You will get used to it if you stick with it.
If they are prescribing cpaps when they could be using auto-paps, it’s plain stupid, imo.
Pressure has more to do with physiology than number of apnic episodes
Aren’t they all pretty much auto-paps these days? Regardless of colloquial nomenclature.
They weren’t the last time I bought mine, but I don’t know. But what John said above made me wonder. Now that could easily have been just a starting pressure, not a fixed pressure machine.
I was 52 and a lifelong mouth breather. I tried for a week, and by Fri was a absolute zombie. And because I’d switched the crappy full face mask that came with the machine for the nasal pillow, I had to buy my own mask and ended up with a Resmed F10 based on CPAP.com reviews.
My machine is a constant pressure; nor does it cycle with my breathing. At least it’s configured that way. I know how to get into its ‘medical menu’ but don’t want to play lest I void some weird insurance rule.
It does take time. And I suppose it is possible someone might not adjust to it. But full face masks are awful and should be avoided if possible (because of the increased contact area they are just naturally going to leak more). But you gotta do what you gotta do.
I’ve never used one, yet they do make straps that are supposed to help keep your mouth closed at night, iirc
When I first got the pillows, I totally thought I was going to need the chin strap. But as long as my nasal passages aren’t blocked I can sort of make a little pocket of partial vacuum between my tongue and my palate, which keeps my mouth closed enough not to breathe through it.
WTF? I refuse to look.
Glad I missed it, then.
Got my machine two days ago. Slept with it twice so far. Little ResMed auto adjusting thing. With a nose pillow style mask because I just noped the fuck out of the full face mask despite being a mostly mouth breather. My nose tends to stay fully stopped up in one nostril at all times. Too bad. Just can’t imagine the Vader mask.
It’s going okay. The first night, I managed to fall asleep after about 40 minutes, which is much longer than normal. Unfortunately I woke up a couple of hours later to pee and when I got back, I put the thing on upside down (swapped the straps for back and top of head, flipping the nose pillow upside down). It basically seemed to fit right to my sleepy brain, but of course I wasn’t getting most of the airflow and had a very hard time breathing back out.
I fucked around with it on and off in a sleepy haze for 1.5 hours before I finally got pissed and went to Youtube to realize I’d put it on upside down. Flipped it back and got back to sleep for another hour, peed again, then another two hours before I woke up with my whole nose/upper lip sore and took it off.
Last night, I managed about 5.5 hours total, waking up about twice in the interim due to discomfort and need to pee (I pee a lot). Took it off after that.
So obviously, still feel kinda like shit at work. My hope is that a lot of my nocturnal peeventures are instigated by apnea wakeup episodes. I never have a crushing need to whiz, just a faint twinge. Annoying enough that I don’t try to go back to sleep through it, basically. So anyway, if the machine keeps me from choking awake, and I get used to having it on (and it stops hurting my nose and upper lip so much), maybe I can sleep for more than an hour or two straight for the first time in years.
If your upper lip is sore, your lower strap may be too tight. The want the airflow to help create a seal, not pressure. You want it just snug enough that it doesn’t want to move around.
On the subject of getting up to pee, as you start to get used to the mask, make a note if that changes at all. You may be surprised.
I’m also wondering if I may be using too small of a pillow and getting some of the more solid parts of the mask mashed against my face. I’m gonna try bumping up to the Medium one they gave me tonight.
I’ll monkey with the strap, but tbh, it already felt kinda loose as is. Though I guess I wasn’t losing pressure. . .
Yeah, try the medium. Sounds good, it’s just a common mistake for people to try and overtighten the mask when starting out, which will both make you uncomfortable and cause the mask to leak. And when adjusting, make sure you lie down in different positions and move your neck a bit to make sure it stays secure. You can slo develop the habit over time to tilt you head backward a little bit if you are starting to leak.
At least with my setup (the Philips Nuance Pro nasal pillow mask), you don’t need to take the whole mask off when getting up during the night-- just decouple the mini-hose attached to the mask from the long heated-coil hose attached to the machine.
Holy fuck.
I really am bad at this.
That’s brilliant and painfully obvious all at once, @Papageno. Also basically the model I have :)
Yeah I had this problem after the first few nights too. It doesn’t need to be as tight as you think it does.
On a personal note, I’ve seen my provider a few times since using the machine. She no-longer wants to put me on blood pressure medicine. I am still a little above normal but not in the needs medicine range anymore which means if I can manage to stay there or drop it even more, mostly due to weight loss, i might avoid ever having to take that stuff which is good news.
No worries, man. When they’re new the pressure fit between the two hose ends is tight enough that you don’t know you can do that. Happened to me too. :-)
I want to look like Cobra Commander. Which mask will accomplish that?
I totally did this the other night. On my 5th night I put the mask(pillows) on in the dark and laid down and wondered what the hell I did differently as I couldn’t breath out through my nose as easily as I typically can. Turned on the light and realized I had it on upside down. (as I’m sure you discovered now, you want the Size and L/R labels facing downwards.)
Overall I’ve had decent success with it. wearing it every night. I’ve been getting between 5.5 and 7hrs of sleep. no real issues going to sleep, only occasionally have been woken up by and increase in the amount of pressure the cpap ramped up to in the middle of the night. I expect that I’ll get more used to this sort of thing as my use of the machine continues.
On a side note - I’ve started with the medium pillows and they have been working quite well. (According to the website I haven’t had much leakage at all)
Good luck Armando
Same to you, @ducker! I didn’t sleep for crap last night for back pain related reasons which ended with me tossing the CPAP off in frustration after about 4 hours. It really wasn’t the machine’s fault at all; my sciatica’s just flaring up again and made just about any sleeping position uncomfortable. Blargh.
Try to put a pillow under your knees; may need to take some pressure off (may need to try two pillows, etc for right adjustment).