CPAP Newbie with new problem

ken I am 58-year-old male who recently had his first sleep study done. I have not gotten the official results but they did have put cpap device on me around 2:30 am. I could not tolerate the full-face mask but did fine with the one that covered my nose and nose pillows. I got woken up a few times so my quality of sleep was not the best. The tech told me that I had more then 15 episodes where I oxygen dropped to an unsafe level. That is all she could tell me because she said the doctor has to read the sonogram and call me in 5 days. Also found out he was on vacation and no results till after Labor Day.

Needless to say did not sleep well at all Saturday night. For the past several months I have had bad headaches in the morning and felt short of breath from task like unloading groceries. I also snore very loudly that is what prompted me well let me say my wife and my friends who had to hear me this past April on a men’s retreat. Sunday morning I woke up feeling horrible and I also thought I was having a heart episode.

My wife said we are going to the emergency room. They did a full work up on me and did a Lexi-Scan, which came back negative for any heart issues. Since they admitted me they did give me a full-face mask cpap. That is all the resp. department carried. I did not make it even two hours and took it off it totally freaked me out. Then sleeping with out anything they woke me an hour later and the nurse said they were going to have to put O2 on me because my levels dropped to an unsafe level.

The next afternoon the doctor was checking me out of the hospital and said to follow up with my regular doctor and wait for official results. My wife who had stayed with me spoke up and said, “Can't you at least send him home with a bottle of O2? The doctor said, “No because insurance would not cover it without official results.” My wife said, “What if he has another episode of low O2 then what? “ Did you know his O2 dropped to unsafe level Sunday night into Monday morning? “ No he said so he checked and sure enough it was charted. He said, “We will try to get you a loaner cpap machine.”

The good news was I was able to get and it was nose pillows. I guess I so tried Monday night that I did not have any issues with it and was able to keep my mouth closed. I felt better on Tuesday but tired from all my tests. But Tuesday night I had more trouble getting to sleep and kept feeling like I had to make my myself breath consciously through my nose. Finally after about 30 min I got up and took a sleep aid and was able to go to sleep. I was wondering if any of you had any suggestions to falling asleep with the nose pillows cpap?One thing my tech did when she demonstrated with my loaner was set it on gradual pressure increase from 5 to 10. I would appreciate your suggestions? Once I am asleep I do great it is just getting there!

The sleep study will will tell your sleep doc which pressure will work best for you. Without that number, the therapy won't be nearly as effective; too little or too much pressure dialed into your CPAP machine. As far as maks go, this is somewhat dictated by the pressure setting. Real high pressure and you are pretty much limited to a full face mask. Hopefully your pressure will allow the mask that will work best for you. The folks at the hospital and even your primary care doc are not educated on how to set up a CPAP so you will have to hang in there until he returns. Since you are ultimately paying for this study and the doctor, make sure he sits down with you and explains the results of the sleep study. I have a feeling that the techs at those places are instructed not to say a whole lot about the results due to liability issues. Sounds like the limited use you have already had with CPAP has been beneficial but once you get your prescription and a properly fitted mask, I am sure you will make great progress.

I know this is old, but thank goodness I found this. It has helped me to much today!!