Too much humidity or too little?

MichaelWD64 · Post by **MichaelWD64** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 9:55 pm

New to CPAP. on it (with Auto-SV) for a little over a week. Doing well with it, sleeping 7 hours a night or so, and feeling better during the day.

I am coughing more though, and having mucus in my lungs. Can't figure out if it's too much moisture or not enough. I do have to wake up and take the mask off a few times a night to drink water, my mouth gets dried out.

I have my humidifier set at 2. Higher than that and it splashes water in my mouth at first.

Also, is there a difference from how much lower than me on the bed the machine is? I have it a little below my head level on a side table. Tried it much lower one night, like six inches above ground, that night I was more dried out, but could have been any of the medications I'm on too.

What are the variables here? And if I'm suddenly coughing a little bit during the day and have a bit of mucus in my lungs, is that too much humidity or not enough?

I live a mile above sea level, in a town that's very dry in the winter. Though the relativity humidity on weather.com says 69% (we had a lot of snow this week and it's very cold).

Any experience on any of this is appreciated.

Thank you!
Michael

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:06 pm

Hi, I think humidity's such a personal thing, from local climates, to level settings, nasal vs FF needs, to seasons, central htg or not, placement of machine and whether or not you use e.g. a Climateline hose or hose cover, congestion issues, etc. That's a lot of variables to work with and you'd probably save time and stress by experimenting yourself with all of them, but... give each variable (and combo) at least 2 nites if not 3 to see what happens because just recovering from one experiment may take a while and shouldn't be confused with new issues, not read as separate problems.

Sounds like you might be e.g. in Denver tho', so possibly may need a higher hum. setting in winter if nothing else, but again, figuring all the other things in as well.

MichaelWD64 · Post by **MichaelWD64** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:12 pm

Julie wrote:Hi, I think humidity's such a personal thing, from local climates, to level settings, nasal vs FF needs, to seasons, central htg or not, placement of machine and whether or not you use e.g. a Climateline hose or hose cover, congestion issues, etc. That's a lot of variables to work with and you'd probably save time and stress by experimenting yourself with all of them, but... give each variable (and combo) at least 2 nites if not 3 to see what happens because just recovering from one experiment may take a while and shouldn't be confused with new issues, not read as separate problems.

Thank you!

Julie wrote: Sounds like you might be e.g. in Denver tho', so possibly may need a higher hum. setting in winter if nothing else, but again, figuring all the other things in as well.

Casper, Wyoming, 3.5 hours north of Denver. Similar weather and altitude.

MWD

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:16 pm

Are you using the ClimateLine heated hose or a regular unheated hose.

Do you by any chance take blood pressure medication? If so what?

MichaelWD64 · Post by **MichaelWD64** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 11:02 pm

Pugsy wrote:Are you using the ClimateLine heated hose or a regular unheated hose.

I'm using an unheated hose, but asked my doctor to perscribe a heated one. He said yes, and he should have it next week.

Does the machine I have offer heat also? I haven't explored all the menus, not sure I have privileges to change them.

Pugsy wrote:
Do you by any chance take blood pressure medication? If so what?

Yes, two weeks now I've been on Candesartan, 16 mg once a day.

MWD

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 5:40 am

If you have the clinician manual, you can change whatever you like - it's your therapy, your health, your life, and a-retentive doctors and their offshoots can safely be ignored if they try to tell you otherwise! Do not let them bully you or tell you 'you wouldn't understand anyway'. I haven't seen a sleep doc since diagnosis (too long ago ) and have learned everything from the people here, many of whom have changed over the years of course.

OkyDoky · Post by **OkyDoky** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:50 am

Candesartan lists symptoms of upper respiratory infection as a side effect of the medication. Since you've only beeh taking it 2 weeks, I would talk with the doctor about it.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:57 am

I asked about BP meds because some can cause coughing...it doesn't look like yours is known to do that except for some mention of "upper respiratory" issues. Did your cough begin with the beginning of the new meds?

When you get your heated hose the machine has a default setting for automatic once the heated hose is attached for humidity delivery and I would suggest you leave it at that setting to start with.
I forget what the default hose air temp default setting is but 80 degrees comes to my mind. Start with the default and if that is too warm for comfort lower the setting a little.

The default humidity for the S9 machine is 80% which is more than what you were getting at the setting of 2 by quite a bit but the hose air temp should be able to keep the air warm enough so you don't get the condensation you were getting with it higher.
Should the extra humidity make the coughing worse there is a way to switch the machine over so that you can control humidity and air temp separately but let's cross that bridge later if we need to.

Let's start with the default settings because there is a reason those are the default settings....they work for the majority of people and we have to start somewhere so let's see if you are like most people.

Usually people experience symptoms more along the lines of sinus/nasal symptoms with humidity settings that the nose doesn't like but it wouldn't be impossible for the lungs to be irritated by the drier air coming from the machine. While I know it is the same room air we breathe all day long...sometimes we just need more moisture to keep our respiratory system happy.

So let's see if changing the humidity helps or hurts the cough situation and go from there.
I don't think the chances of it being related to your new meds is hugely likely but I suppose it wouldn't be impossible if you look back to see when the cough started and if it was around the time of the new meds...something to maybe talk to your doctor about if we find that changing the humidity doesn't help.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:59 am

Oh...in terms of patient accessibility ...usually the humidity and hose air temp is set to where the patient can change things but if for some reason it isn't we can easily go into the clinical setup menu area and make it so you can change things.

MichaelWD64 · Post by **MichaelWD64** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:16 pm

Pugsy wrote:I asked about BP meds because some can cause coughing...it doesn't look like yours is known to do that except for some mention of "upper respiratory" issues. Did your cough begin with the beginning of the new meds?

When you get your heated hose the machine has a default setting for automatic once the heated hose is attached for humidity delivery and I would suggest you leave it at that setting to start with.
I forget what the default hose air temp default setting is but 80 degrees comes to my mind. Start with the default and if that is too warm for comfort lower the setting a little.

The default humidity for the S9 machine is 80% which is more than what you were getting at the setting of 2 by quite a bit but the hose air temp should be able to keep the air warm enough so you don't get the condensation you were getting with it higher.
Should the extra humidity make the coughing worse there is a way to switch the machine over so that you can control humidity and air temp separately but let's cross that bridge later if we need to.

Let's start with the default settings because there is a reason those are the default settings....they work for the majority of people and we have to start somewhere so let's see if you are like most people.

Usually people experience symptoms more along the lines of sinus/nasal symptoms with humidity settings that the nose doesn't like but it wouldn't be impossible for the lungs to be irritated by the drier air coming from the machine. While I know it is the same room air we breathe all day long...sometimes we just need more moisture to keep our respiratory system happy.

So let's see if changing the humidity helps or hurts the cough situation and go from there.
I don't think the chances of it being related to your new meds is hugely likely but I suppose it wouldn't be impossible if you look back to see when the cough started and if it was around the time of the new meds...something to maybe talk to your doctor about if we find that changing the humidity doesn't help.

Pugsy! Thank you!

JustBreath · Post by **JustBreath** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 1:14 am

I asked my doc the same thing about humidity. I'm in Denver. He said I can set it to 5 and if I need more humidity here,and he suggested I wrap my hose with medical tape....wierd, I know. He also ordered me a new hose with heat and cooling . I havent got it yet to say how it is. But 4-5 seems to be good. I don't have dry lips or a dry throat any more . Good luck!

LSAT · Post by **LSAT** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:51 am

JustBreath wrote:I asked my doc the same thing about humidity. I'm in Denver. He said I can set it to 5 and if I need more humidity here,and he suggested I wrap my hose with medical tape....wierd, I know. He also ordered me a new hose with heat and cooling . I havent got it yet to say how it is. But 4-5 seems to be good. I don't have dry lips or a dry throat any more . Good luck!

The wraping the hose with tape suggestion is stupid...It will make the hose stiff and uncomfortable. For a hose cover, contact this guy.......
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=109716&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=metsfan

Too much humidity or too little?

Too much humidity or too little?

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