7 Months into my Therapy and Doing Pretty Good

[elessadil]

I have been lurking here and just reading posts for the last few months. Learning a lot btw. Thought I would jump in and just mention my progress. I have been on CPAP now for just short of 7 months and on the whole I am doing pretty good. I am one of the small minority that took to xPap without much of a problem (like a duck to water, really). I have to say I really feel for all the members of this forum who are having so many problems adjusting. I started out using the Swift FX for her and I was very lucky in that this mask worked for me right from the start. I am getting 7-9 hrs (depends on when I go to bed) of sleep every night and I wake up without that "groggy, feel worse than I did last night before I went to sleep" feeling. It's nice to know what a good night's sleep feels like again. My AHI is consistently below 5 although I do notice a lot more CA's now than 7 months ago. I have developed one small problem however. I find that I develop a small sore (like a canker) in my left nostril only - right on the inside edge of the Columella. It gets very painful and red. I use Lansinoh every night on my nares to help protect them, but still get the sore. It burns when the pillows touch it. So much so that I have trouble sleeping. My solution for this is to take a very small piece of kleenex or toilet paper and fold it over a couple of times and cover the sore with it. The paper sticks to the Lansinoh so holding it in place is not a problem. Then I can put the pillows in my nose and I am good to go. I find that I have to keep doing this or the sore will come back. If anyone has another suggestion or idea on how to fix this I would appreciate it.

[Captain_Midnight]

Elessadil writes... I have been on CPAP now for just short of 7 months and on the whole I am doing pretty good.
Excellent. I believe that more folks should mention successes (or successes trends in progress, with a few issues), as new patients really, really need to hear this.

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[JustTia]

I know this is an old post, but I'm bumping it up since it didn't get significant responses. I am finding that I experience this same thing. I love my swift fx for her. It's really comfortable and after a few days of trying out the different sizes of pillows, I've settled on mediums and they don't hurt. Not even one little bit. There's no discomfort, other than ever so slight piggy nose in the morning when I wake up, that goes away pretty quickly (and then, only if my pressure had to go very high for very long).

The problem I'm having is that three times now, I've developed what I can only refer to as a "canker" just like the OP had. Just inside my left nare, on the septum. Doesn't happen on both sides, just the left. This is also the side that seems to be more "stopped up", even after rinsing, which has me wondering if I have a deviated septum and the angle is causing issues somehow. Nothing's hurting at night, I just randomly wake up with a sore inside my nose that takes a few days to go away. I treat it with neosporin during the day, and use a q-tip to dab a little coconut oil on the sore spot before I go to bed, until it heals up. Then I go back to my usual routine of using a beeswax based balm on my nares to help seal and protect. The balm is handmade, no chemicals, and I've been using it for years as lip balm, so I know I'm not allergic to it or anything.

Anyway - anyone have any suggestions? Do I need to turn up my humidity? Is it possible that I'm drying my sinuses too much, since I have been avoiding humidity (had some rainout issues in my pillows, so wanted to cut back on humidity). Any help would be great. Thanks.