Help Issues

After night 6, I think I will take a break. No cpap tonight. Having severe shortness of breath feeling, anxiety and soreness in my chest. I read here that many attribute this to the idea of "deep breathing" during sleep. I think this is a myth, as we breathe the same when we are awake with no obstruction and it does not cause this. I think it is caused by he resistance associated with exhaling against all that pressure.

The sensations were bad yesterday, today they are near unbearable. I keep trying to catch my breath, feeling anxious like I need a xanax or something.

Can anyone here tell me their stories associated with these sytmptoms? Does it go away and if so when?

#1 put your equipment and pressure into a signature so when you ask questions we can see what machine you have and what pressure you're at and all that good stuff.

I still remember feeling what you're feeling. And that's over 10 years ago for me. Using a cpap is kind of odd at first. As far as how long that feeling lasts... it really is like a lot of other things regarding cpap therapy. For some it goes away in a couple of days, others may never feel it at all. Others it takes a couple weeks. Your diaphram muscles need to get used to exhaling against positive pressure. Normally, this happens pretty fast. It's not a LOT of pressure and you adapt quickly.

As far as stopping the cpap for one night.... you're on cpap for a reason. Keep that in mind. You might also want to talk to your respiratory therapist. We don't know how your machine is set up. Does it have EPR? If you are at a relatively high pressure starting out, then EPR may help you get used to the therapy (pressure relief when you exhale). If you're like a lot of people (not everyone... we're all different) then you may not need EPR as you get used to this. I have it on my current machine but it's at a low setting and sometimes I just turn it off and can't honestly say I notice a difference. My pressure is relatively low though (8cm... I have my auto range set between 7 and 11).

If I've learned ANYTHING about cpap therapy it's that we're all different. We'll all try to help, but in the end you try suggestions and then use the ones that work for you. Not all suggestions will be to your liking. It can take a little time to find the right combination of masks, humidity, machine, pressure settings, that work most effectively for YOU.

Meanwhile.... keep at it. You'll get there.

I took an involuntary break from CPAP this week due to a respiratory infection.

Didn't like the results -- return of pain, return of exhaustion.

If you're having trouble with exhalation, does your machine have exhalation relief? (It would help if you would click on the User Control Panel, and fill out your machine, mask, and other particulars so people who want to help know what equipment you have. It's better to use printed descriptions than the icons.)

I couldn't handle single pressure and am on a bilevel. This doesn't mean you will need one.

Do you have a card reader and software if your machine is fully data capable?

But frankly, if you "take a night off," I can tell you what will happen: you'll find one excuse after another to "take a night off," and you'll end up as a CPAP drop out. This is bad.

Others here are far more expert than I am, so I'll leave the details to them to explain. But I can be a cheerleader- the same thing happened to me. It lasted about 2 weeks, and being a nurse I had all sorts of wild ideas about what could have been going on. But I knew my OSA was bad and stuck it out.

It will pass- hang in there. Now on the rare occasions that I fall asleep mask-less I realize just how much better I feel when I use it.

Does your machine have an exhalation pressure relief option? I had to tweak mine and it helped a lot.