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I find Anna's comments as well as those of others so interesting because if makes me remember things I have forgotten. Lots of things people starting out might want to know. I have been using a CPAP for 10 years now. When I first started, those straps were always getting tangled and had trouble figuring out how to get the mask on correctly. Now when I get up in the middle of the night, I don't even turn on the light any more. Even if one of the plastic balls has pulled out of the slot in the mask, I just reorient the straps and re-attach the ball in the dark and put the mask back on. Have put that mask on so many times it is now very easy. Also, my husband doesn't like the noise. For me, it just sounds like a white noise machine so I don't find it a problem. He is more sensitive to noise so he wears the disposable ear plugs I do feel a bit guilty about it, but he has never complained, so after 10 years, it is probably pretty routine for him.
Ruby, I think you bring up a great possible feature. We have just started discussions on hosting webinars and Q&A sessions. Would you all find this valuable?
We're also starting to build some informational components to the site to help people through all the steps of being diagnosed and treated with sleep apnea. Maybe we could include some tips contributed by the community!
Ruby
+0 points
·
almost 10 years
ago
Sleep
Commentator
Anything that people can have access to when this is all new would be very valuable. I have been a support leader for several years. You may not get many calls but when you do, the person is desperate for help. I think having an area just on coping would be great, with information and clips from discussions like this one. Sometimes people don't want to open a discussion post on things like we have been talking about because they feel they are the only ones or that their problem isn't interesting to anyone else. Coping covers a lot of ground.
From this conversation, I think you're right that coping is an important topic, especially for new users. If anybody has any tips that they wish they knew before starting with CPAP/BiPAP, or APAP, we would love to hear them!
I've also started a new pinned topic to discuss tips, so that it's easily available for new members!
I didn't read the whole thread but the issue raised by the OP is a common one.
"As of last night I began using CPAP with a nose mask. I had a rough night because I felt like I was smothering. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can let go and give control to the machine?"
Not sure what was suggested, but I believe the most common problem is that sleep technicians do not set the CPAP machine up properly. Some just take it out of the box with the 4 cm minimum and 20 cm max default settings and give it to the user. 4 cm is way too low of a starting pressure, and if the machine goes there, or you try to go to sleep with the pressure at 4 cm most people are going to find that suffocating. As a general starting point, I think machines should have a start pressure of 7 cm for comfort. I now use 9 cm. You want to use a pressure that is high enough that you don't feel like you are suffocating if you take a deep breath, or several in a row. Often people are breathing more deeply when they first go to bed.
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