New user started well but now downhill. Help!

Hi all, I am a newbie to the site and was diagnosed with OSA around 8 weeks ago. I started on CPAP therapy and the first few weeks were fantastic. I got amazing results and felt so well. I was told i was on an adjustable air pressure to start off with. My technician then changed me to a different machine and set a continuous air pressure of 400. All the benefits disappeared almost immediately. I wake up with big face marks, i have had horrible dry mouth for the first time ever and it is waking me up several times in the night. The mask fit is also not good as it is showing it has leaked in the night. However this is the same mask i have worn since the beginning. At my review i will ask to go back on to the other machine but wondered if you had any tips/hints meantime? Has this happened to anyone else? i really thought i had cracked it in the initial weeks and am now very disappointed to be dog tired again.

Your pressure apparently went up a lot. Face marks, leaks, and dry mouth can be caused by higher pressure. Dry mouth might be helped if your machine has a humidifier and you turn it on. On the other hand, maybe you really need the higher pressure.

I have never heard of a pressure of "400". In the USA pressures go up to maybe 25 or so. Do you live in a country that uses metric units?

HI terri55,

It sounds like the trouble is with your new pressure setting and not with your machine. Are these machines both CPAPs?

You need to get in touch with your technician pronto. Let whoever answers the phone know that you need your technician to reprogram your machine back to the auto-CPAP mode and that the newest settings have blown up your therapy and that you need to see him/her/whoever today. Not next week. Not even tomorrow. If you're dealing with a DME and the technicians there, they will try to put you off. Don't let them. Tell them that this is an emergency and that you must have this dealt with today...not tomorrow...today. You shouldn't have to spend even one more night as it now is. Ask for any technician. It doesn't have to be the one that you saw before.

Good luck. There's a chance, if you have your original prescription, that someone here on the forum will be able to help you to get into your machine and reprogram it yourself. Just be sure that any reprogramming becomes a part of your medical record. Your doctor can help you with your medical record. Your Doc needs to know anyway that your original prescription gave you excellent therapy and that the technician changed your pressure settings and that the result has not been good. If your doctor authorized this, then...well.....ask him/her why. The answer should be very interesting.

Hang in there...help is on the way.

Perhaps you could give a bit more detail on what brand and model your original machine was, and the one you have now. Also which mask are you using? The number of 400 for pressure does not make sense. The standard unit of measure for CPAP pressure is centimeters of water, and often is just referred to as cm. It is metric measure, and I believe used pretty much around the world. A standard CPAP machine will deliver from 4 to 20 cm of water pressure. A BiPAP will typically go a little higher to 25 cm. If you post the make and model of your machine perhaps someone here can help you get the actual pressure settings from it. That would be very helpful.