feeling like not getting enough air

[Grover64]

Hi all

I have been on APAP therapy for 5 months now and I feel better starting to get to the gym and gradually improving quality of life. I had an issue with nasal decongestion and unfortunately I immediately jumped on the fast train of using decongestion on to find the train went nowhere and wasn't going to stop. So I managed to migrate to the Nasonex solution and set my humidifier up to 5 (6 was too high I ended up swimming). My AHI is averaging 1.3 which is great as my sleep study AHI was 67 with 80 when supine.

The only problem I seem to be having is the occasional time I might transition to a little sleep cycle and I awake with a feeling that I cant breathe almost like hyperventilating. It seems that I cant get enough air and after a few minutes I have to take the pillows off.

Does anyone have an ideas? or advice

[RedSkip]

I'm fairly new, so it may not be the proper advice. But i turned off my autoramp feature and bumped my starting pressure from 4 to 6 cm H20 from the start.

I had the same feeling, but it was immediate, perhaps this doesn't pertain to your circumstance.

Skip

[FrankNichols]

Most people that feel they are not getting enough air are using a setting around 4 on the low side, or are using ramp to start. I would turn off ramp and set the low pressure to 12 (as your profile indicates that is what you use.) I believe that will solve the "can't get enough air" issue. Then if you feel you can't exhale and it's keeping you awake, go back to fiddling with the ramp starting pressure (I stopped using Ramp the first day and so I don't recall what settings are available.) The Nasal pillows feel a little harder to exhale with than the full face mask, so be prepared to give it a night to become accustomed to exhaling against the pressure. I tried nasal pillows are couldn't deal with them at all. At home I tried them again and got use to them and love them, I don't notice the pressure at all when I wake up in the night - and I have to let them leak little to make everything is working - it just took a day or two.

[green wings]

Another thing that can cause a feeling of not being able to get enough air with nasal pillows is if you are using a type of nasal pillow that has an inner and outer cone, sometimes the inner cone will collapse then you won't get enough air through it. If that happens, you can just flex it and it will pop back into shape.

[JudgeMental]

Grover.. It appears to me that you have adjusted to the use of CPAP/APAP extremely well. Your avg. AHI-1.3 is very good and you have plenty of energy to go to the gym. Some folks do have an occasional feeling of stuffy nose or lack of air when they use pillows..
I don't know about your humidity condition in your location down-under but the humidifier setting of 5 might be a tad to high causing too much warm air which can also cause a feeling of lack of air. You might just try to drop the humidifier setting down a notch or so and try that.

[PoolQ]

If you are using ramp, there is a ramp start pressure setting that is different from you min therapy pressure setting. You can use ramp if you want and just increase this pre-therapy starting pressure, the default is 4 and that is too low for many people.

However if I read your post correctly unless you are stopping and restarting the machine, ramp should not be reactivated

[Crimson Nape]

Another consideration is pillow size. I started using the size based off of manufacturer's sizing guide. This felt like my nose was stopped up and I had flow restriction. I moved up to the next larger size and this corrected everything.

[MitchS]

I had exactly the same problem with the P10. I found out it was condensation on the P10's vent screen partially blocking the vent which caused the co2 levels to go up in the mask. The P10 has a very fine screen built into the vent and is susceptible to blockage due to condensation caused by high humidity levels or cool room temperatures. If that is the case you may have to back off on the humidity or raise the room temperature to resolve it. If it happens again, try thoroughly drying the vent screen on both sides of the mask frame. If you are able to continue using the P10 after drying it you will know it was a moisture problem. It will probably occur again after a few minutes if the conditions remain the same.

[Grover64]

Mitch

Thanks for that I will back off on the humidity and I checked at lunch time and one of the inner cones was pushed in so I straightened that (thanks green wings). I had the feeling that I couldn't exhale properly so I think you maybe right it certainly makes sense as my dr had told me to push the humidity up on the machine which I had done. I work in Papua New Guinea in the tropics and the room is air con so that could also affect it. I am on a 28 day stint up here and I don't have my back up Transcend with me or the Respironics pillows that I have so I will give that screen a good clean and see how it goes.

Thanks everyone for your replies

grover

[RedSkip]

28 Day Stint - Oilfield?