[CPAP] I'm new to all of this, and feeling a little overwhelmed. Facing 2 issues right now.

[VanillaSkyCrawler]

Hi, everybody! I guess I'll give a little background before getting into my questions, but let me start by saying I'm really glad to have found this community.

So for maybe the past 10 years or so, I've dealt with daily fatigue. The fatigue and constant tired feeling have gotten worse with a lack of focus, making it harder to enjoy my hobbies such as reading or watching shows that require my attention. I've been married almost three years now, and my wife has mentioned I snore (but that it doesn't bother her). I also feel like I deal with pretty consistent nasal congestion, mainly at night after I've been in bed for a bit, which causes me to mouth breathe (I've tried decongestants and nasal spray, and Flonase seems to be what helps the best, though it's not perfect).

This past February my best friend stayed with us on my birthday, and we slept in the same room. When I woke up, he told me he thought I should get checked out because he didn't sleep well and my multiple times throughout the night he noticed I stopped breathing. As naive as it may sound, this was when everything started coming together for me and I realized I probably have sleep apnea.

I wrestled with what to do for a while. I don't have health insurance, and we really couldn't afford a sleep study. We've got 4 kids at home and my wife and I both work in the preschool setting, so we don't make a lot and I don't have any benefits. When taxes rolled around, that seems like the only time I could maybe sneak in and do something about this. 

I ended up going with a home sleep study with Lofta (which I hope wasn't a mistake). I didn't feel like I slept much at all the night of the study. When I got my results, they said I ran my test for about 8 and a half hours, of that time they say I slept 6 and a half (which I thought was maybe 2 and a half more than I believed, but I accept I could be wrong due to the nature of sleep apnea), and that I had 177 apnea incidents over the course of the 6 and a half hours.

I ended up getting a Resmed AirSense11  from them with an AirTouch F20 large full face mask. I went full face mainly because of my congestion concerns.

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Alright, now here's where I'm having two issues:

The first one, I started setting up my machine using the myAir app as recommended, which seemed to be going okay at first. I got everything on and connected, and the app was having me go through this like, test setup thing, where it would send a pressure of 4 to me and have me practice breathing with that before it would increase the pressure. It ended up asking me to lay down and try, and I decided to turn off my light first. 

I made a stupid mistake of not taking off my mask before going to turn off my light. The switch was so close, so I was stretching and reaching, and right when I hit it the tubed pulled and tipped over my machine. I freaked out, because the humidifier was in there and I didn't want to mess anything up. So I ran over, picked it back up, and everything seemed okay. So I continued with the app and it wanted to increase the pressure again, only this time I couldn't feel any air. The app says "great! Now let's check the mask seal. Mask seal great! Let's increase the pressure. Great!" Like, I was hitting continue as it said it was doing these things, but the pressure wasn't changing at all, I couldn't even feel any air. 

I tried restarting the test, and couldn't feel anything at all. Unhooked my tubes, hooked them back in, nothing. Tried restarting the app and couldn't even figure out how to try the test again. So I tried just starting therapy on my machine, and the machine said it was starting with an air pressure of 4 and acted like it was going, but I still couldn't feel any air coming out. Then I noticed a bubbling gurgling noise, and noticed some drops of water coming up my tube. 

I shut everything off, took it all apart, and now I'm horrified that within 10 minutes I might have messed up my CPAP by accidentally tipping it and water getting in from the humidifier. Everything is sitting out drying, it doesn't seem like very much water spilled, but I don't know what else could have happened. Anyone have any idea what could be going on? Is this a user error, water damage, both? 

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My second thing is my mask. I used this little sizing guide Lofta gave me with my test, and it said for full face mask I would need a large. The only real issue I feel like with my mask is I feel like when I have it on and tightened so that I don't feel any air leaking out, then the position it's in is pinching my nose shut ever so slightly. Not all the way, but enough that it feels harder to breathe through my nose. If I move the mask up a bit to free my nose, then I feel a slight leak coming out by my eyes. Is the nose pinching normal, or is this mask maybe not right for me?

I know this was a very long post, and anybody who takes the time to read it I appreciate you very, very much.

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

You certainly have had a bit of a numpty with your machine. Many of us have done something equally silly. 

Regarding the machine, it is likely okay unless you see water coming out of the main body. It is difficult, though not impossible, to get water into the electronics. If you did get water into the electronics, then it may have to be sent out for repairs and can hopefully be fixed good as new. For now, just let it sit until you feel comfortable giving it a go again. Take out the humidifier and disconnect the power and air hose as well.

For the mask, unless you are 6’4” or more it is possibly too large. You can download a fitting chart from the ResMed website. To put it in perspective, I am about 6’4” and use the same mask in a medium. All our heads are shaped slightly differently, so use what works. Given that you said you have to tighten it until it is pinching, it sounds like the wrong mask. The mask should be large enough to go from the bridge of your nose (or just under your nose if an F30/F40/Evora style) to just above your chin/below your bottom lip. It should rest comfortably against your face so that when the machine applies pressure it inflates the cushion to seal against your face. Watch some YouTube videos, particularly from LankyLefty27, on fitting masks.

Also, get the manual for it and learn how to program it. It sounds like you were left with the default pressure of 4-20, which is rarely correct. Our page with manuals is here: https://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p...tup-manual

When you do get it working, try the following setup:

Min pressure 7
Max pressure 15
EPR 2 full-time
No ramp

Those are more realistic starting numbers than what you were given. Being left in the wild with a new machine is poor form by your sleep docs. It is sadly the norm and we are here to help.

While waiting to try it again, practice nasal breathing. Flonase and nasal rinses may help with the congestion. Work on keeping your tongue against the roof of your mouth to get a proper seal whilst breathing. 

Good luck with it all! Do not hesitate to ask questions here. Many people are able and willing to help.

[VanillaSkyCrawler]

Thank you for the very kind reply and advice, I appreciate it so much! Here in a couple hours I'll hook everything back up and give the machine another go, hopefully the air will come through fine and that won't end up being an issue.

For the mask, I'm about 5'11", so not quite so tall as 6'4" ? I will say though, I do have a very large head. They had this little cutout to see which size mask you would need, you like stuck your nose in the groove and then check where the cutout came down to on your chin, and so I went with size large based on that (although I understand all faces are different and that sizing guide may not have been perfect for me). Do you think you'd be able to tell if my mask is too big just by looking at a picture if I uploaded one? I'll check out those videos by LankyLefty27 as well.

As far as changing settings, would it be helpful if I uploaded any of the sleep report stuff I got back from Lofta? I tried uploading the PDF and the site said it didn't take that file type, but I could try to convert it or take screenshots of certain parts if that would be helpful. I'm willing to do whatever I need to do make sure this is all right and good to go so I can hopefully fix my sleep.

As far as nasal breathing, that's going great right now. It's less of a problem for me during the day and when I'm active than it is when I lay down at night for bed. I know that I start to mouth breathe in bed though if breathing through my nose gets tough.

Thanks again for replying and being so helpful, I'm thankful to see that this community is here and full of people willing to help others.

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

Watch the videos and see what Jason (LankyLefty27) says about the fitting. He goes through process and explains things well. A bit of a funny bunny, but he is knowledgeable. For mask sizing, I have found that full-face/half-face masks need to sit as I described in my prior post.

You should be able to upload the PDF sleep report, but I am not particularly tech savvy. There are many very technical people here who can help with that.

For the nasal congestion, try a spritz of generic Flonase or a nasal rinse (Neti pot). It works wonders for my nasal issues and allergies.

One other thought from my personal experience is that the most difficult thing I found is relaxing whilst under pressure. I fought the machine for a long time and that created a host of issues. Once I learned to relax and breathe with the machine, not against it, many things started falling into place. It is a mental thing, and as I have been told I am mental, so there ya go.

[OpalRose]

You should have no problems if you follow these instructions.  
If this sleep study has several pages, break it up and use a couple posts.
Also, redact personal information.

https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...pnea_Board

[VanillaSkyCrawler]

So I watched some of Lanky's videos, fiddled with my mask a bit more, and I think I got a better fitting with it now that doesn't make my nose so uncomfortable and wasn't leaking that I could tell, so I want to try and give the mask a try tonight and see.

I also hooked everything back up and the air seems to be flowing well! So that's a relief. I still can't figure out how to retry that initial test that went through different air pressures on the myAir app, so I haven't got to try anything other than 4 yet, but I'll look through the manuals and try to figure this out.

I watched some of Lanky's videos on other masks too, and honestly there are a couple I'd like to try. I kind of think I might like the dreamwear full hybrid mask, so I might give that one a try if I end up not being a fan of this one.

I tried attaching my sleep report again so we could maybe get a better idea of settings I should use, but the site still says it won't take that file type (PDF), so unless I can work that out I can either do screenshots or type out specific info. I mentioned earlier 177 incidents throughout the night, and I looked at the report again and it says that was for RDI, but a different set of incidents said 119. I don't know what any of this means lol.

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I think I was typing my response when you posted yours, OpalRose. I'll take a look at that link now.

[VanillaSkyCrawler]

Here's what I assume might be some of the essential information for now. They said I have Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea.