New User - UGH I'M DYING

[me50]

Are you still here, Opressed? Any progress?

Can you set your CPAP machine up and use it while reading, watching TV, etc.? That can help you adjust to the pressure CPAP.

Warning: take the water tank out before moving the machine.

It also counts toward your required 4 hours of CPAP usage for "compliance." I don't encourage this in order for you to cheat, but it may help you make it over the hump without getting into insurance problems. You do need to eventually use the CPAP for all of your sleep time.

I do encourage you to not sleep without CPAP. If you use it a while and then quit, it becomes a bad habit and delay your adapting to using it full time.

I wish doctors were more sympathetic about the problems of adjusting to high pressure. I think they should be more willing to put you on a lower pressure for several days and slowly bring it up to where it works. You might not actually be treating your apnea until the pressure gets up to 18, but it's better to be too low for a few weeks than it is to quit CPAP.

Keep at it. Most of us fairly quickly adjust to the point where the pressure doesn't bother us. I use 16, and I find myself having to lift the mask off my face to convince myself it's still blowing air because I can't feel it.

the RT told me that with VPAP it usually can be done with a lower pressure than with APAP or CPAP. So, I was at 13 to 15 on my APAP and now they have me at 18/8 on my VPAP. Go figure (or I don't understand it...one or the other).

[herbm]

I use Nostrilla 12 hour (it lasts between 4-8, occasional 12 hours.

In no way is this something that I am recommending but merely a story that might be interesting.

First, this stuff works. It may or may not last but it lasts longer than anything else I have tried.

I have been using it continuously 24/7 for the last 2-3 months with no known problems*

Previously I used it starting about 15 years and until about 2008, for most of that time almost continuously.

My doctor in 1998 looked at it after I had been using it for months or longer, and said (words to the effect), "If it works I don't see anything wrong with it." Other doctors have given the standard advice that you aren't supposed to do this.

She might have been mistaken or an idiot or anyone opposed to it might have been merely stated the "received wisdom" or might have known something specific.

I got off of it almost totally a few years ago; keeping the dozen unopened boxes (we bought as much of it as we could find when we went to the pharmacy and should have just bought it by the case), using them up SLOWLY over those years, mainly for very OCCASIONAL use such as when having a cold (I get few colds so it took a while.)

Your mileage will CERTAINLY VARY, but I like it and use it as much as seems necessary.

* My belief is that it MIGHT establish a bit of a dependency -- the more you spray the more you are stuck with it -- but it was easier enough to give up when I stopped AS LONG AS there was nothing else (allergies, cold etc) causing my current symptoms.

Other methods that help both in combination and alone:

1) Nasal lavage with simple salt water (saline) and/or using the NeilMed squeeze bottles designed for this.

2) BreathRight Strips (or other cheaper and cruddier strips)

--
HerbM

[Luke Warm]

18!?

With that kind of pressure, you could inflate the Hindenberg in about 6 minutes. Mine stared out at 10 and I told the sleep doc that was not enough and now I'm at 12 which seems about right, but depending on what machine you have and the settings, your comfort level might not be right until you tweak it, and get a lower pressure.

I have three CPAP machines (kinda complicated because I have two residences and keep a machine at each) and I have a tiny machine with no humidifyer that I use to travel on the airlines. I decided to set the small machine (did it by myself at my own choosing) at 12.5 pounds and it made me flashback to the 60s when the saying "blow my mind" was popular... 12.5 pounds was like blowing out Carlsbad Caverns of bats, but I learned to live with it (and I now dream I am a spelunker... )

The other two machines set at 12 pounds are nowhere close to "blowing my mind" like the little bugger I travel with. But egads, man 18 pounds seems like a booster rocket NASA could use on launching something into space.

[Patrice]

Hi I am so new at this. I have been struggling severely with all this. I had a C-Pap, then a C-Pap Auto, and now a VPAP Adapt. I bloat up like I am 6 months pregnant full of air in my stomach, and I throw up air, just air when I get up. (Either in the morning or in the middle of the night depending on how much unconsious swallowing I have done). My Apnea is Stroke related Apnea. Both my diaphram and my brain area for sleep control has been affected by my stroke. I so far like the VPAP the most, but it hurts a lot when I bloat up and also my sinuses and allergy problems are being forced down into my lungs so that I end up coughing chunks of phlem out of my lungs. Can anyone HELP me on how to get my body more adjusted and be in less pain less oxygen overdosing issues?? Thanks, Patrice

[robysue]

Patrice,

I responded to your questions on the thread that you started about you r aerophagia, but it is not clear that you saw my response. Please read it at http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...8#pid57978

There are things that can be done to help with the bloating.