Paula's - Therapy Thread

[paulag1955]

Interesting. I'm not going to worry about it because it's never happened before. I'm surprised, though, that if I were opening my mouth that my husband didn't wake me to complain about the whooshing sound.

[BoxcarPete]

There wouldn't be any whooshing sound, not any more than a normal breath exhaled through your mouth. The machine isn't reporting any leaks, just that air came in your nose and somehow disappeared, but we know the most likely explanation is that it went out your mouth.

[paulag1955]

There's terrible whooshing any time I open my mouth. Is that not normal?

[Sleeprider]

I get that expiratory pattern fairly often. I'm never aware of it. It's expiratory mouth breathing. My leaks are reasonable, but apparently I sometimes exhale orally.

[paulag1955]

So what is it exactly that you see there that tells you that?

[paulag1955]

So I had a cold and couldn't use my CPAP and now I'm having a hard time trying to get back to it. The freedom of sleeping with nothing attached to my face was pretty great. And I noticed that my VivoSmart reported that I got more deep sleep without the machine.

[paulag1955]

I've found that a massive heart attack is a great motivator to finally get my CPAP therapy to a point where I can be consistent about using it. I've ordered a different mask with more secure headgear and I think that will help. However, I've moved to a drier climate and I'm having trouble adjusting my humidifier so that my nose doesn't burn (and bleed) during and after use. Also, at least for the time being, I have oxygen feeding into my line.

I don't understand why rainout happens so I'm hesitant to just crank my humidity up as high as it will go. Can someone please explain it to me as if I were a five year old?

[Jay51]

Paula, sorry to hear about your heart attack.  Great job becoming more consistent about therapy. 

I did some research on your situation.  Supplemental oxygen can contribute to nosebleeds (as can your drier climate).  Nasal prongs can irritate the nose more than a full face mask or hybrid as well. .  

As far as "rainout" from your hose is concerned, to me keeping the machine lower than nose level when sleeping used gravity to help keep excess moisture from reaching my mask.  Also, there are various "hose hanger for cpap hose", etc. on Amazon, etc. that extend the first half or so of the hose upward (with the 2nd half of the hose angling downward towards your mask) and prevent all rainout.  They usually clip on to your headboard of the bed.  

Saline rinses can help as well to add some moisture.

[Mecate13]

I had two issues when I first started which was two months ago.  My mouth was so sore and dry that my sleep person said to increase the humidity.  I set my humidity from a 4 to a 5. This solved the mouth problem but then I had the rainout problem.  I have a heated hose and I set it to 84 and it took care of the problem.  Just thought I would share this.

[paulag1955]

Thank you for your reply. I'll look into a hose hanger. One plus is that I was taken off oxygen today.

In the last three weeks, I've burned through an entire tube of nasal saline gel. It helps, but I'm still having issues. I never realized that I was such a fragile flower.