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You can find special CPAP hose brushes at any of the CPAP supply places online. They're very inexpensive. It's best to put a little unscented, biodegradable dish soap in a dishpan of warm water. Take your CPAP hose and hold it under water until the air bubbles cease coming out. Now take your hose brush and insert it as far as it will go and with a circular motion so as to get all the surfaces, slowly withdraw the brush. Repeat for the other end. Drain and refill the dishpan with warm water and rinse out your hose, using the same technique. Then, toss the hose over a shower curtain rod to air dry. Done once weekly, this is sufficient to make your hose clean enough to use. There is no need to try to "sterilize" the hose. Plugging up the ends of the hose is not a good idea. What gets created in doing that, are the perfect conditions for growing bacteria...dampness, warmth and lack of air circulation.

Also, all that is needed for dealing with your humidifier chamber is to toss the remaining distilled water out after your nights' sleep and turn the chamber upside down on a bed of paper towels to dry. You do not need to scrub out the humidifier chamber every day. Save doing that for once per week, if you must. I think you will find that the humidifier chamber can go un-scrubbed for the life of the chamber. It will not get build-up as long as you continue to use distilled water for you therapy. Please do not use vinegar or alcohol on any of your equipment. It leaves an unpleasant smell that can disturb your therapy.

In the health system that I'm a part of here in the states, the medical professionals offer CPAP first if the AHI is <15 and greater than five. If the patients balks, they then suggest a dental appliance. However, the health insurance will not cover the dental appliance, nor will they cover the follow up sleep study to see how well the appliance is treating the apnea.

My TMJ dental appliances and treatment cost around $5,000.00, but the expense keeps on above and beyond that due to the necessary maintenance biannually. That was all out-of-pocket for me.

I didn't get these appliances to treat my apnea, but a subsequent sleep test at home showed that my AHI had been reduced by 12, down to twenty-four. My health insurance covered that second sleep study because they wanted to get a base-level reading with my new appliance to see what AHI level remained and whether my CPAP treatment would reduce those remaining apneas down below an AHI of 5. It was an eureka moment. My AHIs today are usually in the 0.5 range.

I was truly out of options. I needed the CPAP, but couldn't do that because its' pressures produced TMJ in me and the pain from that was overwhelming. I had to have the TMJ Disorder treatment in order to tolerate the CPAP. The problem was solved my first night of dental appliance therapy with CPAP. No pain. I knew I had made the right choice for me, but it was a guessing game up until that point.

The trouble with the standard dental appliances issued for sleep apnea is from the constant moving of the lower jaw forward each night and then trying to coax it back into it's original position during the daytime and then repeating this with the each following night of therapy. This puts incredible strain on the TMJs and the whole musculature supporting the jaw. The muscles go into spasm and the pain from that is enough to keep you from eating and even from talking. So you go along hungry and isolated. But you lose weight...in some cases a lot of weight. Then, your brain becomes confused and begs an answer to the question; "Where does my jaw belong?". Your jaw seems to be floating in an empty cavern. Our brains crave a norm of some kind. So, the bite gets thrown off. Teeth get cracked and broken (our bites are powerful) with some teeth needing extraction. And the patient is left wondering; "How did this ever happen?" "Could my dental appliance treatment for sleep apnea be causing this?" And no one seems to know.

Perhaps you're an anomaly. No... you're not. You're just one cog among many, caught up in the machinery of the industry. Your solution in the end is to just take the thing out of your mouth. But the pain doesn't go away while your jaw is floating around in never, never land. Your bite never seems to find "home base" and you're left at ground level once again, with sleep apnea and no treatment and dental bills to boot. This happens more often than anyone is yet really aware of. If you have Medicare and have "failed" (non-compliant) the first go at CPAP therapy, Medicare no longer wants to invest at all in your treatment and you are left on your own. We have to be strong and advocate for ourselves in this sleep apnea business.

So, "B" follows "A" and "C" comes after that. When the dental profession finally catches on to this, there will surely be a revolution - and for the better. But, I'm not going to risk my health and well-being in the meanwhile, as the figuring-out process is going on.

Yes...the side sleeping will help you and should help to reduce your apneas.

Yes...that is how the auto CPAP works.

You will be benefitted by getting the free application "Sleepyhead" online, so that you can see your own sleep data. Make sure your CPAP machine has an SD card. If it doesn't, you will need to get one...and an SD card reader. I got both inexpensively from cpapXchange.com. It came in the mail quickly after ordering.

Install the SD card into your machine. With "Sleepyhead" on your computer (just follow Sleepyhead instructions to get there), and once the data has had a night of your CPAP sleeping to record what you did in your sleep, take the SD card out of your computer. Move the little lever to the downward position to "lock" it. Then, insert the card into your reader and the reader into the port provided on your computer. Once the Sleepyhead window is on your screen, click on the import button and a query will pop up asking if you want to direct the import from such and such drive. Click "yes". Then click on the appropriate Sleepyhead box to get your sleep data. It should all be there. Enjoy and learn.

When you are done with viewing, remove your SD card from the SD card reader, flip the little lever back into the up position to "unlock" it and reinsert the SD card back into your CPAP machine. You are now ready for another night of sleep data. Now you'll actually be able to see what you are doing at night when you are sleeping. It's like opening a present in the morning. The data will become useful in your interactions with your doctor when you notice something that might need some professional attention.

I wish you well. Hang in there.

In the health system I'm a part of, everything goes through your primary care physician (PCP). If you need a referral, you get an appointment with the PCP, then he/she determines, after examination, whether you need specialist care. They keep their costs down that way.

Vertigo is most often an entirely separate issue from CPAP treatment and is frequently caused by an opportunistic virus. It usually happens when the immune system is weathered a bit, such as when folks get older or have been under a lot of stress (shingles is another example). Introduction to CPAP is stressful to a lot of us. Perhaps that is why the timing coincides.

Hang in there. It takes time to recover from vertigo. In the meanwhile, your CPAP treatment is doing what it is supposed and, with time will become less and less stressful to you. It is, after all, a whole new way of sleeping and a significant interruption to what our brains' interprete as the "norm".

I wish you well.

I edited my reply per above.

Hi Gucci and welcome to the forum.

Yes. This is how CPAP therapy works. Our bodies adapt to the new treatment. Did your therapist set your machine up with Ramp and a length of time for ramp? If not, mention how you're feeling the pressure hard when you turn your machine on and that this is uncomfortable. Perhaps they can give you something other than fixed pressure CPAP? Perhaps auto CPAP would be more comfortable? Maybe a timed ramp with pressure starting at 7 cm? And maybe a range of pressures from 7 to 15 would be better than fixed at 15 cm because that way your body can "choose" the pressure it needs and adjust to whatever level of your airway obstructions? Ask them if they think that this might lead you to the improvement they expect from your CPAP treatment.

If you work with your therapists, you have the best chances of getting your CPAP therapy do what it's intended to do for your particular type of sleep apnea. There are different types. Plus, what gets done is written into your medical record and follows your treatment so that trained eyes can oversee what's happening to you. You want the best available treatment for your condition.

This is how to be sure you're in the right way.

Good luck to you.

If you find that you are already doing the things you can do for insomnia, persisting fatigue is something to bring up with your doctor. There are a lot of things that cause fatigue other than sleep apnea and it might be a good idea for your doctor to do some ruling out.

OK. Medical professionals have come across this. It looks a lot like rosacea (or wind burn), but is actually a sensitivity to the mask material. The reaction generalizes in some cases and that could be why a large portion of your face is involved. It's not from your treatment pressure. So, the liners might still be an answer for you, since contact with the skin might be what brings on your generalized reaction.

Probably the best thing to do is to bring this to the attention of your doctor along with further details, such as; whether the redness subsides throughout the day following your CPAP treatment, etc. If he/she wants to see you, make sure your appointment is for early in the morning so that you make the best presentation of your problem.

Oh wow...I'm so sorry, but it appears your sleep clinic has figured out a way to make a buck.

I would try playing nice. Call 'em (preferably the top dog there) and explain your situation. Tell them you were expecting your wife's initial study to include the trial on CPAP once they had noted her apneas and that you were prepared to pay for one study - not two. Then, if it were me, I would flop around like a wounded bird and tell 'em I can only afford $1500 for the whole shebang and I have budgeted my funds to also provide for the treatment and there is nothing left over after that. Then see how it goes. Don't back down. Most medical providers will hem and haw a bit and then find "specials" and this and that to reduce the cost. Three thousand dollars for a sleep study is ridiculous. Don't let them get away with it.