I get same symptoms at the same time every night - Advice Please

GrumpyHere wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 22, 2022 10:40 am

Unhappy Rodent wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 21, 2022 10:42 pm

I suddenly get a feeling that I have some thing stuck in my throat or I have swallowed an object and on many occasions at the same time I feel a single rush of air into my face mask for a split second and then its gone

a strange feeling like either Ive gone and swallowed some thing solid and its starting to choke me or gasping for air.

Have you considered using a nasal or nasal pillow mask?

This way you wouldn't have an excuse to remove your mask in order to gasp for air, check your mouth / throat, etc.

Also, one way to break a habit is to substitute it with another less harmful behavior.

Hi and thanks for your comment .

Thats a good point about a nasal / pillow mask. Tomorrow I'm taking a trip to the nearest city and while there I will look for those masks and report back .


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Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:40 am

Your description of the throat sensation sounds a lot like having an obstructive event. If you take the mask off immediately, the machine may not be flagging it because the requisite 10 seconds haven't passed. You can zoom in on the very end of your session to see whether your flow rate seems stuck on the zero line right before the mask comes off. Just a thought.

As others have said, you'll need to break your bad habit, but I'm betting you can do it. My reason for saying this is that you recognize you've got a problem, you've reached out here for help, and you're doing yourself a huge favor by using Oscar.

Thanks Miss Emerita , I'm certainly going to try and beat this bad habit , although at the moment it seems a big challenge to over come.



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Good that your symptoms are better, but it's something to talk about with your MD... or at least Google the omep. and see what they say in general re other possible issues.

Julie wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 23, 2022 4:29 pm

Good that your symptoms are better, but it's something to talk about with your MD... or at least Google the omep. and see what they say in general re other possible issues.

Thanks for your comment , its appreciated.

Well I made the long trip to the nearest hospital and sat in front of a Doctor ( Genera Doctor ) I went over my concerns and described my '' some thing sticking in my throat '' symptoms . The doctor then had a look in my mouth using a torch , and said nothing could be seen . The Doctor then advised me to go and see the hospitals ENT Doctor ( ear, nose, and throat Doctor . Also called otolaryngologist ) but sadly I could not see the ENT Doctor on that same day . So I now have an appointment to see an ENT doctor on next Monday the 28th of March.

Last night I went to bed early , but again there was a power cut to my small cottage ( which is a fairly normal occurrence ) so I only got to use my ResMed machine short time ( see OSCAR report ) .

The surprising thing was that after the power cut , which only allowed me to use my ResMed machine for a short time , after I switched off the ResMed and I got back into bed . The next thing I remember was waking up at 5 am and had no recollection of being awoken at all with the normal ''' some thing sticking in my throat '' symptoms , so going on that '' not being awoken '' I must have gone to sleep . Its getting a bit confusing


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Unhappy Rodent wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 24, 2022 1:16 am

again there was a power cut to my small cottage ( which is a fairly normal occurrence )

You should consider a battery backup system.
Consistent usage is vital to your therapy.

Multiple threads you'd want to read

https://www.cpaptalk.com/search.php?key ... mit=Search

GrumpyHere wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 24, 2022 2:03 am

Unhappy Rodent wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 24, 2022 1:16 am

again there was a power cut to my small cottage ( which is a fairly normal occurrence )

You should consider a battery backup system.
Consistent usage is vital to your therapy.

Multiple threads you'd want to read

https://www.cpaptalk.com/search.php?key ... mit=Search

Thanks , its some thing I have been thinking about for some time , then my wife passed away and I forgot all about it. May be a petrol powered generator for the cottage, I did not realize that the ResMed could have a battery back up. Thanks for the link .

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Where are you located?

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 24, 2022 7:07 am

Where are you located?

I live in England , Cumbria a few miles from the village of Bassenthwaite . Its fairly remote which is what I like .



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Well I made the long trip to the nearest hospital and sat in front of a Doctor ( Genera Doctor ) I went over my concerns and described my '' some thing sticking in my throat '' symptoms . The doctor then had a look in my mouth using a torch , and said nothing could be seen . The Doctor then advised me to go and see the hospitals ENT Doctor ( ear, nose, and throat Doctor . Also called otolaryngologist ) but sadly I could not see the ENT Doctor on that same day . So I now have an appointment to see an ENT doctor on next Monday the 28th of March.

Thought I would update my visit to an ENT doctor on the 28th of March.

I went over my concerns about having a some thing sticking in my throat feeling with the ENT doctor . The doctor then administered a local anesthetic into both my nostrils . After 15 minuets the ENT doctor then inserted a nasal endoscope . I was allowed to film the procedure on my mobile phone ( an assistant nurse did the recording for me ) . It was very interesting seeing the procedure .

After the nasal endoscope was finished , the ENT doctor went over the findings. The findings were that there was no lump or abnormal growth of tissue . The only issue the ENT doctor found was a red patch on the wall of my throat due to reflux acid. I was prescribed two drugs to treat the reflux acid.

1. Sucrafate
2. Prevacid

I did also go over with the ENT doctor my sleep apnea and the problem I currently have ( around the same time every night ( always around 12 midnight to 1 am ) I suddenly get a feeling that I have some thing stuck in my throat , and having a problem falling to sleep.

The ENT doctor recommended that I talk to the ‘’ sleep doctor ‘’ who was present in the same building . So I had to wait around 2 hours to see the sleep doctor . I went over all my current sleep apnea issues with the sleep doctor but as I did not have my OSCAR information with me I could not be very number specific. The sleep doctor recommended that I try a drug called Trazodone.

I was given 20 x 50mg Trazodone tablets and told to take one before I go to sleep , so last night for the first time I took One 50mg Trazodone tablet . That one night I stayed in a B&B so I did not have my ResMed 10 .

After taking the One Trazodone table I went to bed around 11 pm . From what I remember I was awake after taking the Trazodone table but some time later I must have fallen asleep . I awoke around 6 am . This is the first time I can actually remember going to sleep .

So tonight ( 30 March ) will be the first night that I will be using my ResMed 10 at the same time as taking One Trazodone tablet . I wonder how things will go







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Best of luck treating the reflux. It sounds as though perhaps the damage to the back of your throat contributed to your choking feeling. Did the ENT opine about that?

And I'll be curious how you do with the Trazodone.

Your cottage sounds idyllic!

Your cottage sounds idyllic!

What really sounds idyllic to me is being able to see an ENT and sleep physician in the same day, without an appointment to the latter!

Here in the US you would be waiting months between specialist appointments, "walking in" does not happen. And the biggest argument against single payer healthcare in the US is the "long waits" for treatment "like they have in the UK".

On another note, long term use of these reflux medications is not great. You can google the long term effects. I'm NOT telling you to stop them, but to look at other options to address the underlying issue instead of treating the symptoms by suppressing stomach acid so you may no longer need them--we NEED stomach acid, but we need it to stay in the stomach where it belongs. Take a look at The Fast Track Diet: Heartburn by Norm Robillard (see also FaceBook group and app). Sleep apnea and GERD feed off each other. The struggle to breathe causes a vacuum effect in the airway and can pull stomach acids up into the airway, and GERD causes irritation of the esophagus and even aspiration into the lungs which in turn exacerbate sleep apnea. So addressing BOTH will help both.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 30, 2022 11:28 am

Best of luck treating the reflux. It sounds as though perhaps the damage to the back of your throat contributed to your choking feeling. Did the ENT opine about that?

And I'll be curious how you do with the Trazodone.

Your cottage sounds idyllic!

Thanks for your comment

The ENT doctor really made no remark as to the severity of the redness to the back of my throat , just to take the two drugs .

So last night now back home as instructed by the ENT doctor just before getting into bed around 10 pm I took One 50mg Trazodone tablet and both the Sucrafate and Prevacid capsules.

But this time I had my ResMed 10 machine running and attempted to go to sleep. Again around 12 midnight I had the same past feeling that I have some thing stuck in my throat .So I removed my mask and turned off the ResMed machine.

Some time later ( not sure exactly when ) I fell asleep and slept until 6.45 am when I awoke .

On waking up I felt a lot better and more relaxed than ever before . Also the feeling of having some thing stuck in my throat had disappeared. The strange thing is that once I was awake , for the rest of the day I felt , and still feel less worried or concerned about my problems , sort of a happy feeling.

I’m going to do the same tonight ( take One 50mg Trazodone tablet and both the Sucrafate and Prevacid capsules ) and see what happens.

One final thing that has just crossed my mind is that for several months now I have been feeling stressed and have bouts of anxiety relating to my wife passing away , I’m wondering if my stress and anxiety may have any connection with my sleep apnea .

I will of course post back the future results.

The photographs are of my cottage lounge and view from the back door .


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Janknitz wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 30, 2022 3:24 pm

Your cottage sounds idyllic!

What really sounds idyllic to me is being able to see an ENT and sleep physician in the same day, without an appointment to the latter!

Here in the US you would be waiting months between specialist appointments, "walking in" does not happen. And the biggest argument against single payer healthcare in the US is the "long waits" for treatment "like they have in the UK".

On another note, long term use of these reflux medications is not great. You can google the long term effects. I'm NOT telling you to stop them, but to look at other options to address the underlying issue instead of treating the symptoms by suppressing stomach acid so you may no longer need them--we NEED stomach acid, but we need it to stay in the stomach where it belongs. Take a look at The Fast Track Diet: Heartburn by Norm Robillard (see also FaceBook group and app). Sleep apnea and GERD feed off each other. The struggle to breathe causes a vacuum effect in the airway and can pull stomach acids up into the airway, and GERD causes irritation of the esophagus and even aspiration into the lungs which in turn exacerbate sleep apnea. So addressing BOTH will help both.

Thanks for your comment


The ENT lady doctor originally told me that I would have to make an appointment to see the sleep doctor, I then explained to her how I lived far away from the hospital and that traveling such a long distance was stressful and time consuming . She then told me to wait while she went to talk to the sleep doctor. She came back and said that the sleep doctor would slot me in that day but I would have to wait.

Thanks for the information , its really appreciated and I'm going to check things out .


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Hi - please don't think I'm assuming anything by suggesting you Google "globus hystericus" - a silly name for a real and somewhat common concern - just wonder what you think of it and whether it might be relevant.

I'm so sorry to learn that your wife died. This must be a very hard time for you.

You describe a change in mood that could be an early response to the trazodone. And the drugy can also make you drowsy, which may be helping you sleep.

Anxiety, depression, and apnea have a complicated relationship to one another. Here's an article about some research on the topic:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5836734/

It's hard to untangle the causal relationships, but it seems that treatment for both apnea and depression may well be what will help you the most. I also hope the reflux will respond to the other meds.

Thanks for sharing the photos! Your cottage and your view are remarkably delightful. I hope they give you solace and pleasure.