my cpap doesnt help me

[neworleans399]

i did a sleep study. i have sleep apnea. long story short. i went thru many masks, around 12. my pressure was 8 moved to a 14. the problem is i cant breathe with it on my nose. when i put it over my nose i can barely get any air. we even tried uping the pressure to max. no luck. i even tried a full face mask. i dont breate with my mouth at night , just my nose. so i cant use it. any other suggestions. alternatives. been to 6 doctors.

[josh73]

I'm brand new to CPAP, this is my first week but I couldn't do the nasal mask either. It made me feel like I was being choked. I went with the full face more for the psychology of knowing that I can sleep with my mouth open in the middle of the night but I keep my mouth shut in the full face and breath through my nose. sorry you're having such a hard time with this.

[jmelby]

What type of mask are you using? Is it a nasal pillow mask? If so, have you tried a standard nasal mask like the Activa LT (where it covers your nose rather than just your nostrils)? From what you are saying, it sounds like you might be using a nasal pillow mask and the pillows aren't staying open, or something similar. Another thing to consider is the size of the pillows if that is the style of mask you like.

[BlackSpinner]

[quote="neworleans399". i even tried a full face mask. i dont breate with my mouth at night , just my nose. so i cant use it. any other suggestions. alternatives. been to 6 doctors. [/quote]
A full face mask means you can breathe either through your nose OR your mouth. So there is something else going on.
What is your machine? What does your data say?

[Mary Z]

This does sound like something else is going on. The CPAP can't help you if you can't wear a mask, or nasal pillows.
Could there be an aspect of panic going on when you put on the mask?
Perhaps you should explore the possibility of a dental device.
Good luck.
HoseCrusher gives excellent advice- if you can follow the suggested steps that would be great.

[HoseCrusher]

Take it in steps.

It is unnatural to wear a mask on your face. It takes time to get use to it. The first step is to get use to having something on your face. You can do this by disconnecting everything and just sitting down. This is you and the mask only. Relax and put the mask on. Read a good book or watch a good movie.

The purpose of this exercise is to get use to the mask.

Once you feel that wearing a mask is not all that bad, you can move on to figuring out your machine. Same setting, but this time hook up your machine and hose to the mask. You are still sitting up and relaxed. Just before you put your mask on, take several deep breaths and exhale slowly. This will give your system a boost of oxygen that will go a long way to eliminating the feeling that you can't breath with the machine.

Keep in mind that awake breathing is different than sleep breathing. The machine may fight you a little, but just relax and settle in.

By now you will know that it is possible to breath with the mask and machine. It still is unnatural and uncomfortable, but it is possible.

The next step is to go out and run 5 miles, or clean the house, or do whatever wears you down to the point where you are actually tired. Plop yourself down in a comfortable chair or recliner, put on your mask and turn on the machine. As you sit there relaxing, allow yourself to drift off for a few minutes. You may find that a few minutes turns into a few hours.

Now you are ready to move everything into the bedroom and go to sleep with the mask and machine.

Along the way everyone experiences various problems. We can usually help figure out how to deal with most of these problems, so keep trying and keep asking questions.

[xenablue]

I felt the same way when I first started on CPAP - like I was suffocating.

I listened to the advice of the good folks here, tried a few things and now it almost feels natural to breathe with the mask.

After more than a year on CPAP, I STILL take 15-20 minutes to 'get in the groove'.

Long before I'm even tired or ready for bed, I make sure everything's set so I don't have any last minute annoyances with my equipment. I also have a 'spare' mask ready in case the one I'm wearing starts to drive me crazy.

Then, when I get into bed, turn the TV on to a mindless program (for me it's a DVR'd episode of Jeopardy) and spend the time adjusting my mask and just relaxing my breathing so by the time the program's over, I hardly know the mask is on and I'm good and drowsy.

This isn't something most people take to like a duck to water - if you do, then that's awesome. Didn't happen for me, however my positive attitude and determination to make it work, and not die from OSA or complications from same certainly helped.

Hang in there - if you can see your data from even a bad night on XPAP, I'm sure you'd see it's a vast improvement from the results of your sleep study - even if you feel like heck in the morning.

Cheers,
xena

[Kairosgrammy]

Did you try nasal pillows? I'm assuming that you did from the number of masks you have tried but I thought I'd ask anyways. Are you giving yourself long enough with a mask to actually get used to it?
Some suggestions which might be helpful (others have probably made them but don't have time to read through so I'm winging it. Are you ramping? That starts the cpap at a very low pressure and works up to your prescribed pressure and gives you some time to adjust. Have you tried using it when awake. I know that sounds silly but it can help, particularly if the cpap is making you feel panicky when you are waking up. It's a lot easier to adjust to things awake because you can reason through your feelings. Perhaps a short term prescription for anti-anxiety meds would help if you feel the air blowing up your nose makes you anxious.

Keep trying and don't give up. I know for a fact sleep apnea kills. My brother probably wouldn't have lived another month or two had he not been diagnosed and the only reason that happened was because we finally had a family intervention because he was scaring us so badly. His excuse, he was afraid they'd find something really wrong with him. He passed two years ago but I think bipap gave him 10 more years of life that he would never have had but if he'd been diagnosed much earlier, there wouldn't have been so much damage from years and years of sleep apnea.

I know how you feel. I nearly gave cpap up myself cuz the mask they issued made me so claustophobic. Hard to sleep with your heart trying to pound out of your chest. Now I probably wouldn't have had to suffer so long if I'd realized I had options. I went back after 3 weeks and the solution was so easy. Nasal pillows worked for me. A little bit of claustophobia but manageable and once I used it for a few weeks it was a piece of cake. Keep trying, keep bugging sleep doc and dme. I'm being honest when I say at the very least your quality of life depends on it and more, your very life might. I figure if they bumped you to 14, your sleep apnea is pretty severe.

Stay here on this forum. There are a lot of people to help.

i did a sleep study. i have sleep apnea. long story short. i went thru many masks, around 12. my pressure was 8 moved to a 14. the problem is i cant breathe with it on my nose. when i put it over my nose i can barely get any air. we even tried uping the pressure to max. no luck. i even tried a full face mask. i dont breate with my mouth at night , just my nose. so i cant use it. any other suggestions. alternatives. been to 6 doctors.

[RocketGirl]

i did a sleep study. i have sleep apnea. long story short. i went thru many masks, around 12. my pressure was 8 moved to a 14. the problem is i cant breathe with it on my nose. when i put it over my nose i can barely get any air. we even tried uping the pressure to max. no luck. i even tried a full face mask. i dont breate with my mouth at night , just my nose. so i cant use it. any other suggestions. alternatives. been to 6 doctors.

Sometimes the long story is needed to understand the situation and offer help - can you give us some more specifics about what happens? When you say you can barely get any air, what is it - do you feel like your nose is blocked, do you feel panicky as many here are inferring, or is it something else entirely?

What have the doctors said they think is going on - and what do you really think is going on?

Whatever it is, there is almost certainly lots of help for it, if you can help us to understand a little better what is happening to you. Give us the long story and also what masks and machine you've got, don't worry about the length.

Good that you came here. Please do not give up!

[DaveLP]

When the technician put a full face mask on me during my titration study, I fell asleep and woke up feeling like I was driving at 60mph with my head out the window. I couldn't breathe with all that air being forced up my nose. I sat up in the bed and took it off. The tech came back in to see what was wrong and I explained it to her. She tried a couple of other FF masks with the same result. Then, she fitted me with a nasal mask that allowed me to control the pressure with my breathing. I slept like a baby for 5 hours.

Finding the right mask is key when you are new at CPAP. Once you get used to the feeling of sleeping with pressure in your face, it's really a piece of cake ... seriously! Sure, sleep is better without a mask, but you quickly acclimate to the mask and it becomes normal.

You might try wearing it while awake. Look at TV or read a book (with the right mask). Get use to the feel of the CPAP and then try sleeping with it. Unless you actually do have an issue where nasal pillows are blocking your airflow, then it's probably something that time and getting accustomed to the air flow will cure. Since you said that you couldn't breathe with the full face mask, that tells me you are fighting the pressure. Too low can make you feel like you aren't getting enough, and too high can make you claustrophobic until you acclimate. Find the right pressure and you will succeed.