CPAP and LONG COVID

[Fred N]

Hi All,
I am going on 2 years with long covid. It truely is not fun.
About a year ago I was told by my cardiologist that I needed to use a CPAP machine. I had a one night sleep test and then was off to the races.
He assured me that it would help significantly. That might be true for my heart but it has taken a big toll on my general health. I have tested His theory many times but at this point I think something is wrong.
This is what happned on 100% of my tries.

1. I start using the machine. It's uncorfortable but I manage a few hours a night, increasing by about an hour or so a night. Sometimes I get lucky and get 5-7 hours with it (but rarely). Some nights are ok, some nights I wake up at 3:00am with huge adrenaline rushes that keep me up until the next day. (not sure why)
2. After about day 3, I start to progressively feel more and more "covid sick" during the day. Fatigued, underwater feeling, zapped of all energy. A blob.
3. The sickness deepens day by day until I am almost completely bed bound.
4. At day 4 or 5 I decide to try a night without the mask.
5. I finally get a good night sleep and begin to feel noticeably better.
6. If I dont use the CPAP machine I progressively get better (as "better' as you can with long covid).

I do think I need the machine. I wake up gasping for breath, in sweat, multiple times night, etc.

But I don't know why the machine is making me feel so sick in general.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Thanks!

[gainerfull]

Hi Fred,

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. You're at a bit of a disadvantage here considering your CPAP machine is not supported by Oscar so it may preclude you from sharing your sleep data and receiving feedback here. Do you have access to your sleep study? From your profile it looks like you're using a pretty high pressure which may be contribute to your unwillingness to leave the mask on all night. Based upon your sleep study results, other members can share advice as well.

You may consider sharing this feedback with your sleep doctor as well and setting up appointments to fine tune the therapy in the absence of any progress made here.

Good luck

[Geer1]

CPAP is invasive and it only helps if it helps.

It appears you are using a fixed pressure. Fixed pressure only helps if your airways are collapsing and said pressure holds your airway open therefore allowing you to breath more freely than if you weren't using the machine. If the machine isn't doing this then it can make breathing more difficult (especially breathing out since you have to do so against the pressure) and is creating extra noise, venting etc that can negatively impact sleep.

Finding the right settings is key as is adapting to CPAP (to the pressure, noise etc). You have had the machine long enough and based off your discussion points it sounds like your settings are not ideal. This could be machine settings or potentially a mask problem (if you are having significant leaks etc). Since your machine is not OSCAR capable it makes it harder to diagnose and adjust. As a starting point you could discuss with your provider and see if they have ideas for different settings, have anyway or reviewing your data (I am not knowledgeable of this machines capabilities) or can perform a titration study (where they try different settings, masks etc while monitoring your breathing).

Edit: The first thing I would look for is a setting akin to Resmed EPR which lowers the pressure during exhale. 2-3 cm drop during exhale will probably make it more comfortable and potentially resolve these issues.

[Psychotech]

post some data so we can see what exactly the problem is

[Fred N]

Thanks very much for all the info and ideas. I'll try to figure out how to get some of my data also.

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Edit: The first thing I would look for is a setting akin to Resmed EPR which lowers the pressure during exhale. 2-3 cm drop during exhale will probably make it more comfortable and potentially resolve these issues.

Thanks! I'll try this.

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Hi Fred,

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. You're at a bit of a disadvantage here considering your CPAP machine is not supported by Oscar so it may preclude you from sharing your sleep data and receiving feedback here.

Sorry. I'm still in the process of learning about CPAP machines, what is Oscar exactly?

[SuperSleeper]

Sorry. I'm still in the process of learning about CPAP machines, what is Oscar exactly?

You can read more about the OSCAR software here:
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...OSCAR_Help

It's free to download and use.  The official download page is here:
https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR