Went to sleep with APAP on at 12:30am

barbyann · Post by **barbyann** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 8:04 am

Last night I woke at 3am and thought there was a strange "odor" in the room. I thought it was from a passing truck on the street. I fell back asleep and at 3:36am I sat up in bed after feeling something was not quite right. I realized I was smelling an electrical burning type odor. It reminded me of how my washing machine smells when I put too much heavy laundry in it and overwork the motor. I pulled my mask off and the room was odor free. I surmised the problem was with the AutoSpirit. I then realized that I was having chest pain. I tried to relax and determined that the pain was coming from the junction of my stomach/esophagus. I got up and took two TUMS and it did settle after one hour. I did not reapply the APAP because I was scared of fire. The settings/display noted no problems. I wonder if anyone can explain these strange happenings? I was thinking that I might have inadverently blocked the exhale port? at the hose/mask junction. Would this have caused the motor to overwork? Do you think the chest pain was related? I was unable to sleep after this episode and I am very confused. Help......Also note that I found a large yellow tag on the Spirit when I received it. It was a repair tag, So I assume it was a "used" unit and had problems in the past. I saved the tag for my records. Remember, I have been using the unit for over one month with no problems, now this?

WAFlowers · Post by **WAFlowers** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:00 am

Blocking the exhaust port will not burn out the motor, it actually has less to do because the pressure seems to be holding without effort (from the machine's point of view).

A serious leak can cause the motor to almost free-wheel as there is little resistance and, no matter how hard it works or how fast it spins, the pressure won't hold. That could lead to a burnout eventually.

What you describe doesn't sound good. I'd contact your DME immediately. (Stories like this with possibly faulty refurbed units from a DME make me even happier I bought from our hosts https://www.cpap.com!)

jdschooler · Post by **jdschooler** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:12 pm

Barby,

I have an AutoSet Spirit that does a similar thing...Mine goes like this..I sleep good with it on but when I take it off I smell "hot dust" you like when you fire up your furnace for the first time in the fall....it goes away after a fw minutes....Happens every time I take the mask off....I attribute it to having my air filtered so well when I'm on APAP that the dust in the room is like a new odor for my nose when I take off the mask...But I never smell it when I am using the APAP so definitely get the APAP checked out and pay attention to see if you smells are while wearing it or after removing it. On the stomach/Chest Pain symptoms some xPAPer's do get reflux symtpoms from their XPAP therapy...not sure what the solution is though.

Later