New User--- and I feel worse thane ever--- help?

I have sleep apnea--- about an "8" ...and have been faithfully trying to use my CPAP/mask every night. I have a nasal mask, and no problems keeping my mouth shut.

My problem, actually, is keeping my NOSE open! Every time I lie down, within several minutes my nose is plugged up at least 75% and in an hour or two, I remove the mask because I am not getting enough air. I wake up with a bitchin' headache, and can't get back to sleep.

Also--- while I have a gel pillow on my forehead piece and under my nose, I still wake up with harsh red marks so I look like Hitler after getting kicked in the head with a soccer ball. Not so pleasant when you teach at 8am.


Any ideas?

Question: Do you have a humidifier with your cpap? If not, you certainly need one.

Also try a saline solution (such as Ocean) before going to bed.

Or you can try a full face mask. They help when you are congested.

I just started too, and I have the same kind of tendancy to swell in the sinuses when I lie down.

I anticipated this problem and asked the doctor for a nasal steriod. I'm using Flonase but I've heard Nasonex is good too.

The stuff has been pretty effective although I understand it sometime takes a while to build up in your system to full effectiveness.

When I started on CPAP, almost 20 months ago, I had similar problems.

The following things helped:
* A heated humidifier
* The heated hose, obtainable from http://www.sleepzone.com.au - worth every penny.
* Using a filter on my machine in addition to the standard filter. I've never needed nasal allergy treatments, but clearly breathing the humidified filtered air is much better for me.
* Nasal rinses - you'll find how to info on this thread viewtopic.php?p=120416 and a video of the technique here http://www.sinucleanse.com/why_video.htm .

My nose has never been better.

O.

try a Claritin-D before bed one night and see if you don't wake feeling better (if you do then you know you have some major allergy problems).

Nasal mask: If your nasal mask is too small it can squeeze the sides of the nose blocking off airflow. I wear a BreathRight strip across my nose under my FF mask for that very reason. I use the FF mask because its footprint doesn't contribute to nasal congestion from the nose being compressed from the outside.

Your nose becomes congested when you lay down because sinuses no longer can drain down the back of the throat. Using the saline-only rhino rinse would really help with this. Results are immediate.

Avoid using any OTC nasal sprays, they will cause rebound with only 1-3 days of use and make congestion worse. The Saline rinse avoids any rebound effect, it simply flushes out the allergens out of your nasal cavity which cause the turbinates to swell resulting in nasal congestion.

The Simply Saline spray mentioned before bed works good. I would also try a BreathRight strip. Make sure your mask isn't compressing your nose from the outside.

I have a similar problem re nose blocking. Tried the saline rinse but often that then causes hearing difficulties (water seems to end up in my ears).

My only solution is a f/f mask. I do occasionaly switch to a nasal pillows mask.

I also use Otrivin when the nasal congestion is really too much. That really clears it for the night (one very small spray in each nostril).

But Orivin can't e used repeatedly as it reverses its effects after a weeks constant use so I have to back off for a few days.

Good luck - know what you are going through

DSM

I had this same problem early on in my therapy. My sinuses were clear most of the day, however when I laid down they clogged up. I went to an ENT and I found out that my septum was deviated and my turbinates were enlarged from allergies. I had this fixed as a day surgery and I can now use a nose mask or pillows. I really didn't realize how bad my sinuses were until I could experience the difference. Prior to surgery I tried everything, most of which didn't work for me.

Might want to get it checked out.