Newbie... First night run over by truck!

[pooka3303]

Last night was my first night on the machine. The rep that delivered the machine was more interested in telling me how to clean the machine than telling me how to use it!! Well my first night was BAD... Had no problem falling asleep.. was in bed with mask on for 8 hours!! But woke up once with a terrible sore throat.. so I increased the humidity 1 notch. Woke up a couple of more time and just went back to sleep.. I will mention that I woke up in the same position that I went to sleep in, I had not moved all night which is normal for me (side sleeper). When I woke up and saw that 8 hours had gone by I got up. As I got out of bed it felt as though a truck had run me over!!! I was sore all over, my hip and shoulder on the side that was UP hurt the worse. I had a very sore throat and felt bad.
I had read before that some people after the first night wake up like a new person.. well not me.. I am a little downhearted because I expected a miracle to happen!!
I see people here talk about the software for the machine the Rep only told me here is the sims card, when you go to Dr. take it with you. That was all he said about that.

[trish6hundred]

Hi pooka3303,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Not everyone will feel like a new person after the first night but just give it time.
Hang in there for more responses to your post and best of luck to you with your CPAP therapy.

[RonWessels]

First of all, believe it or not, congratulations! If you were able to fall asleep with no problem and only had to tweak humidifier settings to get something that works for you on your first night, you are significantly ahead of the curve compared to most people, myself included.

I would recommend that you get the latest SleepyHead software, install it on a Windows PC, and have a look at the data on your SD card to see how well you actually slept. You'll need an SD card reader attached to your PC. Any one that reads SD cards will do; if you don't already have one, you should be able to pick one up at your local computer store for anywhere from $5 to $40, depending on how many other card types it also reads.

As to your aches and pains, is it possible that, for the first time in a long time, you slept really soundly, relaxed more than you normally do at night, and therefore are finding out that your sleep position and/or bed firmness is not to your ideal? A lot of people (again. myself included) find that they get back pain between the shoulder blades shortly into their CPAP experience. My guess is that it has something to do with what might be a slightly different head position because of your mask. Most people report that it goes away after a while. As I type this, I still feel a bit of a twinge, but I seem to have it under control by taking a couple of Ibuprofen before bed.

The other possibility is that, like me, your diaphragm (which is a muscle) was not used to the extra work of the CPAP pressure, and ached in the morning like any other muscle getting a significant workout. If this is happening, it should go away after a week or two as your diaphragm gains strength.

Try to not get discouraged and give it some more time.

[archangle]

Welcome to our board and sorry you needed to join us. Sorry you had a bad first night.

Unfortunately, sometimes, even if everything goes right, you feel like you've been run over by a truck at first. Your brain and body are used to bad sleep, being strangled several times per night, low oxygen, stress from being choked, etc. Your body and brain do a lot of adjustments to handle it.

Sometimes when you fix your apnea, your body is off kilter for a while. You will usually adjust.

However, don't ignore the possibility that something is wrong with your treatment. Or even that you have an unrelated health problem.

We call the CPAP salesmen "DMEs" for Durable Medical Equipment Providers, the medical/insurance buzzword. Many DMEs are worse than useless. If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go check for yourself.

Many doctors are worse than useless, too.

However, CPAP is the "gold standard" for apnea treatment. It may take a lot of effort to get right, but it's a really powerful tool and has a very high success rate when done right.

Unfortunately, you may have to figure out how to do it right mostly on your own. You may have to fight really hard to get the right mask, the right adjustment, the right machine, etc.

You are lucky. You got a very good manual CPAP machine that records good data. Many people get screwed by their DME with a dataless "brick" machine. By the way, does the machine say "Philips Respironics" on it somewhere?

You can download the free SleepyHead program and read the data on the SD card yourself. Check my signature line. With SleepyHead, you can see every breath you took, every apnea you had, every air leak, etc.

Your sore throat is probably due to air leaking out of your mouth. SleepyHead will show this. You need to fix mouth leaks if that's your problem. You may need to try a chin strap to keep your mouth closed.

[pooka3303]

Thanks for all the support!!
The second night was much better and I only woke up a couple of times to itch my noise. Still have a bit of a sore throat though... I did loosen the mask and that helped a lot. my chest did feel a little different and perhaps as you said my diaphragm is not use to working so hard because I find that I take much deeper breaths that I normally would.

archangle thanks for the input... Yes the manual does say Philips Respionics on it.. I take it that is a good thing?

I have not had chance to look into the software yet because I am working 12 hours a day 7 days a week right now!! but that is first on my list!

[RonWessels]

Chuckle - your mask was too tight. Well, that's _never_ happened to the rest of us! [ And if you believe that, I have this great bridge for sale. ] Your mask straps should be adjusted as loose as possible while still providing a good seal. Note that some masks (and I think the Wisp falls in this category) actually use the incoming air flow to facilitate the seal to the face. One of your first actions if you have a leak (certainly before tightening the straps) is to pull the mask away from your face to re-inflate the pillows, then re-seat the mask on your face.

The other thing to keep in mind is that not all leaks need to be fixed. Heck, the mask is _designed_ to leak through small vents. As long as the leak is small enough so that your CPAP machine can still provide the requested pressure and can still distinguish your breathing with reasonable statistical certainty, and as long as the leak isn't blowing air in your eyes (which would dry them out and be incredibly annoying in the morning), a leak may be perfectly acceptable. It's the pressure that is the treatment, not the airflow. The airflow provides the pressure and makes sure your exhaled breath is replaced by clean fresh air.

With regards to your sore throat, you might consider increasing your humidification another notch.

Good luck and keep at it!

[ICURn]

I would like to offer two possibilities to what you posted:

First the body soreness from not moving probably means your CPAP therapy is working well! Think about what you body does when you have apnea: you move around as you awaken and are trying to breathe. You aren't aware of it, of course, but you probably are used to moving like a madman! Now that you aren't having apnea episodes your body is probably hardly moving at all. I'm sure your body will find an equilibrium and start moving around normally soon (otherwise we would all get bed sores!). Give it time and it will get better.

As for the chest feeling, it isn't the diaphragm working harder. The diaphragm contracts on inhalation when the CPAP is pushing air in. The diaphragm is actually working much less on CPAP. On exhalation the diaphragm is completely relaxed and exhalation is mostly passive. Now the intercostal muscles (little ones in between your ribs) might work a little more but I would bet its your lungs themselves. CPAP therapy "pops" open the little aevioli in your lungs as well as treats your apnea. Your lungs are probably getting used to a little more tidal volume. No worries, this won't hurt anything. You might be getting some air trapping (the lungs aren't exhaling the normal amount due to the CPAP pushing against them). Again, no worries this won't hurt anything at the levels we run our machines at.

Good luck and hope this helps. After a few weeks or so you might find your CPAP mask works better than any sleeping pill. My brain is trained for sleepy time when my mask goes on. (except tonight!)