Last night was my first night sleeping with the cpap after the in lab sleep study. I did the sleep study with the full face mask but I also wanted a nasal pillow to see which one I would prefer so they also gave me the Airfit 10. I tried both out for a test run before I went to bed however the pressure was so high with the nasal pillow my ears would pop every time I swallowed and I ended up with a slight headache after testing it for just 5 minutes so I decided to use the full face overnight.
During the sleep study I think the technician had started me off at 8 or so but had to go up to 12 to fully get rid of the apneas so I think by the time I was at 12 I was pretty deeply asleep. However last night as soon as the pressure would ramp up to 12 I would wake up from the discomfort, as well as not being able to exhale all the way due to the pressure. Not being able to exhale all the way was extremely uncomfortable and after a while I felt some pain in my chest and I was feeling a bit dizzy so I decided to stop the cpap so I could get some sleep for work.
I have also been checking the myair app periodically and it seems like the data from last night has not been uploaded yet. I think I only logged about 3.5 hours with the mask on anyway. I think I fell asleep a few times but always ended up waking up again.
I have been doing some research today and I have a few questions.
1. Do I need to lower the pressure while using a nasal pillow as opposed to using a full face? If my technician went with 12 for the full face what would be the equivalent for the pillow?
2. Is my problem exhaling something I just need to get used to? I felt like I could only exhale about 3/4 of the way before I had to actually exert myself to push the rest of the air out. My EPR is already at 3, would a bipap be something I should look at?
3. Is the dizzyness and chest pain typical of a new cpap user?
My doctor advised me to not change any settings for a week or so until they get enough data but I am thinking I will drop the max pressure to 10 tonight and hopefully I can actually fall asleep, if I just end up taking the mask off anyway they won't get any data right?
Also I have been looking on craigslist and such and I see a brand new aircurve 10 vauto with only 1 hour of machine usage time on it for 400 dollars. You guys think I should jump on that just in case I end up needing a bipap?
Thanks so much for everyone's help. Looking forward to becoming a part of this community!