MichaelJ

I knew it! It all sounded so easy.

Well I'm not a quitter, and I want to get the benefits of real sleep. At 65 years old, its about time I learned about it, but having gone through the overnight testing hooked up to the gear etc, I left the clinic that morning, at 5am when they booted us out, feeling like I had benefited from the few hours that I wore the full face mask (the first few hours were with no mask). So after going through the orientation with the sales rep for my CPAP full mask (its a Fisher Price) I was pretty confident that the one I chose would be fine. Wrong. I have all the above problems, mainly that when I start getting relaxed, my jaw tends to slack open and leaks, loud leaks (to me AND my wife) all kinds of sounds from hissing air right next to my ears to weird blubbering from my mouth escaping threw the rim of the mask. It happens right when the flow is ramped up of course; lots of air. I'm set a 7 to 14 and its quite a lot once its ramped up which is supposed to be what I need to combat the apnea. I have not had a decent sleep and have yet to go the full night. I end up giving up about 3 to 4 hours in.

It seems my contract (medicare/hmsa) will be a rental agreement, month to month, and I have to show at least 4 hours a night (on the micro chip) for the first 30 days or they will void the contract if not penalize me somehow. ALSO I had to leave with the mask SHALL NOT be exchanged for another optional style for at least 6 months. Looks like I have to make the best of the full face (with forehead brace) but I don't think I can make up for the lost hours enough to get 4 hours in each night.

At this point I am weighing how much I am potentially going to gain from this endeavor... or not.