Neck and Back Pain

[Oobie]

I'm in my first week of therapy, with a loaner auto-CPAP from Kaiser. They let me have two masks to try. My OSA is severe and I'd been experiencing the full slate of symptoms.

First night, I tried a nasal mask and slept like a stone at the bottom of the ocean for 8 hours. Second night, with a full-face mask, again like a rock for another 8.

Third night I tossed a lot, switched from the full-face to the nasal in the middle of the night and did "walking dead" the following day. I woke up several times and couldn't get comfortable until 2 a.m. or so.

Tonight is night 4 and I'm awake at quarter to 3 a.m. with a screaming soreness all through my shoulders and neck. With 400 mg of Naproxin and 1000 mg of tylenol shortly before bed, I only made it two hours before just laying awake in pain. My legs feel very restless.

Is this a normal progression? I plan on calling the doctor with this description sometime in the morning.

Even with this experience I saw some immediate improvement in cognition and memory as soon as the second day. I am determined to make this therapy work. Everyone I know who has needed it, and used it, raves about the results. Even "walking dead" yesterday was better than anything in the previous two months.

[Julie]

People often have trouble early on because they unconsciously tense up in one position overnight with the mask on, but hopefully that will improve once you're used to it. Or else you did some heavy lifting yesterday and forgot about it , or are developing arthritis? It's certainly not a direct cause or result of OSA or using Cpap otherwise.

[Pugsy]

Maybe a different bed pillow to accommodate the mask better and lessen the chance of putting the cervical spine in a strain??

Are you trying to stay on your back or side or whatever?

Lots of people like the cpap pillows with various cut outs to accommodate the mask when side sleeping. You can make your own with a cheap memory foam pillow from Walmart and then cut out some holes in the side so the expense isn't so much while you are experimenting.
I have had good luck with a buckwheat hull pillow (Regenisis from PurSleep) and a water based pillow similar to the ChiroFlow. I think mine is called MediFlow.
The buckwheat hulls let you move the hulls around to make a little "nest" for the mask to lay when on your side or stomach and they don't move. The water based pillows seem to not put as much pressure on the mask as traditional pillows and I have mine full of water so that it is firm.

[SabrinaFaire]

I was pretty sore my first week using CPAP. It's gone away since.

[Oobie]

No arthritis here, I know at least that much.

I suffer already from neck pain due to a career of desk work developing software. The same irritated regions (shoulder and shoulder blade muscle groups) have simply flared up badly. The irony is that the pillow was one I had sized by a consultant at a Sleep Number store. It was the use of that pillow that triggered the worst apnea and put me onto this treatment idea in the first place.

Sounds like the advice is to persevere? Should I ask my clinic for a nasal pillow mask, to see if that's better?

[GayleM]

Make sure that the lower strap on your headgear is not too tight. I used a nasal mask for a little while and was getting terrible neck and shoulder pain. I loosened the lower strap and the pain went away.

[Oobie]

Kaiser sent me some SwiftFX nasal pillows, and it has been very easy to rest since then. The pain is pretty much gone.

[kteague]

Has the problem with your legs feeling restless resolved itself?