Sleep apnea & cpap/bipap woes

I have really bad sleep apnea, I also have really bad claustrophobia. Not a good combination for getting any type of rest from sleeping while using a machine that either puts a mask on your face or sticks nasal pillows on your nose and blows air down your throat.

I tried a cpap positive air machine twice, failed it both times because I would wake up and have this strong air being blown into my throat so hard that I couldn't breath. Then I would rip the mask off and couldn't use it again that night. Next night and nights after I would try to fall asleep and either couldn't because I had the thought of the air being blown into my airway and not breathing, or fall asleep and wake up and rip my mask off again. Each time I tried the cpap, years apart I never could use the machine all night.

In the past three years I've been trying to get help again, tried losing weight, can't lose much because I have a horrible back which has disabled me and doesn't allow me to be very active. Then I had an oral appliance made, $300 out of my pocket plus what insurance covered to find out it's great at preventing my teeth from grinding, but not very good for my sleep apnea. Now I just got a bipap, nasal pillows where the machine only blows hard when I'm sleeping and it senses an obstruction, or my mouth open because I'm a mouth breather.

So, using the bipap so far has been a struggle. First I'm finding it hard to actually fall asleep, then if I do fall asleep I wake up with my mouth open and the air blowing out my mouth. So to date, I still don't get much sleep because I'm always waking up to change position due to back pain, and when I do finally get up I'm still as tired or even more tired then when I went to bed.

Suggestions on how I can get used to using this bipap machine and nasal pillows so I can get some rest when I am sleeping? I'd sure appreciate it! I'm afraid that if something doesn't happen soon, one of these nights I'll go to sleep and not wake up when I stop breathing.

Not sure of my actual numbers, but I do remember after my last sleep test at the testing facility the woman told me that I stop breathing over 100 times an hour.

Thanks