nasal congestion

Hi I'm new to cpap therapy and am struggling with nasal congestion. I have had this problem for many years and have just dealt with it. with cpap full face mask I panic more often than not causing me to just take mask off and go to sleep without it. Does anyone have any advice?

kerrytx wrote:Hi I'm new to cpap therapy and am struggling with nasal congestion. I have had this problem for many years and have just dealt with it. with cpap full face mask I panic more often than not causing me to just take mask off and go to sleep without it. Does anyone have any advice?

How are we supposed to come up with anything from that? You've given us no information to go on.
We don't know what equipment you're using, what your settings are (including your humidity settings) or anything else.

BUT.........too much warm humidity or too little humidity can contribute to nasal congestion.
Too much warm humidity could also contribute to claustrophobia (panic).
Have you tried adjusting your settings?

So........what do you have, what are your settings and how can we help you?


Den

.

Have you tried Flonase? It opens things up in minutes. It used to be prescription only, but now it's on the shelf. Works for me for occasional congestion.

Thank you but the Flonase doesn't help. I am using resmed s9 with humidifier, mirage Quattro full face mask. thanks

If you've had it 'many years', what did (I'm assuming here) an ENT doctor say?

Hi there! Welcome to the club you probably never wanted to join. I experience nasal congestion from year-round allergies, so I use "Clear" essential oil, available for sale on CPAP.com. They also sell the diffuser wafers there. You put a drop of the oil on the diffuser wafer, then put the diffuser wafer into the cardboard stand (or buy the metal one from CPAP.com that lasts longer), then you sit the stand with the diffuser in it beside the air intake vent on the back of your machine. If you don't want to buy the diffuser pads or the stand that holds it, you can put the oil on a cotton ball, and sit it on a small medicine bottle lid behind the air intake. (The lid protects your furniture from the oil.) Don't ever put the oil in your humidifier tank, the only thing to we are supposed to put in the humidifier tank is distilled water.

Also: The Flonase needs to have about 2 weeks of daily use before it starts to work. I use Flonase every night before I go bed and take Loratidine (Claritin) pill or generic Zyrtec every morning.

kerrytx wrote:Thank you but the Flonase doesn't help. I am using resmed s9 with humidifier, mirage Quattro full face mask. thanks

Which specific model of S9 do you have? Is it data-capable? The model name should be on the front of it.
Have you ever tried to adjust your humidifier settings?
If not and you don't have a clinicians manual, here's a link to download one for your machine.

http://www.apneuvereniging.nl/forum/pdf ... manual.pdf


Den

.

kerrytx wrote:Hi I'm new to cpap therapy and am struggling with nasal congestion. I have had this problem for many years and have just dealt with it. with cpap full face mask I panic more often than not causing me to just take mask off and go to sleep without it. Does anyone have any advice?

I love my evening cocktail of Flonase and Singulair chaser for what has become year-round allergies. I also have found I feel much better avoiding dairy, especially high fat content ice cream, cheeses and so forth - just talking about them seems to make me produce more mucus. I've increased my fiber intake with sprinkles of chia seeds on salads and such (sounds weird, but really helpful ). There are a lot of studies about gut flora and allergies / mucus and inflammation so paying attention to what I eat does have some cred.

Hope this helps. Hate to hear about anyone having these issues.

I used to have some congestion along with seasonal change sinus infections. I've found the following products to "clean house":

Sinu-Orega (burns, but kills bacteria and mold hiding in the sinus passages - you may be amazed what comes out of your head)
and
Alka-lol

Since using these I haven't had a night in five years unable to breathe past whatever tried to brew in my head. Good luck

I was on Afrin nasal spray (which is physiologically addictive) for over 2 years before suffering through a few nights without it. Before getting my nasal mask (and my first CPAP, ResMed S9). I was miserable with that mask (Mirage Fx) because I couldn't get any air. An ENT advised me to have my turbinates operated on in my nasal passages. Hell no.

So, I moved to the nasal pillows (the Swift II first, and now the Resmed P10) and, combined with Flonase nightly (I find it's more effective that way - perhaps placebo effect) and Zyrtec/Cetirizine as needed, I'm good to go.

The nasal pillows obviously just push the air into the nostrils, as opposed to the nasal mask pushing air AROUND the nose. If it's early enough in your therapy (within the first 30 days), you should be able to talk to your RT/DME and try out a different mask/mask type.