One week into treatment, any tips?

[lendenti]

Hi folks,

Long-time lurker, first-time poster! I'm coming up to the end of my first week of CPAP treatment, and am looking for a few tips from more experienced users. I'm using a full-face mask (F&P Simplus) and a Philips Dreamstation 2, both given to me by the Irish equivalent of a DME last week.

It has not been easy! However, I'm pretty determined to stick with it because my sleep study result (AHI of around 60) put me pretty solidly in the severe category. I'm lucky in that I've never experienced daytime sleepiness as a symptom, but I've definitely woken up every morning for years feeling terrible (dry mouth, headache, etc.) and understand that untreated apnea is terrible for my health, especially my heart.

Anyway, onto my treatment. I've been put on 4 - 20 cm of automatically adjusting pressure until my first follow-up appointment next week. I'm posting last night's results (Aug 26) from Oscar below, which was my best night so far. I managed to sleep for nearly 4 staight hours! I went to sleep on my side, but am pretty sure I flipped onto my back around 2:38 am. I certainly woke up on my back around 4 am feeling like a balloon being inflated, with high pressure air being blown into my open mouth and cheeks blown out like a chipmunk's! This is how I have usually woken up in the middle of the night this week on CPAP.

Every other night I've managed only 1-2 hours before being woken up by high pressure, trying again about an hour later, waking up again 1-2 hours later in the same state, and then finally taking the mask off to get some sleep. I'll post my worst night (Aug 21) on Oscar down below as well, just for reference.

It seems to me that I have much fewer events while I'm on my side. However, I drool a lot into my mask when I sleep on my side. This is gross to wake up to and I think will irritate my skin if it keeps happennig. I don't drool at all when I sleep on my back, but get a ridiculous amount of events.

How do people generally train themselves to sleep on their side but also not mouth-breathe and drool?

To make me stay on my side rather than roll onto my back, I'm guessing something physical (pillows?) in bed beside me?

For drool avoidance, I guess mouth-taping or a cervical collar is the way to stop this. Which do people recommend first? I can keep my mouth closed and breathe through my nose during the day without any problem.

Finally, any other tips or observations? I get the sense from reading other posts that it takes most people several months to adjust succcessfully to treatment.

Thanks in advance!

Aug 26, best night
   

Aug 21, worst night
   

[quiescence at last]

yes. You would probably get some benefit from past discussions about body and neck positioning. I would not be surprised if somehow got relaxed enough that your chin touches your chest, and your airway is fairly well cut off.  Early pressures of 7 and under seem to be great, but then all bets are off, due to kinked throat. The machine tries, though, and those pressures rose to beyond reason. really.

Good luck and good reading.

QAL

[staceyburke]

You are having positional apnea.  You can see positional apnea where either H or Oa events are clustered together.  Getting rid of as many as you can will lower your AHI.  Positional apnea can NOT be controlled by pressure changes.  You have to find out what position you are getting into and cutting off your own airway.  Have you changed your sleep position?  Sleeping on your back?  Using more (or new) pillows?  These things can cause positional apnea by chin dropping to your sternum and cutting your airway.  Think of it of a kinked hose – nothing can get through – you have to unkink the hose…

IF you can’t make a simple change like changing to a flatter pillow helps then you will need a collar.  I have a link to collars in my signature at the bottom of the page.  It shows people who are not wearing a collar and the SAME person wearing a collar.  There is a huge difference between the two.

[lendenti]

Thanks both, I appreciate your comments! Looks like I have some work to do in figuring out how to keep my body and chin in a good position.

I've always used a single, very flat pillow, but I will try different pillows and a collar.