospital, and gas prices are going through the roof here! (as they are everywhere).  I could sure use some kind of break from all this stress!

Cyn

Well, finally there actually came a break form the stress.  my DH spoke with a nurse who mentioned getting some Flexeril or Soma (sp?) for the leg muscle pains, and he did, it worked, and he finally got a good night's sleep and I came home tonight and found him sitting comfortably with his legs crossed!!  So He's on the mend, so now I can relax a bit and work on my stuff.  I have a definite appointment for a mask fitting, so I'll go from there and see what happens.

Cyn

Cyn...I do not know where you are located but my DME comes to my house.  If need be, I can ask her to bring me several masks that I want to try...and she will bring them out to me...and fit one.  You may want to ask your DME if they will come to your house...tell them that you can not leave due to your husband...or whatever it takes.  Just and idea for you.


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Dimples,
Thanks for sharing your experience.  I just had my sleep study with CPAP. I'll get my machine soon.  The sleep study was interesting.  I know I slept for at least two good periods but each time I woke up I was suffocating.  As soon as I became conscious of what was going on around me, I started fighting the machine for air. The pressure was very high and it was hard to catch my breath.  I became claustrophobic with the nose mask (couldn't get it off in an emergency because I didn't know how the straps fastened) and I opted for the under-the-nose mask with the nasal pillows.

I think the machine helped me. I certainly felt less sleepy the next day, but sheesh, that was very long and traumatic night!  They were playing with different pressures and cycles.  At one point, I felt the machine was breathing for me (doing the inhale/exhale pressures).  The trouble was, it wasn't giving me a lung-full of air before it would switch to exhale mode, and I would have liked an additional half-second before I had to exhale. It had me hyperventillating so fast I was getting dizzy.  I had to call the attendant and when they turned down the pressure, my hands were both tingling.  It was hard to relax and get back to sleep when the pressure was on high.

I know this will take some getting used to but the next night, I was really dreading going to sleep and I didn't even have a machine of my own yet!

Prior to using the machine, my sinuses would clog up almost every night so that when I wake up, my nose is completely blocked on one side or the other, and sometimes on both.  I thought it was interesting that with the CPAP machine, I had a clear nose in the morning.

I saw on the internet that some of the hoses are heated to help reduce condensation. Maybe something like that would stop you from getting water in your nose.  Moisture being forced into your lungs can't be good...

Thanks again for posting your experiences. They really helped me muster the courage to keep going through with this!

Oh Joy.. my ENT doctor said they didn't get good enough data and I have to have another CPAP sleep study. This time with Ambien.

I hope I sleep through the night and they get the pressures right.  Another night of that feeling of suffocation is the last thing I want!  I felt so claustrophobic, it was terrible.  Ugh.

I had two sleep studies.  One was the diagnostic sleep study and the other was the titration.  My husband only had one...a split study.  They did the diagnotic part half of the night and the other half with the mask on and adjusted his pressures.  We went to the same sleep lab so I asked the technician why I had to have two.  He said it was my doctor.  I guess he likes to do the diagnostic first and then the titration later.  It sure drug it out for me though.  My husband had his sleep study 2 months after I had my first one and he was sleeping with his machine for a full month before I got mine.  I am highly claustrophobic so had to do a lot of mind imagery while I was doing the study.  I just had to make up my mind that I was going to relax and get through it.  I was fine.  I felt a little suffocated in the middle of the night but I think that was because they had a nasal cradle under my nose.  Once the tech came in and changed me over to nasal pillows I was fine.  He also encouraged me to get in a good position for sleep so I turned over on my side and I didn't wake up until 6:00 am!  This was after going to bed at 10:45 which is earlier than normal for me.  Hang in there and just think pleasant thoughts while you're having the study....maybe you on a beach with the waves hitting the white sand.

I've had two sleep studies so far. The first one confirmed that I have "moderate" apnea.  The second was with CPAP to determine the pressures (i guess this is the titration?).  I couldn't even get started with the mask that only goes over the nose.  Part of the reason was that I couldn't figure out how to work the straps that were holding it against my face in two different places. They fastened somewhere behind my head and I couldn't take the mask away from my nose when I felt claustrophobic, which only made me panic more. I would have preferred this kind as it lets you turn your head from side to side easily since the hose comes out the top.  Maybe I'll graduate to this kind after I'm used to the machine.

Instead, I used the kind that has nasal pillows and sits under your nose.  That worked ok until I tried to breathe through my mouth when the pressure was on high.  The feeling of the air flowing down my nasal passages and out my mouth while trying to take a breath and then trying to re-sync my nose breathing with the machine was a little disconcerting.  I found that I would take a deeper breath through my mouth than what the machine was giving me through my nose (it was set to cycle pressures), and I found that if I kept inhaling through my nose or delayed slightly after inhaling when the machine had already switched to exhale mode, I would end up exhaling into the high pressure cycle when it switched again and then not get a full breath the next time.  I had to either hyperventilate or breathe a half-breath to get back in sync to breathe through my nose only. I held the mask away from my nose a couple times so I could get back to breathing only through my nose without fighting the machine. The machine was also cycling faster than was comfortable for my normal breathing cycle, leaving me with a shortness of breath feeling.  That was probably the longest night of my life. I'm really dreading repeating that all over again...

One funny thing though was that in one of the dreams I remember having, I was of standing in the sleep room and talking on a wall-mounted phone. In my dream I was wearing the mask with the hose just dangling, not hooked up to anything.  I was talking with the sleep tech via the phone who was telling me that I was all done and that I didn't have to wear the mask anymore.  I remember waking up later and thinking "oh boy, I can take this off now!", only to come to the rationalization that they wouldn't actually have told me not to wear the mask in the middle of a sleep study.  I was bummed. Wishful thinking at its best!

I picked up my Ambien prescription today.  Hopefully that plus some fine imagery of being in Hawaii or some other tropical place will carry me through the next sleep appointment...  I'm hopeful but stressed out.

You'll get a kick out of my sleep study experience.  The first one, diagnostic, was done by a quiet lady who hardly spoke to me.  Right after she got me all hooked up to the wires I felt sick!!  Sick enough that I told her I thought I might vomit.  You should have seen the look of panic on her face.  She quickly got me all tied up so I could RUN to the bathroom.  I got in there and -poof- the feeling was gone.  I have no idea what in the world brought that on other than..hmmm...ANXIETY???  By this time she's pegged me as a nut case and puts me to bed.  The rest of the evening was uneventful.  The next sleep study I did (titration/pressure) I had a gabby guy who started talking to me about reincarnation.  Told me that since I am claustrophobic, had I given it any thought that maybe I was reincarnated from a miner who was possibly suffocated in a mine.  You can imagine how relaxed I was by this time!!  I thought I was in the basement of the sleep lab with a NUT.  I even asked him how many people were down there with us.  He named off a security guard and another sleep study patient.  He told me how thick the walls are in there so you can sleep (and so nobody can hear you scream when the tech turns out to be a nut..LOL)  I somehow managed to relax and took in slow, even breaths (all the while doing the imagery stuff) and drifted off to sleep (in 5 minutes according to the computer).  

I have never had the feeling you're talking about with the inhalation rate/exhalation rate with the machine vs breathing.  Maybe someone else out there can give you some advice on that.  I just know that I need to relax and think about everything BUT breathing with the machine and I'm fine.  I, too, dreamt the night of the titration study.  Can't recall what it was but it was a colorful, vivid dream like I used to have back when I got restful sleep.  I too have that dream that I will not need the machine/mask. :(  But, the fact that I am now dreaming again encouraged me in regards to getting the machine and therefore, good sleep.  Hopefully armed with Ambien and some good imagery you'll do fine in your study.  Good luck!!

BarryKaraoke wrote:

ojanderson wrote:

Is your AI (apnea index) supposed to go down with use of the mask?  I was diagnosed with 23 apnea's per hour on my test and it still runs about 20 per hour.  ONe night it was as low as 8.

Yes.  The whole idea is to get your AHI under 5, which is considered "normal".  If on your best nights you are still an eight, you still have mild sleep apnea and will still suffer from it's effects.  You need to figure out what it is that isn't optimal and adjust.  Either your pressure isn't quite right, you have large mask leaks, mouth breathing, something.

If you are used to the mask now and sleeping with it all night, your number isn't going to go down on it's own.  At this point it's no longer a matter of getting used to it.

Put on your detectives hat!

My AHI is usually even below 2, even with the pressure of 8.0 cm H2O. That's that pressure I slept last night, but today I feel "rotten", and still feel so most of the nights. I suspect I'm very sensitive to any pressure I sleep with.

When my RemStart Plus M Series with heated humdifier started turning itself off (due apparently to a short in the wiring) I wasn't aware of the problem but when I did wake up and it wasn't working I felt like I was being suffocated.  This happened several times before I took the entire system back and had it replaced.  If you hear a beep when you get the "suffocating" feeling that's what's happening.  It would appear the newer series of humidifiers have wiring shorts or problems in them, too.  I am on my third humidifier as the first two had problems.

I had my second titration study and apparently I gave them good data this time - yay!  I slept through the night with the help of Ambien, but the next morning I was still pretty sleepy.  Hopefully after I get my own machine, I won't need any sleep aids.  I was so glad I didn't wake up in the middle of the study again.  The high pressure last time was really disconcerting.  I was really dreading going to the study this time.

My doctor is prescribing a bi-pap machine with pressures of 13 and 9 and a humidifier.  I think I'm getting a Swift Plus mask.  I used a Swift with nasal pillows for my tests, but that one has a hose that comes out one side of your face or the other. The "Plus" has nasal pillows but the hose is on a swivel so you can turn your head easier.

Last time, one of my sleep techs had only been on the job for 2 days. I wonder if maybe that was part of my bad experience.  This time I didn't seem to have the same problem with the bi-pressure as last time. I never felt short of breath or that I was fighting for air.

I should have my own machine in a week or so.

What is the criteria for prescribing Bi-PAP instead of CPAP?     I've been reading other posts in this forum and I'll be requesting copies of my sleep studies.  But I'm curious why my doctor feels bi-PAP is the treatment I need.