headaches

legrimes · Post by **legrimes** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:29 am

I've been on apap for over two months now and it's great. There are a few problems to work out, but all in all, it's so much better. Depression is gone, blood pressure down, more energy, thinking clear for first time in years. It's so much better, just a few kinks.

One is headaches.... about two weeks ago I started having constant headaches. I wake up with them, I take some advil, sometimes it helps, sometimes not. They feel like a cross between caffeine withdrawal and tension. I don't know if it's treatment related or not, can't tell.

I also keep having allergic reactions to the mask. My lips swell, blotch skin where it touches, etc. I've tried different cleaning methods up to and including just using hot water but it persists in causing a reaction.

For the last two weeks, I've been feeling "suffocated" when I put on the mask, as if I'm not getting enough air for some reason. It's at the right pressure.... I check the air flow and it's working fine. I've tried adjusting the humidity level, checked for leakage, I just have this odd feeling that I'm not getting enough air. I don't know if it's all in my head or not... the mask is painful what with the allergic reactions and my face swelling each night, plus waking up with a headache. For the first month I took the mask off in my sleep but I've not done that for a few weeks now.

My readout from the card was great at my one month visit to the sleep doc. I was getting 6-7 hours "normal" hours of sleep average per night and almost no apnea at all. He said it was a great improvement and I'm happyp with the "good side effects", just would like to get rid of a few bad ones.

I have a remstar cflex and an Ultra Mirage FF mask.

Any suggestions, comments welcome

Lorrie

Linda3032 · Post by **Linda3032** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:41 am

Lorrie, you say you have a Remstar with cflex, but you don't tell us if it's an Auto or a straigth cpap.

It sounds like your pressure isn't high enough. Your machine either isn't functioning properly, or your pressure needs to get bumped up a bit.

Take your machine to the DME to have it checked. If it's fine, then you need a higher pressure (probably). The DME probably won't change your pressure without the doctors permission. Perhaps a phone call to the doctor is all that's needed.

So have him bump up the pressure to see if it makes you feel better. I would think you should see a difference within one week.

Sorry, but I can't address the mask allergic reactions.

Larry · Post by **Larry** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:29 pm

Headgear that is too tight can cause headaches.

legrimes · Post by **legrimes** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:38 pm

Duh.... that's exactly when the headaches started.... I was taking the mask off in the night, just pulling it off my head. I thought that maybe if I tightened it up that would make it a little more difficult to get off and maybe I'd keep it on all night. Seemed to make sense at the time. But now that I think about it, the headaches started the next day. I keep the mask on all night though but I have some pretty deep marks on my face in the morning ...
Ill loosen it back up tonight, it's a cheap fix and easy... now why didn't I think of that????

Thanks,
Lorrie

datasmom · Post by **datasmom** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:17 pm

It appears that the headgear being too tight was the culprit. I loosened up the mask and the headaches stopped almost completely in a few days.

Lorrie

Mask