Dry Throat - Pain

Hello all! My husband is the actual CPAP user; however, I am truly the beneficiary after years of no sleep due to his sleep apnea. Last night was his first night with the machine. His setting was 15 and the humidifier was at 3. I was again up all night simply because I was worried he would try to rip the mask off but he did fairly well. The main complaints were that his mouth and throat were so dry it was actually painful and that there seemed to be "more air than at the sleep study". It took years to get him to have the sleep study and when he did we found his numbers were quite severe 56/hr (I believe that is what the report said) and his o2 sats were at 77% at one point. My husband isn't much into message boards, but I have found others to be invaluable. If anyone can lead me in the right direction as to his issues with dry mouth and/or pressure settings I would appreciate it. We were supposed to receive a call today from people who set up the machine, but no calls yet.

Also - my husband is a side sleeper and I noticed a bit of air leakage last night. Do the cpap pillows do any good at all? If so, any brand better than the other?

Thanks a bunch for whatever info you can provide.


Traci

Sounds like he is a mouth breather. Having a dry mouth using a full face mask with no leaks probably means he needs the humidifier Turned up. Move it up a notch until he has a good night.

Well the 'bit of leakage' could be more than a bit and if a full face mask leaks, and he mouth breaths, then he'll lose the air to the breeze and have dryness. Cpap pillows apparently are very good (don't happen to use one). He is on quite a high setting and I wonder if he's been retitrated recently. What would be the most help is for you to go the "User Control Panel" above the postings and fill in the Profile with full name and model #'s of all his equipment, and that will tell us, for instance, if he has a machine that can record all the data each night and be read in the daytime from his computer (there's more to it, but that's the idea). Once that's decided, then we have more to go on to help. He may or may not need the humidity turned up depending on other things.

More than likely he's mouth breathing and even with a full face mask like the Quattro the open mouth can break the seal and cause the dryness he's experiencing. Did you hear any leakage around the mask?

He should drink plenty of fluids during the day, that will help--and don't rule out the fact that he could be coming down with something unrelated to CPAP.

BTW, your husband's machine (if your identification of it is correct) is a BRICK. It has only compliance data (how much he uses it so his insurance company can get paid), NO efficacy data (how well the machine is working for him and info that is helpful to problem-solve issues like leakage. One of the best things you can do for him right now is to return that machine and get a data capable machine like either a Respironics Remstar System One Pro or System One Auto, or a ResMed Elite or Auto machine. That way, when issues like the dry throat come up, you can look at the data to see if there's leaking, and if there is, you can try to fix the leaking so he's more comfortable.

Hi,
I also have the Quattro mask. I also have extremely dry mouth when I use it. I use my Papcap chinstrap with it when I have to use it, this keeps my mouth from dropping open. My pulmo Dr told me dry mouth is common with full face masks because they tend to force your mouth open.
Susan

i had my mouth open a lot during the beginning with Quattro FFM. I had some stuffy nose issues, and as those cleared up with Flonase and the Afrin suggestions from this forum, I found myself closing mouth more. The Lanisoh I put on lips, just a TEENY amount is enough made my lips sort of tacky so I kept them together closed better as time went on using the FFM. I just tried the nasal mask with chin strap last night and I liked that better...EVEN though I was awake all night....but that was due to caffeine in the Exedrin I stupidly took late at nightl...that was a real no-brainer moment Junebug!

I'm really curious about the papcap chin strap. If for some reason I find my mouth isn't staing closed, I'll be trying that next. OR some pantyhose tied around my head!

Also, you do sound like such a dear sweet wife taking care of your husband like that...God Bless You!

There are also mouthwashes that help with dry mouth. I believe Biotene is one of them, you can check with your Pharmacist. I also mouth breathe and I tape my mouth closed at night to solve the problem.

Brenda

I found the chin flap on the innomed hybrid has really helped to keep my mouth closed but I also found the quatro kept my mouth more closed since it tucks just under my lip - however if I role onto my back my mouth falls out of the quatro, This doesn't happen with the hybrid due to the chin flap.