My husband has tried and tried and tried to use c-pap - but just cannot get used to it. He has severe heart and respiratory problems too. He is a mouth breather and can't sleep with his mouth shut (nostrils are too small) so he has to use a full face mask and I think because of his heart and lung problems, he just feels like he is suffocating. He even tried taking sleeping pills to knock himself out and then be oblivious to the feeling of smothering, but just could not tolerate the mask. He now sleeps with oxygen at night and this keeps his oxygen levels up so that he is not killing his brain cells.
I sure hope your husband can use c-pap because it really does help - but mine just cannot tolerate it at all.
Lora and Villette - there is also something called bi-pap - which is pressure on inspiration and no pressure on expiration. c-pap is continuous pressure on both inspiration and expiration. Part of my husband's problem is that he cannot tolerate the pressure on expiration - he feels like he cannot get his breath out against the c-pap pressure. I think he might be able to tolerate bi-pap (no pressure on expiration) but he won't even try because of the mask - which I think also makes him feel claustrophobic. Anyway, I'm thinking that they might want to investigate bi-pap with your husband, if he can't tolerate c-pap.
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