Probs w/rainout and shortness of breath

[kbid]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new CPAP user (2 weeks now) and due to the excellent info on these forums and a great DME (shout out to Home Respiratory Care in West LA - they are, as one member said, super helpful!), I'm not having too many problems. No leaks, an avg AHI of 1.27, and feeling pretty chipper during the day!

I am having two minor issues that I'd like to hunt down a solution for:
1) rainout / congestion in the a.m., and
2) shortness of breath during the day.

As for the rainout and congestion, I've gotten a ResMed hose cover and put the machine below the level of the bed, but still have condensation in the nasal mask in the a.m. I live in Santa Monica, CA fairly near the ocean and it's more humid here than other spots in LA. It's also more temperate, so we don't have or need air conditioning. This morning it was around 60°F, dew point at 28, and humidity at 29. I've got the humidifier set at 2.5. I also am back to doing nasal irrigation every evening. I am not a fan of meds for the sinus congestion and would like solutions other than Flonase or some sort of antihistamine.

Pre-CPAP, I had nasal congestion in the a.m. and it's still happening at around the same level. The rainout seems to add to the problem.

Question - is it preposterous to try to make a little fleece cover for the nasal mask? Does anyone sell these? Do you think it might help? Any other suggestions for the rainout?

As for the shortness of breath, it occurs during the day, not at night (I feel very comfortable with the Rx'd pressure setting of 10 - I feel great when breathing through the mask and almost feel like I want to wear it and carry around the CPAP all day long!). But during the day I occasionally feel like I'm not getting enough air.

Is this odd? Is it unrelated? Don't know if I'm imagining things, but it's almost like now that I'm getting great air into my system at night, I feel the lack of it during the day. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks,
Katherine

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

Katherine,

Welcome to the forum!

On the rain out you might need to lower your setting a little or run your hose (if you don't use a hose support) under the covers to give it additional warmth (I do this every night).

Check here for possible mask liners. The owner is a PAP user and frequents this forum.http://www.padacheek.com/PAC_Maskliners.html

On the shortness of breath, If I remember right, I too noticed shortness of breath in the beginning and it was mainly in the morning after being up for a little while. I don't have that now, but attributed it then to the difference of having the PAP machine air at night and not during the day. I think in the beginning we become almost hyper-aware of our breathing (something we never had to do before) because of the use of a PAP machine, hose, and mask. Naturally it will take some getting used to and unless there is some sort of medical reason that you need to rule out for the shortness of breath, if not, then it will probably just take time to get used to going from machine at night to no machine in the day, IMO.

John

[avi123]

You have not mentioned what diagnosis did you get from the sleep study.
As to rainout, imo, the weather in Sata Monica should not cause any problems.
But your room temp., could. I would keep the room temp at above 75 F.
I know it that you have air conditioning or heaters (I lived on 400s Euclid Street., for three years).
As to running out of breath during daytimes, I don't know. Usually it's daytime sleepiness that bothers CPAPers.

[ozze_dollar]

As regards the rainout can i suggest two more things.
1. Only put enough water in the tank for one night.
2. I only ever have a problem with rainout when i use my mirage softgel,like the one you are using.

Try a nasal pillow mask like the aloha and you may notice no rainout.

I also have been suffering shortness of breath for about a year now and despite many investigations can find no reason for it.I just put up with it now and carry on.

[Julie]

Don't try to get a diagnosis from people here who have no knowledge of your medical condition to speak of (I mean the technical stuff a doctor would order and interpret) because even if 10 people guess at it, they could be light years away from the right one, and don't assume everything is connected to OSA or cpap (it's so easy to do).

You should make your own list of what you're doing, when and where you are when it happens, then bring that to your MD and see what he says.

Btw, you don't 'need' to use the humidifier if you don't need it (living where you are). Many people either never use it or only at certain times of the year.

Good luck!

[kbid]

Thanks everyone! You are all so helpful.

Re: the diagnosis - it was "very severe OSA" (AHI = 83), severe sleep fragmentation (AI = 86.2), severe hypoxemia (SpO2<90% for17.2% of total recorded pre-CPAP sleep time, <80% for 2.55 of the time, lowest was 82%.
Re: the air conditioning - of course some have AC in Sa Mo. I'm saying I don't.

I could try no humidifier, but I had dry nose at a setting of 2.0. Brought it up to 3.0, which was probably too much, so lowered it to 2.5. I suppose I could try going back to 2.0, now that my nose seems to be getting used to the thing (still have some dried out / scabby parts, forgive if that's TMI).

Re: using a nasal pillows mask - had a real strong aversion to the pressure it put directly on the base of my nose, pressing upward. I have ongoing post-nasal drip/runny nose (all my life) and so maybe I'm more affected by that. It felt like it would hurt in no time.

Has anyone tried putting a little cover on the nasal mask? Am I completely bonkers on that idea?

[kbid]

to "2 B Sleeping Soundly" -

I thought the mask liners were to prevent facial sores and etc. - I didn't know they would help with rainout. I have ordered some from Quietus CPAP Liners, because I've also been having that issue, but they haven't come in yet. I'm using a Gecko nose pad right now and that's mitigating the skin problem pretty much, but I'll see if the liners help with the rainout.

...Still want to make a little furry cover for the nasal mask... (eyes shift quickly right to left) ...

[archangle]

I'm doubtful that apnea or CPAP will have much to do with daytime shortness of breath, but I guess it's possible.

There are some other serious medical problems that could cause that, so consider asking your doctor about that.

It's important to not assume all your health problems are CPAP or apnea related. Both patients and doctors have a tendency to assume that and may miss other problems.

[chunkyfrog]

With anything that can be described as "shortness of breath", call the doctor IMMEDIATELY and talk with someone there.
Even a nurse can tell you to wait or to go to the ER--they know more than we do.

[woodworkerjunkie]

Has anyone tried putting a little cover on the nasal mask? Am I completely bonkers on that idea?

If you decide to put a cover over the mask, just make sure you don't block the vent holes.

[Burkebang]

Since you are setting your humidification to 2.5, I assume that you do not have the heated ClimateLine hose? The best way to solve your rainout problem is simply to get that hose, it will keep both your hose and mask virtually dry and give you the best humidification possible without condensation.

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... ntrol.html

[kbid]

For those worried about my shortness of breath - I did check with my doctor about that.

I will talk to my DME about a heated hose.

And yes, I've thought about not covering the vents if I did let fly with my fuzzy wuzzy nasal mask cover idea.

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions! I'm sure I'll get to the bottom of this soon.

Since I live in earthquake country and like to be prepared, I am now going to tackle the "battery backup" quagmire (what a lot of posts there are on that topic!!). This is going to take some research. My heart goes out to all the hoseheads on the East Coast right now, anticipating the frankenstorm or whatever they're calling it...

Cheers,
Katherine

[Pugsy]

Rain out in the mask can occur even without adding humidified air. Our own exhaled breath contains moisture and if the conditions are right that moisture can and will condense in the nasal mask. In fact in can happen with any mask. Seems to happen more often with nasal or nasal pillow masks due to less volume so easier for the room air to cool down the air in the mask and let condensation occur.

Adding a heated hose might be enough to help keep the air in the mask warm enough and it might not. Worth a try.

Yes, you can make a little insulating "coat" for your mask. I have one for my nasal pillow mask that I got from PadaCheek. She has them for nasal pillow masks. I don't think she has any for the over the nose masks.
Just need something around it to help insulate it so that air containing moisture doesn't cool to the point of allowing the release of the moisture in the air in the form of condensation.
Routing the hose overhead can be a problem when condensation in the mask occurs. Water can't run uphill so guess where it goes?
Yep, been there done that and that is why I use a barrel cozy even with my S9 heated hose. Snorting water up the nose is pretty rude awakening at 3 AM.

So yes, you can make a little coat or something to cover the mask...just be sure to leave enough room that no chance for the vent holes to be blocked...so it needs to fit snug with minimal chance for it to slide around.
It doesn't have to be real thick to work.

You could use a mask liner I suppose and let the liner absorb the moisture..then you have a wet cloth on your face.