20 days...perfect stats...feel lousy

[SleepyDeb]

Thanks to all of you who have responded to my other posts - each time it's the most important thing going on with me until something new pops up, like this one today. I have been able to get through leaking masks, cpap gas, sleepless nights, humidifier and pressure issues, but this new thing I just don't get. For the last 20 days (have had cpap for 29) I have slept from 7.5 to 8.5 hours each night (with sometimes a wake up four hours in but back to sleep within 30 minutes - which was my m.o. before diagnosis). My AHI has been always below 3.4 (last night it was .09); mask leaks - hardly any. But the last two days has been horrible. As soon as I get up I am literally exahusted, sleepy, body aches (arms, upper back,neck), feverish with no fever, nauseous, but when I eat I keep it down and it's ok; a little gas - not anything like before; and a bit chesty in that I could cough and do cough just occasionally. Biggest thing is that I want to go back to bed and sleep - like when you're sick. I feel this is all from the cpap - I NEVER get sick. I fear going back to bed because I might stay in bed all day - don't want that. In a few minutes I'm going to force myself to take a walk. My initial sleep test suggested a 5-15 ramp pressure - that was way too high and doc switched down to 10 - still too high and we switched down to 8 - this made the gas go away but I started to feel sluggish so I put it up to about 8.4 or so...9 was too high...but now I feel half dead. If I put the humidifer over 5, I feel like I'm drowing yet at 5 my left nostril is plugged most nights (like the last two nights). I'm beside myself and don't know what to do. Right now as I type, I'm almost dozing off...any advice?

[Pugsy]

Are you using the heated hose or a non heated hose?

[SleepyDeb]

Heated hose - I can't seem to figure out how to change the temp. You sent me the literature on it but it doesn't say how to change it. I prefer cooler. Do you think that's what's causing my symptoms? My sinuses are all messed up too - could be pressure from the mask - but I'd rather that than leakage.

[SleepyDeb]

Just looked carefully at my options on the machine and it doesn't allow me to change the temp of the tubing.

[Pugsy]

You can change the air temp without changing humidity but you have to change a setting in the clinical setup menu first.

Need to change "Climate Control" from automatic to manual then you can access hose temp
See page 11 in the manual
https://sleep.tnet.com/home/files/resme ... -guide.pdf

I don't know that the hose temp is the problem...just thought it might be something to try in the event comfort is an issue.
You aren't complaining of typical humidity related symptoms (which is usually the congestion, drainage, itchy stuff) so it was just something that might or might not help.

Most cpap related unwanted symptoms target the nasal area...not the body as a whole unless the therapy is crappy or the sleep itself is crappy.
Like if you just have a bad night of sleep or not enough hours or both...then the whole body is going to feel it.
I had that yesterday because I didn't get but 5 hours sleep the night before. Sometimes we feel like crap despite good numbers just because we either didn't get enough hours of sleep or what hours we got was fragmented with multiple wake ups.

Of course sometimes we just feel like crap because we are coming down with some sort of bug totally unrelated to cpap or sleep apnea.

[SleepyDeb]

You're so wonderful, Pugsy. Thanks for the clarification. I will try changing the temp. again. I do also have the sinus/chest stuff - took a sinus pill a couple of hours ago and it seems to help a bit. Maybe a nap later today and see how I feel afterward. thanks again.

[SewTired]

Thanks to all of you who have responded to my other posts - each time it's the most important thing going on with me until something new pops up, like this one today. I have been able to get through leaking masks, cpap gas, sleepless nights, humidifier and pressure issues, but this new thing I just don't get. For the last 20 days (have had cpap for 29) I have slept from 7.5 to 8.5 hours each night (with sometimes a wake up four hours in but back to sleep within 30 minutes - which was my m.o. before diagnosis). My AHI has been always below 3.4 (last night it was .09); mask leaks - hardly any. But the last two days has been horrible. As soon as I get up I am literally exahusted, sleepy, body aches (arms, upper back,neck), feverish with no fever, nauseous, but when I eat I keep it down and it's ok; a little gas - not anything like before; and a bit chesty in that I could cough and do cough just occasionally. Biggest thing is that I want to go back to bed and sleep - like when you're sick. I feel this is all from the cpap - I NEVER get sick. I fear going back to bed because I might stay in bed all day - don't want that. In a few minutes I'm going to force myself to take a walk. My initial sleep test suggested a 5-15 ramp pressure - that was way too high and doc switched down to 10 - still too high and we switched down to 8 - this made the gas go away but I started to feel sluggish so I put it up to about 8.4 or so...9 was too high...but now I feel half dead. If I put the humidifer over 5, I feel like I'm drowing yet at 5 my left nostril is plugged most nights (like the last two nights). I'm beside myself and don't know what to do. Right now as I type, I'm almost dozing off...any advice?

Sounds to me like you are ILL and it has nothing to do with cpap. People eventually do get ill. I suggest making an appointment with your regular doctor to evaluate.

[gasp]

This is waaay out there advice. I had sinus issues from time to time until I stopped eating foods the doc find I was allergic to. Now I rarely have congestion or have to use the Neti Pot to clear my sinuses. The only symptom I now have is too much whining about missing eggs and milk (ice cream).

That's just responding to your sinus issues. It does sound like your fighting off a virus.

[SleepyDeb]

Pugsy - I have an update on a few things we talked about yesterday:

- I do NOT have a heated hose as I thought - just a heated humidifier unit - I wish there was a way to cool it down.
- I realized that my mask was pushed too far down on my face (to avoid leakage under my eyes) and it was blocking my sinuses. I think that's why I was not getting the restorative sleep. I figured this out around 5 a.m. this morning. I pushed it up - cleared the sinuses and stuffed tissues under my eyes to avoid the blowing. My leakage reading this morning was normal, but having to restuff the tissue now and then did keep me from sleeping soundly
- I slept, as someone suggested, on my left side to avoid the gas, but my heart skipped all over the place as it sometimes does when I do (have terrible PVCs), and therefore my AHIs increased from 0.9 yesterday to 3.2 this morning. I went back to right side sleeping.

Although my AHIs were up, I feel I was getting better sleep by moving up the mask and "freeing" my sinuses. I will try all the stuff I did this morning at 5 a.m. when I go to bed tonight.

Everyone else - I do feel less achy this morning and more alert; also, never thought about dairy and eggs as making me congested - will need to check that out!

Thanks to all - don't know what I'd do without this forum.

[AlabamaAl]

Some of the body aches may be because you are sleeping more soundly, and not tossing and turning as much while you sleep. I have arthritis, and experienced the same thing when I started Cpap therapy. As I payed down my sleep debt, I did start moving around more, but still wake with body aches from staying in the same position too long.

[Pugsy]

The only way to reduce the air temp without the heated hose is by reducing the humidity setting and it may not help much depending on what your ambient room air temp is.

But you might be able to find some cooler air using the heated hose. I know it sounds weird and I wouldn't have really believed it until I experienced it myself. My nose likes lots of humidity but it doesn't really like the warmer air that I would be getting in the summer mainly.
Now I use the warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and my humidity always stays the same.
It's worth considering trying as the heated hoses aren't horribly expensive.

Regarding your congestion issues which seem to be made worse with mask placement.
Take your fingers and place them up on the sides of your nose where the nasal bridge is and where the turbinates are. Apply a little pressure with the fingers to about what the mask is doing...do you become congested? Then remove the fingers and within a few minutes does the congestion clear up?
If so..you are like me and for that reason I had to target masks that didn't put pressure on that area of my nose. It limits your mask choices extremely if you are a mouth breather but maybe if your nose wasn't congested so much you wouldn't need to mouth breathe so much. Just something to think about.

[gasp]

I didn't know about the food allergy sinus connection before the doc told me. Then I read about it and see that it is more well known than I thought. Here is a website that has some info. Sure hope finding this out helps you like it did me.

http://www.centerforfoodallergies.com/sinusitis.htm

[JasonK94Z]

I didn't know about the food allergy sinus connection before the doc told me. Then I read about it and see that it is more well known than I thought. Here is a website that has some info. Sure hope finding this out helps you like it did me.

http://www.centerforfoodallergies.com/sinusitis.htm

My wife's body all of a sudden became allergic to some food types one day. Before finding out, she felt terrible! Sinuses, gas, acid reflex, body pain, some swelling, etc.

Just all happens out of the blue. Your allergies change as you get older sometimes.

[gasp]

Sorry to hear that. Symptoms sound very uncomfortable. I feel blessed to not have gluten allergies. I choose to not eat it, but if I were alleegic, completely avoiding it would be difficult.

The "out of the blue" might be about systemic inflammation getting high enough to cause systems to breakdown simultaneously. That's what happened to me. In hindsight a good thing as otherwise I wouldn't have spent the money, time, and energy trying to get healed.

[PoolQ]

On my Airsense A10 I have the humidity turned off and the temperature set at 63 degrees, if I put water in the tank I get cool, slightly moist air and with no water I get cool dry air

I wish the manual gave more information about humidity, the heated hose and temperature so we know what it is actually doing.

What I do know is that you slide the water tank into the machine and on top of a metal plate. This plate is one side of what is known as a thermoelectric element, this is what the system uses to heat or cool the water. Some of the older systems only let you heat the water. This area is direct contact metal to water in the tank and transfers heat quite well and can transfer a lot of heat, either into or out of the water. If there is no water in the tank it of course heats or cools the air as it passes through the tank.

The heated hose is another matter, This has a heating only element in it and this element is encapsulated in plastic that does not transfer heat very well. The purpose of this heating element is not so much to heat the air as it passes through the tube (although it does heat it some), but to keep the surface temperature of the inside of the tube warmer than the air to prevent condensation (rain out) inside the tube.

The average user does not care what is causing the temperature to change, only that it does change and changes to what they wanted. So when they set a "hose temperature" what they are really setting is the temperature of the air that exits the hose and not specifically how hot the hose itself will get. That metal plate is where most of the temperature setting happens, warmer or cooler

What this all means is that without the heated hose you can get the full range of temperature and humidity, but you will also sometimes get rainout.
The heated hose does the same thing as the cloth covers for the hose: Isolates the temperature of the hose from the temperature of the room, so when you are breathing nice warm, moist air and your room is cold, you won't get rainout.

I hope that this is clearer than mud, but I am not so sure. If you are into the "why" of things then enjoy, if not then ignore the above.