Help - CPAP causing face spasms

Hi,
My husband is a new CPAP user. He has only been on it for 4 days.
He is getting face spasms from the CPAP. It lasts all throughout the day being the worse just after waking up. The worst areas are forehead and around the eyes.
He is not experiencing dry eyes. He does not think the mask is adjusted too tight. He is wearing it most of the night (6-8 hours) but only about 1/2 the night the first night.

Other info - we have not yet seen the Doctor to get the results of the sleep study. The Dr had said to sleep with the CPAP for 2 weeks before coming in (makes sense, try to figure somethings out and be able to talk more coherently about any CPAP problems by the time we come in and also he can see the information from the CPAP machine). However, insurance said we have to go in between 4-6 weeks, so the Dr's office changed the appointment to 1 month after the study - just over 3 weeks away. His prescription is 5-15. They did stick a CPAP on him half way through the sleep study. The prominent symptoms we had noticed over the years was shallow breathing, he used to stop breathing for short periods but in the last 6 months he has been using higher pillows and that had reduced his symptoms significantly. There is the typical snoring. And occasionally some other symptom like a gasp but not often.

I wanted to add how nice it was to find the forum (found quickly using a search engine) so I could read about things like waking up in a panic is "normal" and something to work through, given us ideas of wipes, aromatherapy, tube coverings, draping the tube, and all the other things to help reduce the discomfort of using a CPAP, though OptionCare who gave us the cpap did cover some of that also which was nice.

Anyone have any information about face spasms from CPAP usage?
Also, any place to read about the basic types of sleep apnea (I have to admit some of the talk here is greek to me) or should we just wait until we see the Dr.

Thanks,
CPAP Wife

You may need to go to your primary care physician to get a handle on the facial spasms. Maybe a muscle relaxing RX or non-drug option may include accupuncture and/or muscle tissue message.

The mask is the most difficult part of getting the treatment optimized ... it should not be too tight so as to make it uncomfortable. Keep at it and keep posting questions here til all the issues are resolved and treatment is successful and pain free.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the mask is too tight. It sounds like something is putting pressure on a nerve. I might try another type of mask where the straps are not hitting the same spots. BUT, I really would talk to my doctor on this one.

Welcome!

Be certain the mask is not so tight as to press on facial nerves. Is your husband reading his data to know if apnea events are being controlled?

Your husband is a lucky man to have a wife that helps him like this. Do you think he would like to become a member too?

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If your husband is the least bit predisposed to a neuralgia type disorder, CPAP mask or strap pressure can easily trigger significant neuralgia pain. In my case mask and strap pressure has repeatedly triggered trigeminal neuralgia pain.

The Nasal Aire II just may turn out to be a better option for him:
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/innome ... e-kit.html

Perhaps the Headrest or ComfortLite2 (CL2) would also be a good option? I have the CL2 and there is only contact on the forehead and on the nose (only the nares if nasal pillows are used).

Problem Solved.
I logged in and saw the replies from Dreamstalker and bap40 and said Duh, we need to talk to OptionCare. That is what they are there for. We saw them yesterday and got a new mask. The problem was every time he rolled over to a side his mask leaked and he had to adjust it. This happened regularly through the night - change position, spend a couple of minutes readjusting the mask to stop leaks. He has a round face and has a wider nose bridge so has to be picky when buying sunglasses so likely affects mask fit. The straps were just tight enough to stop leaks but probably too tight for him.
The spasms were like eye twitches when your eyes are too tired.

Anyway, after trying on several masks, rolling around in the reclining chair at OptionCare to test them out, he settled on the ResMed Mirage Activa Mask - it has a bellows like system that floats over the nose and moves as you move. So he can do looser straps and no leaks. As soon as he had it on a few seconds he started looking happier, he really liked this one but did the obligatory rolling around to check it stayed good in all postions. Last night worked great and no face spasms this morning. He really likes it - ok as much as you can really like having to wear a cpap mask.

This first week has gone ok, he actually snores less when he is not wearing the mask (with the old mask he couldn't figure out how to sleep on his stomach with the mask so it came off after about 6 hours - this one was on till he woke up this morning). He had a dream last night for the first time. He is getting some good sleep every night (a once every 2 week occurrence before cpap) and making do with all the hassle pretty well, he just tucks the hose under his arm like he is snuggling up to it and goes to sleep. I wish we would have perused this 15 years ago when i first suspected sleep apnea.

Gasp - He has read in the forum, I am sure when he has a question he will join. Having gone through tough medical issues before we both know how valuable a good support forum is to fill in the things that just don't seem to be communicated through the health care providers. I will post a question back about how to tell how many apneas he is having in a different thread so it doesn't get lost here.

Thanks forum for your help,
CpapWife

Good job getting to the solution! So glad you both found one.

What is this "rolling around in the chair?" Are you kidding me? Gosh, I feel so annoyed to be stuck with Apria all the time. You're so lucky! Apria's mask fitting goes like this:

*Apria staff lunges at my face and briefly touches a fitting guide to it*
*Apria staff leaves the room*
I say "Um ... is that all?"

Man...I know this thread is a few weeks old, but I'm so jealous.

(I'm on my ... 5th or 6th mask, and this one leaks somewhat less than the others but it's starting to cause some really unpleasant facial pain, and I don't know what the heck to do. Apria won't even let me try on masks, never mind lie down and see how to adjust the headgear or something. I'm really at a loss as for what to do. I live in the same area as CPAP Success, but I would have to pay out of pocket to buy a new mask through them...anyway, I don't want to hijack this thread, sorry. Very frustrating, though!)

-SWS wrote:If your husband is the least bit predisposed to a neuralgia type disorder, CPAP mask or strap pressure can easily trigger significant neuralgia pain. In my case mask and strap pressure has repeatedly triggered trigeminal neuralgia pain.

The Nasal Aire II just may turn out to be a better option for him:
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/innome ... e-kit.html

Hey, WHY don't you just go get that Trigeminal Neuralgia pain fixed?

Swing by here, I have a Makita cordless drill, a step bit and some fiberglass cloth, fix ya up in a few minutes, well maybe a bit longer, someone was using my hemastats as a roach clip, but if my batteries go dead, or I break off a step bit in the side of your head you may prefer seeing these guys, they have a fancy dancy endosope procedure and well all I have is a lighted magnifying glass from wally world:

http://www.skullbaseinstitute.com/trige ... ralgia-tnl

They are UCLA dudes and pretty good too. Did I tell you I'm fully qualified to do that procedure? I watched the video like 3 times, piece of cake.

Glad switching the mask has helped.

Has anyone in other threads suggested that the lower end of the pressure range be raised? Just seems a bit far for the machine to have to climb to prevent or resolve an apnea.

kteague wrote: Has anyone in other threads suggested that the lower end of the pressure range be raised? Just seems a bit far for the machine to have to climb to prevent or resolve an apnea.

my guess:
NOT at this stage, his doctor is probably using the machine with a wide range to confirm his pressure, apparently they didn't get a solid reading from the PSG. So they put him on an Autopap from 5 to 20 to verify pressure.

Snoredog wrote:Hey, WHY don't you just go get that Trigeminal Neuralgia pain fixed?

Swing by here, I have a Makita cordless drill, a step bit and some fiberglass cloth, fix ya up in a few minutes, well maybe a bit longer, someone was using my hemastats as a roach clip, but if my batteries go dead, or I break off a step bit in the side of your head you may prefer seeing these guys, they have a fancy dancy endosope procedure and well all I have is a lighted magnifying glass from wally world:

http://www.skullbaseinstitute.com/trige ... ralgia-tnl

They are UCLA dudes and pretty good too. Did I tell you I'm fully qualified to do that procedure? I watched the video like 3 times, piece of cake.

If you're going to be running that massive dust collection system out in your garage then you can count me in. There are a lot of cob webs up in that questionable noggin you'll be fixin'.

CpapWife, sounds like you have a great equipment supplier... allowing your husband to thoroughly check out the new mask before leaving. I'd stick with them!