New Problem - Sudden, random stop on exhale

[lagasan]

Out of the blue, I have a new problem with breathing at night! It has happened the last two nights. I am breathing fine thru my nose, in, out, in, out, in, THUNK! I can't breathe out! It is like a trap door slams closed in my nose. I breathe in with a sniff and then I am fine for a few breaths. And then, on the exhale, THUNK! It feels like it is in the back of my sinuses and only when I am exhaling. It isn't in my throat.

Maybe it is time to see an ENT?

Anne

[locust78]

I had something similar some years back. For me it seemed like one of my sinuses had a one-way valve installed in it. (But not 100% of the time.) It ended up being a nasal polyp. Apparently, when my sinuses occasionally got inflamed, the polyp would become more noticeable, to the point where I could basically feel it flopping around during my inhale/exhale. My ENT doctor ran a scope up there and confirmed it. Ultimately, I had to get it surgically removed, which fixed the problem.

[NateS]

Anne,

Many of us on cpaptalk did not read every post in every thread. It would take an investment of many, many hours each day. Therefore many of us look down the list of thread Subjects and open the ones that seem of compelling interest, either because we have had a similar problem, or because we have a relevant or helpful suggestion.

IMHO, you are going to miss attention from a lot of people who might be knowledgeable about your problem with such a nondescript Subject title: : "New Problem"

May I suggest that you edit the words in your opening post above to something specific. For example, just as a suggestion:

"I can't breathe out!"
or
"Problem breathing at night!"

Good luck to you in finding help,

Nate

[jen4700]

Sometimes when you have a sinus infection it "seems" like you can breathe just fine. For me the only way I know I have a sinus infection is a TERRIBLE headache. Just a thought.

[IndyDave]

I had sort of the same thing going on a couple nights ago - all of a sudden my nose would feel plugged up completely, and I'd have to flip up my nasal pillows to blow my nose. Actually kept me from going to sleep, and after 3 hours of it, I just gave up on wearing the mask for awhile, then woke a few hours later and tried again, and forced myself to tolerate it through the rest of the night - as you said, sort of closed, then open. Still feeling stuffy and periodically plugged and dried up when I got up, so I used a nasal flush, and washed out a lot of bloody scabs. I increased my humidity setting the next night, and it helped some... and last night did a flush before I went to bed, leaving the humidity up, and had a better night. No idea why - if its a particular pollen or something getting to me, the pressure changes from the storm fronts that went through, and no idea why more humidity would help when there was more moisture in the air than previously anyway- but it did seem to help.

[lagasan]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

My doctor prescribed Flonase. It seems to be helping! That last two nights my sinuses seemed more clear and I had the mask on until morning. This is a big relief! I am getting an ENT referral to see if there is a polyp.