When I first received my machine it was great. My headaches went away and I felt tons better. I was also sleeping through the might much better. About two weeks after I got the machine the doctor's office called back and said the doctor had reviewed the tests the night I tired the machine at the sleep center and wanted to increase the setting. The tech that night/morning had set my machine for 16. As I share above everything was fine. After he increased the setting to 18 my mask started whistling. It wakes me up and is annoying. At first I did not connect the whistling to the increase in pressure (it never whistled until after the machine was increased). I called them up and they gave me a larger mask. Literally yesterday it hit me when the whistling started. I am going to call them up on Monday and ask about setting it back to 16. My question is this. Does anyone here know if there is really a significant difference between a setting of 16 and 18? My second question is this. I am waking up with mouth that tastes terrible. I am performing good mouth care according to my dentist so I don't think it is anything I am missing. Is this normal with the mask? Thanks!

What other mask options are there, in addition to a nasal pillow? what is that?

Hello Angela, I have been on my CPAP for a LONG time. Because WLS makes you have a sleep study done before the surgery, I had to do another Sleep study. I was sent home with a level of two or three (my memory is shot) BTW, I have the nose mask, more on that in a sec. I used to turn the CPAP on and it immediately started at 19.Whoa! But I quickly got used to it. For many years, this was fine, but the Dr.s said it may be too high now. I LOVED the pressure but, air always escaped during sleep and it'd wake me up and **** me off! Being on, I don't know, 1,2,3? has helped tremendously. Also, since I've had the CPAP, I sleep for a looonngg time, up to twelve thirteen hours if not woken up by my husband, or alarm (and med issues). I took to the CPAP right away, and have had such success, that I don't want to give it up! I try to sleep on my side, but always end up with my face in the pillow, for a long time just to shut the noise out. I'm a stomach sleeper. In cold weather, I can't sleep unless I pull the sheets over my head, blocking out all light and just "let" the CPAP do the breathing for me. I hate covering my head without the CPAP, because the "heat" or "warm air" really freaks me out. I can't sleep without the thing. I do have a problem though, and I hope someone either knows what I'm talking about, or can give advice to an unchangeable stomach sleeper.....my CPAP has the blue gel "pillows" around the nose, and a tiny one for your forhead. I wake up lately and have a permanent red mark right in the middle of my forhead, 24/7. Obviously I'm sleeping hard on that part of my head, but I've tried to sleep on my back, my side, but after I fall asleep, my body does whatever it wants. Anyone have this problem with the "mark", or "lines" on your face from the straps (yes, I loosen them, but the air escaping, noise, you know) Boy, this was a longer post than I had intended. After all my hullabuloo, CPAP's are great, with those few exceptions. Good Luck Angela. [email protected]

There is always a possibility of air entering your stomach with cpap or bipap, with rny it should not blow the pouch because there is no longer a sphincter holding stuff in, that is why liquid enters your intestinal track faster with rny than without. So, I suppose it may be possible, but there's probably other factors. My guess would just be that unpleasant feeling of fullness or that something's stuck.

My surgeon would not let me use my cpap while in hospital and wanted me to wait a month before using it. I was able to wait 2 weeks, but my husband couldn't sleep because of my snoring. I did lose about 20 lbs the first 10 days after surgery. I was told it was because he was afraid I would blow my pouch out.