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to the original OP: I'm having similar problems. I think the congestion comes from too much humidity. With the forced air furnace on, humidity and temperatures are different and I have to figure out how to reset the settings from summer to winter. A work in progress I think. I just switched back to the heated hose and had the temp set at 68 F. So, I'll make adjustments every night. Last night I woke up struggling to breathe because, like you, one nostril was completely plugged. I don't have a cold. The congestion went away within an hour or so of getting up. I'm using a WISP. These are older pillows, so I'm going to try a completely new set tonight.

WindCpap wrote:

49er wrote: And WC, you can get an infection from a squeeze bottle if you don't use the proper cleaning techniques. Just saying.

And that was exactly my point. I am quite paranoid about the whole infection from sinus rinsing thing, so I pour the water in the bottle right after the kettle shuts off to sterilize the bottle. I doubt I could do that with a machine. I am not saying that the machine is dangerous, just that it would hard for me to have confidence in its safety.

I think the instructions on Netipot and NeilMed say to use Distilled water.

Heart Jumping wrote:I've now been on CPAP for exactly one week. I often have congestion in one nostril. What I'm experiencing is that on nights where I don't have much congestion I am doing OK and my breathing with CPAP is comfortable. But when using CPAP on nights when I have congestion and am only breathing through one nostril I feel as though I'm struggling to breathe and sometimes feel like I'm suffocating. I've tried Flonase nasal spray in the past with little to no reduction in congestion.

I don't think a full face mask would help because I'm not a mouth breather?

Is there anyone else that has dealt with a congestion issue like this and had it impact your CPAP comfort and what did you do to solve it?

Thanks!

Only ONE WEEK as a ROBO-MAN, or ROBO-WOMAN.
... WELCOME ...

Again another common problem with well known causes and treatments. Not just gadget swapping, because it happens to perfectly healthy people who are not ROBO-PEOPLE.

Googled: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_congestion
and it gave me rubbish about babies and children. Before Wikipedia had a crackdown on experts, we many expert contributors used to update its out-of-date, inadequate stuff often.

One nostril, not the other. Has this happened, before CPAP? Is it always the same nostril?
Congestion, as I understand it, can be hard-dry, or wet-gluggy. Gluggy can be watery-thin, or sticky-thick. What kind is it? It it clear, white or colored? If colored, what colors, and what kind of coloring? If you have nose-hair, it might be worth mentioning if this is a factor. In the older men like myself, nose-hair goes crazy. (Apologies to my many enemies on this CPAP forum, who hate my personal experiences on CPAP issues).

All my life, before and after CPAP-machine dependency started ten years ago, I have continued my pre-bed nose-cleaning routines. Do you have such routines? Often I cannot use such pre-bed routines (tranportation, foreign sleeping places, time, etc).

Unknown to many people in these forums, medical diagnosis on the internet, using Google etc, is often better, more reliable than expensive "experts". Just look at Amazon's consumer gadget reviews, often writing about incompetent professional opinions/ advice, versus us real-world end-users.

More information, and we professional people might dare facing the hostility of Wikipedia's management teams, again. The tedious tricks to bypass Wikipedia's orchestrated hostility is so resource wasting.

Thanks everyone. Since the machine I linked to doesn't show up until Friday I went to the pharmacy last night and got some of the sinus irrigation bottles, they are 10x better than the one I tried years ago where I had to squeeze a bottle and try to squirt it up my nose, now they come with attachments and you just press the button.

However even after using it, I still had some congestion. Are any of you able to use these things and truly go from having congestion to free of congestion?

It'll be interesting to try to machine I ordered when it arrives and see if it's more effective as it claims to be.

Other than creating an endless source of recurring revenue for companies, is there any reason saline needs to be used instead of standard distilled water? I'm about to use Google University to look that up....

Definitely going to follow Granny's advice and also see a specialist just to see if there are any other steps I can take to improve it.

Thanks again.

I use a netti pot and flonase - sometimes together, sometimes not, in the evenings.

My doc told me to try two packets instead of one and that does seem to help. I have chronically inflamed sinuses and have seen ENT and allergy who told me I have "non-allergic rhinitis".

It's very aggravating at night to feel like I can't breathe through my nose but just a few days using a higher strength solution has made quite a difference.

Doc also said if I switched to 2 packets I could probably stop using the flonsase. Less is more drug wise for me if I can find workable alternatives.

When I irrigate, I add some Alkalol to the mixture in addition to the salt/buffer packet.

Heart Jumping wrote: Other than creating an endless source of recurring revenue for companies, is there any reason saline needs to be used instead of standard distilled water? I'm about to use Google University to look that up....
.

In case you didn't find it in Google University (although, undoubtedly you did), distilled water is the wrong PH, and wrong salinity. It will make your sinuses feel burned, and inflamed. If you don't want to buy the packets, there are diy recipes available on the internet consisting of baking soda and salt. If you use this, make sure you use boiled water to sterilize it. Tap water works just as well as distilled as long as it is sterilized (boiled). You are putting all of the minerals back in anyway.