Nasty cold - can my CPAP help me breathe?
Ack!! I've been toughing it out with a cold for 5 days. But on Wednesday it got so bad it woke me up: I couldn't breathe even WITH my CPAP pushing through things.
I surrendered and got some Nyquil and Dayquil today. Ahhhh.... blessed relief after one dose. Only to read on the box: do not take with warfarin (Coumadin). Contacted my Coumadin team and they confirmed: do not take the stuff. So I'm left with Allegra and Nasonex, which hadn't helped before. And Afrin, which does help, but I hate the rebound it's going to cause.
Meanwhile: can I set my CPAP to auto (I'm on fixed pressure of 8) and see if it will power through this?? Right now it's so bad I'm mouth breathing around the nasal pillows, and defeating the CPAP, even though I'm propped up in bed.
Suggestions?
RE: Nasty cold - can my CPAP help me breathe?
You're using nasal pillows. You will be amazed at how much better you breath. It sucks to have a cold, but my experience has been CPAP mitigates the effect.
Good luck! We're expecting mid 80s all weekend here and the pool is open at over 80 degrees. I'm lovin' it.
RE: Nasty cold - can my CPAP help me breathe?
(05-08-2015, 05:07 PM)BadGoodDeb Wrote: Suggestions?
You might try turning the humidity either higher or lower. I personally usually turn it higher, the extra moisture helps thin out the mucus and helps the cpap push through things.
05-08-2015, 06:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-08-2015, 06:28 PM by BadGoodDeb.)
RE: Nasty cold - can my CPAP help me breathe?
Is it possible that the humidifier could have caused the cold? I didn't use a humidifier for 4 years; my old machine used to rain in my face, so I just learned to do without it. The AirSense 10 AutoSet has the heated hose and all that, so I figured I'd give humidity a try again. And three days after starting on humidity, I started this cold. I don't usually GET colds, either.
Now, it's a brand new hose and a brand new machine, and distilled water ..... so I don't think I'm sending any mold or anything into my system. But I'm freaked enough that I think I'll turn the humidifier off again for a while. Oh, and the cold was almost better on Wednesday (after 5 days), till I went to bed. An hour later, it was so bad I had to rip the mask off (well, nasal pillows) and use Afrin to nose breathe at all.
I'm inclined to go without humidity until the cold has gone away and stayed away ..... before I try it again. But I can't see why my system would react exactly the reverse of everybody else's.
RE: Nasty cold - can my CPAP help me breathe?
It is possible that doing without added humidity will dry things up enough to keep everything open. No, I do not think it very possible that the humidifier caused the cold.
See, if you had been using a FFM like I do, you might not have gotten the cold to begin with.
Just kidding of course. I have used the FFM for well over a year and have had no colds at all. Gotta put in a plug for the "hated" Mirage Quattro when the opportunity arises.
Best Regards,
PaytonA
