Cleaning & care maybe some advice for a newbie like me

Hats off to birdsell! I wash the soft bits with unscented soap every night and roughly dry on towel before reassembling (2 mins). I immerse the tubing and mask parts in warm water with (stronger) hand dishwashing detergent weekly, using a long wire bottle brush to clean as far as possible (12 ins) into the tubing at both ends (never remember which is which) and leave for 30 mins. Then (without rinsing) immerse in cold water dosed with baby bottle sterilising (sodium hypochlorite) solution, make sure there are no bubbles and leave for up to 1 hour. Chlorine is an effective anti-fungal agent and my guess is that fungal lung infections are the main worry. I fit this in with a weekly house cleaning and the actual time spent on it minus the waits is only around 7 mins. If I am really busy or travelling, it may be 2 but not more than 3 weeks between cleans. I include the headgear in a cool wash with mild detergent every 2 or 3 weeks. Don't worry about drying the tubing too thoroughly, any remaining water gets blown through and you can always take the mask off and wipe your face! That's all folks.

To quot::
To borrow Chuck/GoofyUT's saying:

"That which doesn't kill ya simply makes you stronger."

There is a great deal of truth in this. It is known as the hygiene hypothesis and blames a lot of emerging microbes on our obsession with cleanliness.

In those countries that lives in squalor and very poor hygiene, the constant challenge of pathogens keep the immune system at its maximum and prevents disease.

In our super clean society we promote the emerging microbes by killing off bacteria and allowing mutant and possibly more virulent strains to emerge that is resistant to the cleaning agents.

Same true for antibiotics that are indiscriminately prescribed. Bad and resistant bugs emerge.
Bottom line is that we are doing more harm than good in the big picture.
The killing off of friendly bacteria in our system denies our body of the highly protective substances they provide.
Don't mess with evolution. It can bite you in the arse.

If it doesn't kill you first.....

Rising mortality in Third Word countries http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1649

Hepatitis C http://archive.salon.com/health/log/200 ... index.html

Tuberculosis http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/

Trachoma http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/n ... nt%20C.pdf

Cholera http://www.redcross.org/news/in/health/ ... lera2.html

I know about the hygiene theory, but have just gotten out of the elementary-kindergarten teaching business. For the first time, I have not had any of the 6-8 sinus infections per year I had while teaching. (I even took a low dose antibiotic through the winter one year; it did not help.) All of the kindergarten teachers use frequent hand washing and germ gel applications, in an effort to avoid illnesses. For most, that seems to work. For me, I would become ill and need the antibiotics to kill off the infection. I tried for several years to outlast the infections, but was so miserable for so long that it was only a week or two before I seemed to have another infection. Plus, when one is ill, one doesn't think as well or feel as energetic. Working with children, that lack of energy is NOT a bonus.

Add to that my great-aunt, who was a nurse (before antibiotics) who put herself through medical school in the 20's. She went back to Finland with her husband (also a physician) during World War II. This trying experience, IMHO, awakened some OCD properties. She brought her two children home before her husband, they lived with my grandmother, and passed on her scrubbing and cleaning philosophies to my mother and aunt. They are both almost phobic about cleaning. How many people mop their kitchen and bathroom floors with a bleach solution? How many follow the health department procedures for soaking clean dishes in a bleach solution if a member of the family is ill? Dishwashers are a GREAT invention for my family! (Believe me, I could practically write a book about the many more things they do....)

So, I consider myself to be fairly practical. I don't brush anything, I do not do anything overly impressive (I'm sure my great-aunt would recommend bleach and scrubbing and more frequent cleaning). The weak vinegar solution upsets the pH balance enough to help keep down the growth of bacteria. I have tried to make the cleaning regime practical and minimal in time and effort.

I do almost all that my RT recommended, and figure it is all to the good as I have the tendencies to be ill in the ear infection-sinus infection-respiratory system. I had an eardrum lanced to avoid the pressure.
I have a slight loss of hearing in one ear from all of the infections, and had my tonsils and adenoids out at just barely age 4 in order to preserve my hearing.

One has to admit, though, that cleaning all the equipment in the shower does not sound as hygienic as at the sink! Not that it cannot be; that RT probably feels that it is easier to do so.

We all have to do what makes us comfortable and keeps us healthy. My childhood general practitioner used to say that everyone seems to have one part of their body that is particularly vulnerable. Mine seems to be the respiratory system, so I just do the minimum to try to keep well.

I do a nasal irrigation with saline, and have done so with a prescription that was a low dose of 3 antibiotics compounded at the local pharmacy. Now I am using just a homemade saline. My allergist/immunologist recommended this based on a study done at the Mayo Clinic. (That is where he got the formula for the antibiotics in the liter of saline.) So I do not "boil my nose out" but I do rinse it!

May I ask what we will be doing when we have fewer and fewer antibiotics to fight infection? Will preventing infections not avoid the overuse of antibiotics? There was a reason my great-aunt learned to scrub and bleach and wash everything. Remember she was trained as a nurse first, before the widespread use of antibiotics.

BTW, love the humidifier and the CPAP keeps my Eustachian tubes open. I wonder if I'd had the CPAP while teaching if I would have been ill as often.

Being in a kindergarten environment may explain your URIs. Thise bugs can indeed be spread there.

I wonder if you had cultures and found the agent responsible for your problems?
I do not understand the basis for a low dose antibiotic unless the organism was determined and the antibiotic was appropriate.
It may just be that you have an immune system that is not working at full capacity.

You can tell I am opposed to indiscriminate antibiotics. Our bodies can usually take care of most infections.
If you feel better with your cleaning regimen, then by all means continue.
If you continue to have infections. I would hope you get the reason nailed down definitively.

And why is antibiotic ointment recommended for minor cuts and scratches?
Most would say to prevent infection, but the reason is to promote healing. The body takes care of the infection all by itself.
But it is important in the one in a millioin chance some real bad bugs are around. Then again, soap and water is just as good for this.

I use distilled water in my humidifier, I have a spare tank, when I can remember I switch tanks and put the other in the top shelf of the dish washer probably once a month. I never empty the water out unless I'm going to switch it with a clean one. I use about 1/2" water per night so I'm refilling every few days. Using distilled water I distill myself, I never get any water spots or build up on the inside of the tank.

As for mask, I clean it about every other day, not because it is dirty because it seals better if it is clean and I get fewer leaks. I've used the same UMFF mask for over 2 years before replacing the cushion, so this cleaning process has been proven to work for me:

1. Fill a bathroom sink with the Hot tap water (hottest I can run from the tap).
2. Squirt a about a tablespoon worth of Dawn Orange Citrus Antibacterial liquid hand soap while the sink is filling.
3. I remove the headgear using the clips, push the button pivot off the forehead piece that don't have quick release clips.
4. I do NOT remove the cushion from the frame, I wash the the whole thing together. I just give it the ole up and down agitation action like washing a bar glass and rinse it. Shake it dry a bit and its ready for use.

Of course I use antibacterial soap the stuff that is supposed to make your masks all fall apart, but like I said I got 2 years out of my last UMFF cushion.

I like these manufacturers that say don't use antibacterial soap, then tell you to replace your cushion every 3 months. Funny part is everyone believes them.

I've been on xpap for approximately 3.5 years.

Here's my cleaning routine:

mask: about once a year or so.

hose: never

humidifier: twice in 3.5 years

machine filters: replace the micro filter every couple of months or so and clean the foam filter.

I don't understand all the fuss about cleaning this stuff. It's not like its ouside on the ground or in the dirt.

[quote="Pirate"]I've been on xpap for approximately 3.5 years.

Here's my cleaning routine:

mask: about once a year or so.

hose: never

humidifier: twice in 3.5 years

machine filters: replace the micro filter every couple of months or so and clean the foam filter.

I don't understand all the fuss about cleaning this stuff. It's not like its ouside on the ground or in the dirt.

Snoredog;
At my house the dirt comes wafting in on the breezes. We're cut into a slope and the back of the house is about 15 feet away and two feet lower than the uphill part of the land-which also happens to be the dog yard. They raise a cloud of dust there when it is hot and dry and it seems to end up in the house whether or not the windows are open. I know what is in the dirt and air. Some of it does not require water droplets to travel on-it is truly airborne and small enough to go through both the white and grey filters on my Remstar. I know the illnesses they cause and the drugs to treat them-statistics mean nothing to me if I'm the one in a ten thousand. So I'll clean my equipment.

Tomjax;
Yes - indiscriminant use of antibiotics has gotten us into a real mess. There are so many antibiotics in the food chain/environment it is difficult not to get low doses and pathogens are able to develop resistance. I don't know if using antibacterial soaps has a similar effect-they are supposed to work differently but I avoid them for the reason you mentioned a couple posts ago. If we don't get exposed to pathogens at low levels we can fight-we won't have the immunity needed to fight them when we get a big dose of a pathogen. We thought that modern sanitization had brought many diseases to an end but they are still "alive and well" in many parts of the world-ready to "hop a ride" to San Francisco International or La Guardia where we have little resistance to them.

Birdshell;
I have a sister who does the bleach, scrub brush & toothbrush routine on hands & knees. As someone has said you have to do what you are comfortable with.
It is difficult for kindergarten teachers who have 20-40 little runny nosed kids who can't blow their noses yet-and don't have any concept of covering coughs & sneezes. My partner went to putting hand cleaner gel on every desk and having all the kids do their hands once an hour to try to break a classroom "epidemic" last year. The janitor disinfected desks every day after school.

Sounds like everyone does something different. I have chronic sinus infections so I tend to clean a little more often.

One thing that I have never seen mentioned....

Has anyone given thought to buying a second very cheap no frills CPAP and use it for drying the hose and head gear every day?

I actually use my insurance bought Remstar Plus to dry things out and it does it in less than 20 minutes while I'm in the shower. It stays at one speed unlike the C-flex machines so it doesn't go crazy when it senses an open leak.

Keep things dry after cleaning and you keep the bacteria stuff to a minimum.

Later,

Marc

Cheaper to buy 2-3 hoses and alternate-put a number on the end with permanent marker so you know where you are in the "rotation".

Malibu wrote:Sounds like everyone does something different. I have chronic sinus infections so I tend to clean a little more often.

One thing that I have never seen mentioned....

Has anyone given thought to buying a second very cheap no frills CPAP and use it for drying the hose and head gear every day?

Funny you should mention that .. I have a backup HC234 that I use to blowdry by Aura nasal piece every night after I wash it with Baby Shampoo.
I also rinse out the hose and headgear once a month, then hook it up for an hour or so for a quickdry. Easy, fast and fun!

I wash my mask with baby shampoo weekly since it does not seal right when it gets oily. I have never washed the hose out. I use tap water in my humidifier and don't wash it out. I overfill the water tank and refill it when it gets low every few days or so.

I change the white filters when they get discolored. I wash the black filters at the same time as I change the white filters.

I have not had any issues but I could just be lucky.

tomjax wrote:Being in a kindergarten environment may explain your URIs. Thise bugs can indeed be spread there.

I wonder if you had cultures and found the agent responsible for your problems?
I do not understand the basis for a low dose antibiotic unless the organism was determined and the antibiotic was appropriate.
It may just be that you have an immune system that is not working at full capacity.

You can tell I am opposed to indiscriminate antibiotics. Our bodies can usually take care of most infections.
If you feel better with your cleaning regimen, then by all means continue.
If you continue to have infections. I would hope you get the reason nailed down definitively.

And why is antibiotic ointment recommended for minor cuts and scratches?
Most would say to prevent infection, but the reason is to promote healing. The body takes care of the infection all by itself.
But it is important in the one in a millioin chance some real bad bugs are around. Then again, soap and water is just as good for this.

I just wanted to answer a few of your concerns, tomjax. I, too, worry about the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. As I believe I stated before, for a few years I would try to fight off these infections on my own, would get seriously ill, and spent most of my time ill. When I tried to fight them off myself, they would become worse and spread to my lungs. Then I would not only be unable to breathe and feel miserable, I would be coughing as well.

I have always had these infections until I quit going to school...And, since age 5 I've always gone to school until this past year! I have had these infections when I was in elementary, middle, high school, and college as a student. I have also had infections teaching at all of these levels. New teachers often are sick for their first few years of teaching, until they develop immunity. After over 31 years of teaching, I'm still waiting for that immunity!

I have been tested at least twice for every imaginable immune factor, allergy, and deficiency that might cause these infections. I have had numerous throat cultures; I have never had strep when cultured! I have taken vitamins, had a pneumonia vaccine, seen ENT's and followed every medical investigation for the causes of these infections. Only after all of this, did my allergist/immunologist treat me for 2 years before trying the low-dose of tetracycline. It did reduce my infections from 6-8 a year to 5-6 a year. Since this was not a dramatic improvement, I took them for only 2 winters.

While I share your concerns, I just wanted to further establish that my doctor had used his professional judgement before trying a low-dose antibiotic. I pulled the following from Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s site. He wrote one of the sections of the Merck Manual. I have provided the URL for those who would like more information.

http://www.drmirkin.com/morehealth/G221.html


"Shouldn't We Be Concerned About Resistant Bacteria?

… I prescribe derivatives of tetracycline and erythromycin. These drugs are extraordinarily safe and do not require drawing frequent blood tests. If you were to become infected subsequently with bacteria that are resistant to these antibiotics, you would have lost nothing. No reasonable doctor would prescribe erythromycin or tetracycline for acute serious diseases, such as meningitis, pneumonia or an abscess, because tetracyclines and erythromycins do not kill germs, they only stop them from multiplying. Instead, doctors prescribe far more bacteriocidal antibiotics that kill bacteria.”

As Dr. Mirkin points out further on in the article, if we are truly concerned about the indiscriminate use of antibiotics we should become vegetarians. I will leave that to you to read on his site.

I need to go do my weekly cleaning regime.