New to the forum. Looking for answers.

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:39 pm

Hell...I typed all that for nothing.

I thought that was some of my best work too.

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Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:43 pm

Yeah, I was going to comment on how awesome it was and that you spent so much time on it. Here I had been reading the manual while you were composing.

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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by lc96 » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:50 pm

Re: nasal congestion. I used to try the neti pot, didn't always help. Changed sleep docs and the new one recommended Flonase. I also didn't have congestion during the day (maybe post nasal drip, but no nasal blockage) but certainly did on one side or the other during the night. Flonase has eliminated the congestion 90% of the time. My nasal mask is great, and I have the Amara View for the rare times when congestion arrives.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:51 pm

I don't know if your stuffy nose is related to humidity or not but now you have the ammunition to figure things out.
When I have had a problem with humidity (lack of really) the problems didn't start until I woke up and usually meant a miserable day or two.
I do have some limited experience with the "nasal cycle" thing though and that's not related to humidity.

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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:08 pm

Read up on the nasal cycle and it all makes sense on how one side becomes restricted and then the other. The problem I have at night is one side will become completely blocked where I can't even force air through it when trying. It alternates back and forth according to sleeping position. Some nights are worse than others of course. Sounds like I have more congestion than normal. Hopefully it's just a humidifier setting now that you got me straightened out on that

I do have some fluticasone spray, but I'm the type of person that exhausts all possibilities before I turn to the meds. Plus I'm really not a fan of shooting stuff up my nose.

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Last edited by Rob K on Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:12 pm

I am whispering this....barely hear....teeny tiny bit of afrin in the really bad nostril...one tiny squirt..on one and none during the day.

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palerider
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by palerider » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:02 am

Pugsy wrote:I am whispering this....barely hear....teeny tiny bit of afrin in the really bad nostril...one tiny squirt..on one and none during the day.
as I mentioned elsewhere, a few years ago a super good ENT told me that I could use afrin, once every 24 hours, just at night, and not get dependent on it, no rebound effect, for as much as a month.

I've done it multiple times since then, and no rebound congestion. if you use it "as directed" then yes, you'll get dependent on it in 3 days or less... but that extra 12 hours between uses.... keeps the trouble away, and lets me breath at night, even with a cold.

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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by kteague » Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:35 am

Rob K wrote: Congestion is still a mystery I'm trying to figure out. It only happens when I lay down for a long period with or without the machine. Sometime during the night I end up congested. Humidity does affect it.
Hopefully any adjustments you make to the humidty as discussed further down in the thread will prove helpful. Just a smidgen too much humidity and my sinuses become a snot factory. Everyone has to find their sweet spot. Do be mindful that some masks that fit tightly where the bridge of the nose meets the cheeks can press on the sinuses and cause blockage that can be misinterpreted as blocked by congestion. Probably not an issue with you since you say it happens even without the mask, but just in case it coukd be a contributing factor thought I'd throw it out there.

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desiderata
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.

Post by desiderata » Tue Mar 07, 2017 8:04 am

.
Last edited by desiderata on Sun May 07, 2017 5:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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bonjour
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by bonjour » Tue Mar 07, 2017 8:11 am

Thanks Pugsy,

I didn't know how that worked.

Fred
Pugsy wrote:
Rob K wrote:So it does adjust automatically according to room humidity? That might explain why I don't have to adjust it too often. Sounds like I need to read the manual again.lol
Yeah and a little bit of reading that isn't covered in the manual very well I don't think. It's been a long time since I have seen that manual.
This humidifier offers three levels of humidification (70, 80 or 90 percent) and the heated tube has five levels of temperature available, ranging from 4 to 16 degrees above the room temperature. These two features work together to deliver the optimum humidification level at the mask.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/pr-sys ... ifier.html

Here's how it works with the heated hose attached on a PR S1 machine.
You get to choose from 3 humidity levels...1 is 70%, 2 is 80% and 3 is 90%.
Let's say you choose the setting of 2.
The machine has a humidity sensor in it for the ambient room humidity...
Say the ambient room humidity is 50%...the machine will add heat to the water chamber to put out added moisture until the humidity delivered to your nose is 80%. I think there must be a humidity sensor in the hose somewhere.
It will try to maintain that 80% by varying the temp to the water chamber...more heat more moisture goes into the air.

So some nights if the ambient humidity is already fairly high the machine may not use much water because it doesn't need to add much moisture and on some nights if the ambient humidity is much lower it may use more water trying to maintain that 80 %.

The temperature part of the heated hose...that's totally independent...choose whatever feels good to you.

Please note...with the heated hose attached you have to go into the clinical setup menu area to change the humidity from 1 through 3. If you aren't in the clinical setup area and you turn that knob for humidity...all it is doing is changing the hose temp.
If all you have been doing is turning the knob thinking you were changing the humidity and you didn't go into the clinical setup menu area...all you were doing was playing with the hose air temp.

I use a heated hose...I love it...the humidity that I finally decided on is constant and consistently delivered to me.
I don't have to worry about the ambient humidity and trying to figure will I need more or less.
All I do is change the hose air temp to suit my needs...warmer for winter and cooler for summer and the humidity my nose gets never changes.
Also note that the heated hose air temp on this machine starts with ambient room temp. You can't make it colder than the ambient room temp. There's no coolant in there. The setting of 1 adds 4 degrees to the ambient room temp so that's what ends up in the hose....and it gets warmer the more you turn it.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Tue Mar 07, 2017 8:32 am

bonjour wrote:Thanks Pugsy,

I didn't know how that worked.

Fred
You are welcome. Glad to help. This was for the PR S1 60 series machines. The principle is the same for the other models and even other brands except setting choices are a bit different and how you get to the humidity settings available might be different.
Any model of the Respironics machines since the 60 series and the ResMed since the S9 makes use of an ambient sensor in the machine for determining ambient room humidity with or without the heated hose. This is why water consumption can vary so much sometimes even without changing the humidity setting.
People often think that the humidity delivered is on top of the ambient room humidity but it can't be or we would have major condensation in the hose and mask. You can't take an ambient room humidity of 50% and choose a setting for 80% humidity and add them together...you would get 130% which of course is impossible.

Also I have discovered that you can use up a lot of water even if the ambient humidity is relatively high. I am using the new AirCurve model right now and its been used without a heated hose at first and I got a heated hose a few days ago.
Ambient humidity has been high lately and the setting I have chosen at the moment on the AirCurve with heated hose is 85% (auto mode which is 85% and 80 degrees) and I am using up almost all the water with ambient humidity in the 40 to 50% range with roughly 8 hours on the machine.

The beauty of the heated hose is more than just rain out prevention or prevention of ice cub nose syndrome....it's consistent humidity delivery no matter what the hose air temp is.

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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:00 pm

It's very rare that I go without the mask these days and I'm not really sure anymore if I still get congestion without it, I used to. I don't think I'll experiment with that. Will just try improve things while wearing a mask.

It was mentioned that the type of mask can affect congestion. I also was just reading other threads about how masks affect congestion. I currently use an Airfit N10 nasal cushion. While I'm messing with the humidity settings I'll try some different masks and see if that helps also.

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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Sat Mar 18, 2017 2:17 pm

Here's an update for those that are helping me.

Adjusting the humidity has helped with congestion. Symptoms are not gone, but better controlled than in the past. For me it seems like congestion is mostly just a winter problem when laying down and not a problem at all anytime of the year when up and about. Congestion mainly happens half way through the night when I'm lying down. If I get up congestion goes away after a little while.


Also my events are a little busier than what I think is good based on what I learned from you all. That last bump in minimum pressure to 9cm didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference. I feel like I should try 10cm. What do you think? I still have a ways to go in learning how to interpret and make adjustments to therapy.

Also tried using the P10 mask the last two nights. Normally use the N10. The graph below is with the P10. I suspect the pressure made need to be tweaked when switching masks. What say you?

Image

Image

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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Sun Mar 26, 2017 2:23 pm

I'm now using the P10 mask on a regular basis. I bumped up the pressure range so it's 10-13cm. Congestion is much better controlled. AHI is below 1 most nights. This seems about as good as it gets for me. Now I can move on to the sleep maintenance stuff and will seek advise if I can't get it under control. Thanks again for the help.

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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Wed May 31, 2017 7:57 pm

Another update for those helping so you can hear about the good things you have done.

Pressure is still set to auto 10-14cm. I go back and forth between the Airfit N10 and P10 masks. AHI remains around 1 most nights, give or take. I feel pretty good now when I sleep around 8 hours. I don't yawn throughout the day anymore. I don't feel great in the mornings, but I don't feel terrible either and that has helped a lot. I expect things to keep improving. I don't wake anywhere near as much as I used to. My mental health problems have resolved. My body is still repairing itself from years of damage, but doing increasingly better. Muscles, joints and bones don't ache anywhere near as bad as before. Getting this straightened out couldn't have happened at a better time since I'm getting downsized out of my 12 year job. I'm officially on a part time schedule with no certainty of work hours. Life goes on so time to figure out something new. Thanks so much to all that helped, this transition would have nearly ended me several months ago, now it's just a bump in the road or better yet a new opportunity.

Now that the most debilitating problem(apnea) is under control, I wanted to know the reason I have sleep apnea and why I annoyingly cough up food after eating. The doc agreed to send me to an ENT. They found 2 different abnormal problems. I have about a 2cm diverticula or pocket protruding off and near the top of my esophagus. That's where the food is collecting and the reason I cough or sneeze up pieces later. Yeah, gross, I know. ENT shoved a scope up my nose and down my throat and said he also found a growth, maybe a cyst, that may be causing my apnea. I totally forgot where he said it was. They have to treat these things as two separate problems so dealing with them one at a time the next step is getting a biopsy of the growth. Hopefully things are easily resolved and I'm soon skipp'n and whistl'n through life.

Take care and thanks again.

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Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.