Tight Chest

[dazza]

Greetings to all,

Just a couple of questions from a cpap noobie... I have just started a 6 week trial using a rental cpap
Tonight will be day 6 and it has been a bit of a struggle.I was given 2 masks to trial ,one being a full face and the other a nose only mask.
Some problems i seem to be having are that it feels like im not getting enough air and it makes me feel like im trying to breath harder.Also i have a tight chest and wondering if the cpap is causing this ?

regards Dazza

[Julie]

Your pressure settings (what are they?) may be too low - very, very commonly set to the machine's defaults of 4 (and 20 for the high one), rather than what you were shown to need on testing. We can help you tweak those.

And your tight chest may be due to inactive muscles becoming more active after starting Cpap... should go away, but ask your MD about it first, rather than wait.

[Nick Danger]

In addition to Julie's comment, also check and see if you have "ramp" turned on. Many DME's start the ramp at a very low setting. If that is the case with your machine, I would suggest either turning the ramp feature off or raising the minimum ramp pressure to 6. If your apap pressure range has been left at the default 4 - 20 range, raise the minimum pressure to 6. Many of us feel as though we aren't getting enough air when the pressure is at 4 or 5.

[dazza]

Thankyou for your replies Julie and Nick. I had my first week results at my appointment today and my weekly AHI average is 4.5
The pressure settings were min 4 and max 20. The min has now been changed to 6.(see how that goes)
my tight chest seems to be improving which is good.
After my 6 week trial is completed i will then need to purchase a machine.Any advice on whether to get a fixed pressure or auto machine.Here in Australia the Resmed Auto 10 series of machines are around $ 2200 au and for a fixed pressure machine around $ 1400.


Cheers Dazza

[Julie]

Get an auto if at all possible because you can set it to Cpap mode if you want at some time, but you can't set a plain Cpap to Auto, and autos are much more flexible in many ways. Terrible pricing considering they're made in Oz, but we have the same problems here in Canada with Resmed.

[Pugsy]

Check secondwindcpap.com for prices on gently used and new zero hour open box machines.
I know many cpap users in Australia who have bought from secondwindcpap.com.

[truetopath]

I had the chest tightness the first 2 days when I started cpap, then it went away and hasn't returned yet. I chalk it up to muscles working for the first time in many years.

[robartvad]

I want to ask that what about this concept , i didn't understand yet