My first night with CPAP

My first night with CPAP

Tuesday May 23, 2006

Well, it was an interesting night. My nose still hurts and my chest did.

Hippy dude Jeff was my technician again. This time with a purple pony tail and a yellow top to his head. He said his ex girlfriend does his hair for cheap. I'm guessing she doesn't like him as much as he thinks she does.

The same set up as last time. Wires and more wires. T-Shirt, sweat pants. Hippy tech dude reminds me to breath ONLY WITH YOUR NOSE. NO MOUTH BREATHING. Apparently breathing through your mouth makes sleep apnea worse.

The mask that I got was for your NOSE ONLY. Most of the pictures I've seen on the web during my research were full face masks. This looked like a snorkel, but for your nose. A few tweaks here and there and off we went.

OK, it's ON! Ok, nothing. Five seconds later.....BAM! Air blowing up your nose and popping your ears and your chest raises by itself without you breathing.

Hippy tech dude asks me to answer if it is working. I open my mouth to say yes and nearly suffocate to death. Immediate choking. BAM that hurt.

It seems that the request for you to talk is to be a LEARNING EXPERIENCE. Once you open your mouth to talk, all the air blows out from your nose, and none gets to your lungs, as somehow your throat slams shut.

Now, when you are having difficulty breathing, your instinct reaction is to try to find more sources of air- FROM YOUR MOUTH. They tell you to fight this, but a number of times when the air pressure was changed during the night, I found myself gasping for more air. I opened my mouth instinctively for more air, and then got even less. You choke, freak out, wake up and feel the air blowing OUT of you. Somehow you shut your mouth and get some air and then remember to keep your mouth closed.

I'd compare this to a teenager learning to drive a clutch by stalling it out - AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN- in a vacant parking lot. It's not good for the car, or the co-pilot, but hopefully you learn in the parking lot and don't have the problem again. Let's hope I learn this.

During the evening, I could tell a number of times when different pressures were tried. A few were not enough to breath comfortably, and a few were just about enough to blow my eardrums and eyeballs out of my head. I didn't sleep much when the pressure was high, I just sort of "HELD ON". After a while, the pressure would be lowered, and I'd fall back asleep.

Thus the NOSE HURTS TODAY. First off, it's not used to being used to breathing at night. Second, it's not used to air pressure. Third, somehow during the night, one side of my nose got stuffed up. So, high pressure on one side, none on the other.

They say that once the pressure is "normal" that I should have less nose issues. Let's hope.

Hippy Tech Dude says I got around 5 hours of sleep in 7 1/2 hours of trying and at least FIVE sets of DEEP REM. I do remember some dreams, and that there were perhaps 4 or 5. The Tech says that as I have Sleep apnea I am most likely REM DEPRIVED. Thus when this is first starting, I will have much more REM sleep than the typical human. But in 10-14 days that typically drops and within a month, you go to normal.

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Well, it's a bit later and the Sleep Institute called and said they had my sleep measured and were giving a prescription to Blue Cross for a mask and machine. Odds are that call will come this afternoon or tomorrow. Then another visit to have the mask fitted and show how to work the thing. Then off we go.

Wish me luck. I'm off for a walk at lunchtime, I had planned on a nap, but I'm not sleepy yet. WOO HOO!

JC

PS

The Sleep institute called me this morning and I have an appointment to get my machine Thursday. I'll use it this weeked (Memorial Day) and hopefully get used to it before returning to work in Tuesday.