kah cpap journey

[kah5683]

Have had a cpap for 10 years. Mixed compliance and use. Been steadily using the last three years.

I am a side sleeper. I can't sleep with cpap when on back, I wake up.

I had rotator cuff surgery 3 weeks ago and have been sleeping in a recliner. Last week wound up in the hospital with atrial fib and am out now with a battery of new meds.

Since getting out of the hospital, I have been getting an EXTREMELY dry mouth which wakes me up. It also seems that the airflow coming out of the top of my mask id extremely strong. I tightened up my straps significantly to counter this.

There were a couple times that my wife was trying to get my lid closed and restarted and I thought that maybe she pressed something she shouldn't have, but I called the doctor's office and after a lot of reluctance, they verified that the settings were correct.

In the pic, you will see gaps. I get up after sleeping for an hour or two or three, stay up a little, then try again.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't see any pictures yet.

What medications are you on now? The 2 main causes of dry mouth....medication side effects and mouth breathing.
Let's look at medications first since it is so common especially since you came home from the hospital with probably a bunch of new meds and maybe altered dosage of older meds.

[kah5683]

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[kah5683]

Been on hydrocodone since surgery. The last week been on matzim la, eliquis, metoprolol tartrate, flecainide.

Ive been on thyroid meds for a couple years

[Pugsy]

Can you get me a detailed report from before you had the surgery and you weren't on the hydrocodone?

[Pugsy]

matzim la...might cause some dehydration issues as common side effects are dark urine and constipation ...so it might be a factor in the dry mouth

metoprolol tartrate....dry mouth is listed as potential side effect


flecainide....dry mouth is listed as a potential side effect

[kah5683]

With those meds, I don't have dry mouth during the day

[kah5683]

I have a macbook pro. I just opened up Oscar thinking I could just change the date and print out what you wanted, but there isn't any data. I imported, where did it go?

[Pugsy]

It takes just a little mouth breathing to trigger dry mouth especially when taking meds that tend to dry out the oral tissues.
Most likely a combination of medication side effects and maybe a little more mouth breathing than you usually might do.

I have no idea where your data might have went to but you can always create a new profile and import again and then go back to an earlier date.

Mainly I want to compare the AHI. I suspect that the ugliness of this most recent report is related to the hydrocodone (which also can contribute to dry mouth) you are taking and should clear up once you no longer take it and it's out of your system.
I just wanted to make sure that your reports weren't this ugly prior to your procedure when you weren't on the pain meds.
The hydrocodone can suppress respiration and be a factor in the central apneas/Clear Airway apneas you are seeing....plus it can also make OSA side of things worse where it's harder for the pressure to hold the airway open and prevent the OAs and hyponeas from happening.

Also....you drink water and other liquids during the day and this will offset any of the drying effects of the medication but it just gets noticed more at night because not drinking anything during the night.

[kah5683]

I made a new profile and I see the data only goes back 3-4 weeks.

[Pugsy]

Okay...that's a little quirk about the S9....it starts overwriting detailed data after a month.

Do you have a general idea what your AHI was before you started on the hydrocodone and after the surgery?
I just want to know if the ugly we are seeing now was always there and you just didn't know it or if it has just started since the hydrocodone and should go away once you are off the hydrocodone.

[kah5683]

That I don't know. I never was able to sleep through the night.

Tonight I'm going to try not going back into full recline on back on recliner and see if that helps.

[chunkyfrog]

Keep trying different positions--you might hit a winner.
Tightening the headgear beyond a certain point makes leaks worse.
Try a mask liner--Padacheek.com, or scissors on an old t-shirt.

[kah5683]

Without being flat on my back in full recline, I didn't wake up with the air pressure super high. I woke up when my mouth was super dry. A start I guess. Unfortunately, I forgot to put back the sd card.

I did notice after turning the cpap on that within a few minutes I developed a ball of air in my mouth which eventually caused my mouth to open. I had to go to full mask because of mouth-breathing. I hadn't noticed this before while side-sleeping with the full mask. I thought with a full mask it didn't matter if my mouth was open. Does this mean I need to wear another strap to keep mouth closed?

What do the maskliners help with? I looked at padacheek and it says it help with lines and leaks - does it really?

[palerider]

What do the maskliners help with? I looked at padacheek and it says it help with lines and leaks - does it really?

Karen doesn't lie, they help with just exactly what the page says.