Getting ready for first night

[Jasonlboyd]

Picked up my machine today. When I got to the DME they had it programmed and waiting to show me around. I got the S9 Elite, humidifier, and mirage FX nasal mask. After the reviews online, this is the exact setup I wanted. I had the choice of 3 mask, but this is the one she recommended and told me if I wasn't satisfied to bring it back in 30 days and they would give me another one. Hopefully I will have good results!

[hueyville]

Good luck sir and congrats for taking a huge sfep to long term healthier life.

[pootsie]

Remember, give yourself time to get used to it.

My first night was awesome! And many after that were as well. Most likely because the fine folk here had me well-educated by then

[Jasonlboyd]

Well, the first night wasn't too bad. It took me a little longer to fall asleep than usual, but not too long. I noticed when I rolled to my side that it would leak a little around the edge of the mask. Not enough to hurt anything, and not really bothersome, but I would end up going to my back again to stop the leak. I woke up a couple times during the night and I couldn't tell the machine was even on until I'd change my breathing a little and feel the pressure. I don't think it will take me long to get used to it. I woke up about 3 hours after I went to sleep and thought real hard about taking the mask and throwing it on the floor, but I didn't. I did notice that when the alarm clock is across the room, your wife will get a little irritated waiting on you to get unhooked to turn the alarm off when you wake up an hour before she does....
I noticed 3 things I have questions about.

1) My throat was a little sore when I woke up, and has continued to be not for about 2 1/2 hours, should I turn up the humidifier?
2) It seemed that over 7-7 1/2 hours of sleep, there was only a trace amount of water missing from the humidifier, is this common?
3) I noticed a very stale taste in my mouth this morning. Is this common? I think I am normally a nose breather accept when I get a little short on air then I resort to a mouth breather.

I had my humidifier set on 2, this is where the lady who set me up with the machine said she usually started everyone off at.
Other info- S9 Elite, H5 Humidifier, Slim Hose, Mirage FX Nasal Mask. Arkansas is known for high humidity so this could be a factor. Pressure of 10, 20 min ramp starting at 8.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Julie]

Well if the ambient humidity is relatively high, have you considered trying a FF mask in case you are mouth breathing while asleep? It doesn't have to be that obvious to anyone else either, even a little can make a big difference.

[Pugsy]

A setting of 2 on the humidifier is relative low. Add in the fact that the ambient humidity may be a little higher lately and that probably explains the lack of much water usage. I use the maximum setting on my humidifier and I have had nights where I didn't use much water (usually nights with the window open and high humidity or even some rain) and I have had nights where I almost use all the water.

It's all about comfort though...not how much water is used. We use the setting that offers us the most comfort. Sounds like you don't have the heated hose for your machine. Might be something to consider because it allows a more constant/consistent level of humidity to be delivered along with air temperature. I am in SW Missouri and I can tell you that heated hose will come in handy.

Dry mouth...sore throat could be from the air going into the airway drying things out and it could also be from mouth breathing a little (or a lot). It actually takes very little mouth breathing to dry out the mouth or the throat. Been there and done that myself.
Do you know about the software available so that you can monitor that leak line to see if there are any indications of mouth breathing of the magnitude to create a problem? I have that information in my signature line...just follow the links.

I would suggest that you increase that humidifier setting from 2 to 3 or maybe 4 an see if it helps. Ask about the Climateline heated hose...trust me...you won't be sorry if you get one. I know that there are people who do better with minimal to none added moisture but from all the reading I have seen...the majority of people do better with more moisture.

[Bobshouse]

If you use air conditioning, the humidity level in your house is a lot lower than the outside. It would definitely be nice if you could get a heated hose. I've only got the one, but maybe someone on here that gets replacements from their DME regularly could send you one. Otherwise, they are not to expensive on ebay. With the climate line hose you can set the actual temperature at the mask instead of the 1,2,3,4.

edited: Oops, sorry, from California. forgot that its fall back there with cooler temps..replace air conditioner with forced air heating

[Pugsy]

I think I have an extra used S9 ClimateLine hose and would need to dig it out and check to make sure no leaks.
So let me know if you can't get one from your DME (always best to let insurance buy a new one if you can) and I will try to find it and check it out. Free if you will just pay the postage if you can. I send stuff out all the time from the donated stash of unwanted cpap stuff and the postage going out adds up. If money is tight and would take food off the table I will absorb the postage costs.

[Jasonlboyd]

My insurance rents the machine for 10 months before it buys it (but it buys the humidifier, go figure!), and they won't buy anything until that 10 month mark. I did ask about buying some extra filters and the sweet lady at my DME gave me some. I have considered buying the heated hose, but not wanting to invest a bunch of money until I get a few weeks behind me to make sure everything will be ok, but at the same time I am a believer that is someone starts something with crap they will easily get discouraged where is they were to start with the right equipment to start with they would stick it out.

I plan to download the software but I very seldom get on the computer other than at work. I always use my ipad (wish they had an app for that!) but I figure I will wait a week or so before I download the info, if not I will tend to try to micromanage one night at the time...

[Pugsy]

You have a decent amount of data on your machine's LCD screen.
First make sure that in the clinical setup menu that Sleep Quality is set to "On". The factory default is for "Usage" and DMEs normally only care about "usage" because that's compliance hours to meet insurance requirements. They may or may not have turned Sleep Quality to "On" so that all the data gets recorded to the SD card as well as made available for the patient to see on the LCD screen.
The clinical manual will tell you how to get to the clinical setup menu and make the changes so you can see the data on the screen and how to get to it.
http://www.apneuvereniging.nl/forum/pdf ... manual.pdf
Be sure to check it before noon your machine's clock time because that's when a new "day" is started and the daily report reverts to 0 until you use the machine that night.
The software is of course more complete data with the graphs and all but you can get AHI and leak numbers on the LCD screen.