Is this what cpap pressure feels like?

[SephixT]

I did end up diagnosed with sleep apnea, they prescribed an auto machine right off the bat. I'll update my sidebar info soon. It's a resmed airsense10 autoset. I have it packed away right now because I'm not at home. Humidifier, heated hose, all that jazz.

It was brought to me, I was shown how to set it up etc. The setting is 6-15, with a 20 minute ramp. I had it turned on for a minute, just so the person could see how the FFM was fitting. (I didn't have a titration sleep study) It was some kind of "for her" FFM, don't remember the name. (I'm being super helpful with these details, I know )

It was weird, felt like I was being inflated like a balloon. I take it that's normal? And that's the thing that I'll have to get used to? I tried to search for other threads about this, but I must not know the right words to search for cause I came up with nothing.

I'm a mind over matter person. Tell me it's normal and I'll have no problem dealing with it. But someone has to tell me it's normal first, or I'll be convinced something is going terribly wrong.

The whole set up was pretty cool though. It was set up in front of me, putting in the range and ramp per my doctor's script. But she said I could just go in later and change them myself if I wanted to. She had two different masks, I didn't see the other but I assume it was nasal since the one I kept was a FFM. I chose the FFM because I'm a mouth breather.

It's new, 0 hours use (saw that myself, and I've seen said that number can't be reset), but it's a rental. Or rather it's "rent to own" as long as I meet the compliance requirement after 10 months it will be mine.

I plan to sit with it on longer and with the humidifier and all that set up later when I get home. There also seems to be some kind of analyzing set up mentioned. I'm not sure it's res scan, or whatever that other one besides, the flyer thing calls it "myfit." Sleepyhead is what I'll be setting up though.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

First time you feel it that is what it feels like. However, when you try it, try to breathe through your nose. Remember that it should automatically lower the pressure when you exhale. If you can manage to get used to it, you will wake the next day and not even realize you're wearing it.

[StoopidMonkey81]

It can certainly feel like that at first. Because of the pressure, inhaling is much easier so you tend to take more full-lung breaths than usual. Once you relax you can get into a normal breathing rhythm again, but it takes getting used to. It's almost a mind-over-matter thing. It doesn't really have enough pressure to inflate your lungs like a full-on hospital respirator, but combined with your own effort it can feel like it's doing that. Unfortunately overcoming that will be the key obstacle you face when it comes to relaxing enough to falling asleep. One thing you didn't mention is what the EPR setting is (in the hidden clinical menu), which says how much the device will decrease the pressure during your exhale. Setting that to the max of 3 will make breathing feel more natural and less like you're being inflated.

[DariaVader]

haha

It feels sooo strong at first - and that is normal - but soon you may be begging to start above the 6 because it feels insufficient... that is what happened to me.

[archangle]

Welcome to the board.

The maximum pressure on CPAP is 20 cmH2O. That's the pressure of a 20 cm or about 8 inches of water.

Take a big glass of water. Fill it with 8 inches of water. Put in a straw and gently blow into the straw until you start to blow a few bubbles out at the bottom of the glass. That's how much pressure is in a CPAP machine.

It may feel like a lot at first, but it's not really that high.

It will tick off the medical mafia, but you can change the pressure yourself if necessary. Look up the manual in the setup manuals link at the top of this page. Don't do it willy-nilly, but it's an option, at least temporarily.

Get the free SleepyHead program and use it to check your therapy results yourself.

Please put your machine and mask information into your profile so we don't have to search for it in the future.

[SaldusMiegas]

Hi SephixT

welcome to the forum!

The setting is 6-15, with a 20 minute ramp. I had it turned on for a minute, just so the person could see how the FFM was fitting.
. . .
It was weird, felt like I was being inflated like a balloon. I take it that's normal? And that's the thing that I'll have to get used to?

My guess is this one minute leak check was done using Mask Fit mode, which will crank the pressure up to max setting within about 20 seconds and keep it there until you turn it off. In real operation it won't be like that. The auto adjust machines will start at the lowest pressure setting and only raise the pressure a little at a time, and only enough to control the apneas. Plus with a 20 minute ramp time, it will take 20 minutes to go from zero to 6.

So what you are describing is definitely not what you can expect in normal operation, at least not within a minute of turning the machine on. If you were having a rough night and the machine cranked it up to its max setting (15 in your case) then you might wake up feeling like a balloon being inflated. If that bothers you, simply turn the machine off and back on, and it will start a new 20 minute ramp up cycle while you go back to sleep.

I chose the FFM because I'm a mouth breather.

Me, too. I even had trouble controlling the FFM leaks. After a couple of months, I tried a chin strap one night, and the leaks were no more. After a week or so, I began to wonder if I might be able to use nasal pillows with the chin strap, and it worked! Now I have been using the nasal pillows for a few months and it is so much more comfortable and lighter weight than the FFM. Also it dropped the pressure by about 5 points. I'm loving it. So work with the FFM you selected, but if after weeks of playing around with it you can't eliminate leaks, then I'm here to tell ya that chin straps can sometimes make all the difference.

I plan to sit with it on longer and with the humidifier and all that set up later when I get home. There also seems to be some kind of analyzing set up mentioned. I'm not sure it's res scan, or whatever that other one besides, the flyer thing calls it "myfit." Sleepyhead is what I'll be setting up though.

Sounds like you are describing myAir, which is the ResMed web site where you can register to see some key metrics each day that are radio'd in by your machine when it phones home using the built in cell phone transmitter.

MyAir is a good place to visit: it shows you rudimentary statistics and a 0-100 point score that you can work to improve. MyAir will also give you encouraging messages and gold stars for consistently good behavior. It's designed to encourage people to use the machine so "good" behaviors score higher. I would recommend you go register and look in on it for for the positive feedback the first couple of weeks as you get adjusted.

ResScan and Sleepyhead are about equivalent and both of them provide much more detailed data from your SD card than MyAir does. Those are the programs you will use to decide what changes to make.

Use whichever one(s) provide you the feedback in a way that resonates with you. You can use them all if you like. I tend to use MyAir and Sleepyhead anymore, but I still load data into ResScan as well as Sleepyhead whenever I pop the SD card into my computer.

Saldus Miegas

[Sleeprider]

I agree with Saldus Miegas that the uncomfortable pressure you felt was the "mask fit mode". This mode can be canceled in the menu and is there simply to ensure you get the mask placed so it will not leak at your maximum pressure. I've never used it.

[SephixT]

Hi SephixT

welcome to the forum!

My guess is this one minute leak check was done using Mask Fit mode, which will crank the pressure up to max setting within about 20 seconds and keep it there until you turn it off. In real operation it won't be like that. The auto adjust machines will start at the lowest pressure setting and only raise the pressure a little at a time, and only enough to control the apneas. Plus with a 20 minute ramp time, it will take 20 minutes to go from zero to 6.

I agree with Saldus Miegas that the uncomfortable pressure you felt was the "mask fit mode". This mode can be canceled in the menu and is there simply to ensure you get the mask placed so it will not leak at your maximum pressure. I've never used it.

It wasn't that. She had me hit the power button myself, because it was more like a walkthrough of what I'd have to do on my own. So it was just the regular mode. I used the mask fit thing later, it was interesting.

I think I'm going to turn the ramp off, because it starts at 4, and the minimum is 5 (I misremembered in my OP) Unless it will go higher than 5 even if I'm awake before I fall asleep. Before I even fell asleep I was already used to the pressure and it seemed like there wasn't really any pressure at all.

It was an eventful night. It was reported to me by my husband that a cat was sitting on me pawing at the air that comes from the vent when he went to bed, which I can imagine but still wish I'd been awake to see it myself. It only seemed to leak when I tried to lay on my side, the machine said something like 17/min. I know at least once my nose itched and I woke up in the middle of pulling the mask away from my face to reach my nose, lol. I also woke several times and turned up the humidity. I vaguely recall fiddling with the hose to make sure water wasn't building up in a low point, kind of a half asleep anxiety thing, I know the heated hose is supposed to combat that. I won't be able to get the info into the sleepy head thing until later (I spend like 90% of my day on weekdays nannying for my sister) Overall I feel like I slept better than I have in a while, but I'm still tired probably because I woke up a lot, which will get better.

[OpalRose]

SephixT,
It will get better. There will come a time when you wake in the middle of the night, and reach up to see if your mask is on because you don't notice the pressure and you don't think your cpap is running.

Strange, how our bodies and minds adapt when at first we think we wont be able to.

[SaldusMiegas]

SephixT,

Sounds like you are off to a great start.

Saldus Miegas