Bad night, felt suffocated

[chuck6161]

I am using the resmed p10 and last night woke up at least 3 times. I could not exhale, I kept my hand under the pillows and could not feel any air exhaling. I was finding that I was taking a lot of deep breaths. Also I had water in my tubing, both the one from the machine and the tube attached to the pillow mask. Does anyone know why I would have water in there? I felt like that I was suffocating if I put my p10 back on and just stayed awake all night. I've been on cpap for a month with great results but last night has just scared me.

[green wings]

Hi, Chuck. That's a scary thing to have happen when you're new to CPAP. If you feel like you can inhale fine with the P10 pillows but not exhale, you might take a look at this thread about the surface of the P10's vent mesh becoming blocked. It's a really long thread - seems to be a problem for a lot of people.

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...ed?page=18

The problem of having water there in the first place is called "rainout" and it's when the air in the room where you're sleeping is cool enough to cause condensation of the water vapor in the humidified air in your mask and/or tubing. If you do a search for the term, there are lots of threads about ways to prevent it from happening.

I am using the resmed p10 and last night woke up at least 3 times. I could not exhale, I kept my hand under the pillows and could not feel any air exhaling. I was finding that I was taking a lot of deep breaths. Also I had water in my tubing, both the one from the machine and the tube attached to the pillow mask. Does anyone know why I would have water in there? I felt like that I was suffocating if I put my p10 back on and just stayed awake all night. I've been on cpap for a month with great results but last night has just scared me.

[MitchS]

Hey, Chuck.

When I had that problem last winter I found it was caused by condensation on the screen on the exhale port. I ended up raising the room temperature to get rid of the condensation.

[PoolQ]

you can raise the room temp, lower the humidity level (therefor the temperature), use a heated hose, insulate the hose, make sure the CPAP is the lowest end of the hose and that the hose runs down hill all the way

[chuck6161]

Thanks everyone for your replies, this is truly a great forum. I am using a heated hose, it came with my autoset s10, last night was a bit cool so I'll try heating up the room a bit tonight . Also I noticed on other threads it said to have your machine lower than bed level, mine at the moment is exactly level with my head, that's just the size of our side drawers that came with bed. Tonight I will try placing it on a coffee table to male it lower.

My main concern however was not being able to exhale from my p10. I've just read a lot of threads about it and how it can get blocked. Unfortunately it's the only mask I have so I need to keep using it until I can buy a ffm. Will try cleaning the vents with a toothbrush today.

[Sleeprider]

The mesh vents in the P10 result in relatively high pressure if you block the hose on exhale. This resistance does not change (for me) for a new or old mask. They flow at 30 LPM so rebreathing is not a big problem since most of us have <10 LPM minute rate. I am very skeptical of modifications of the P10 mask, and encourage you to note that the machine trys to maintain positive pressure at the mask in accordance with the settings. Increasing the leak rate is something I have never found necessary.

I should receive a new mask next month, and I'm tempted to compare the leak rate of the new one compared to several older masks I own. i am guessing it won't be much different.

[chuck6161]

I also forgot to mention that I was hearing and feeling a lot of air popping noises where the pillows touch my nose. It was like air bubbles popping, very weird. Any help would be appreciated

[surferdude2]

I suspect the popping sound was the water percolating in the hose, causing the pressure to fluctuate and make that noise as the pressure is released when it overcomes the water that is plugging the hose temporarily.

As has been stated, the difficulty in exhaling is caused by the water condensing or otherwise getting on the tiny holes on the exhaust screen and reducing their effective size.

Increasing the room temperature or lowering your humidifier setting (or doing both) will help solve the issue.

Dude

[MitchS]

I agree with Sleeprider. I didn't have to modify my mask to resolve exhale problem. 68 f was the magic temperature for me. I prefer to sleep at 66 f. I didn't have a heated hose or hose cover at the time and wasn't having issues with rainout in the hose, just condensation on my mask.

[Mosquitobait]

I turned my humidity down to 2 and the problem went away. I do think it helps to soak your frame in a 1:5 concentrate of vinegar for about 15 minutes or so. The disadvantage is that you smell pickles. Someone else on the board used a Water Pik to clear out that mesh as well.