Sleep Apnea

I had a sleep study done in March because my husband told me that I stopped breathing at night. He said he could not hold his breath for as long as I did not breathe. The results of the study was that I have severe sleep apnea. I stopped breathing almost 600 times in six hours. My oxygen levels dropped dangerously low. I did not realize how many people have sleep apnea until I found out I had it.
I got a VPAP III machine with a humidifier. Because of the severity of my problem, it helps me with inhaling and exhaling while I sleep.
I am a mouth breather, so I have to use a full mask which covers my nose and mouth. This was difficult for me to get used to . I have always hated anything covering my mouth, especially when I try to sleep.
It takes the machine 20 minutes to "ramp up" to the pressures I need. I cannot tolerate the mask while it is as the lower pressures of ramping up. I need to feel more pressure when I cover my mouth with it.
Prior to getting the machine, I cannot even remember when was the last time I slept deeply. Because I was in the pattern of stopping breathing , I slept lightly so I could get myself awake.
One night, since getting the machine, the power went out. I was sleeping deeply. Without the machine working, I went into a sleep apnea and had a hard time waking myself up. When I did finally awaken, the mask was covering my mouth but no air was coming through because the power was out. I almost had a panic attack, feeling like I could not get any air to breathe. I finally got the mask off, gasping for breath. Fortunately the power did not stay off very long (maybe 30 minutes) - and I was able to use the machine and get back to sleep.
My sleep doctor told me because of the severity of my problem, I need to have a power backup available for my machine. This is easier said than done.
IN the meantime, my husband found a wonderful little device called "PowerOut". I plug it into the same outlet as my sleep machine. If the power goes out, it flashes a light and sounds an alarm. Thus it would wake me up more easily and I could get the mask off without having to panic.
We are still working on what will make the most sense as a power backup, but I feel better knowing it will not be so hard to wake up next time the power goes out.