Newbie User with assuming newbie question

OK I've lurked a bit here and finally joined up yesterday. Late last year I did a take home sleep study and it was pretty bad. My AHI was around 43 and I my report stated my pulse ox was at 73 way too many times a night.

Late January I saw the Sleep Dr and the next week got an Airsence 10 Autoset and a Simplex FF mask. At the time I was fitted I was at the peak of a bad cold and couldn't imagine pushing air up my nose. Also bad sinuses run in my family and didn't think just a nose type mask would work well with my face. Even with the current mask I have to adjust the hose connection because if its hanging straight down from my face I hate how it blows air up my nose.

So I'm a little over a month in and solved what i think are normal start up problems. First few days the mask had worn off the skin on my nose so a put a small piece of tissue there to keep it from rubbing, healed up in a few days. I started to get blemishes under my mouth from the mask but first realized I had to wash the thing every day and got some face creams. I have since moved to mask liners and have no more skin issues.

Before treatment I could take a nap at any time, driving more than an hour was painful trying to stay awake. Staying awake while sitting at my computer was difficult. I would drink an energy drink, nothing extreme just about 120 mg of caffeine, to get through the afternoon. So now I've only taken 4 naps during the day and 3 don't count because 2 was while I riding in a car for a long trip and one was yesterday because of the time change.

My myAir web scores are almost always 100 and I've driven 2 long car trips and never felt I was going to fall asleep even a little, mostly just normal boredom.

So here are my issues first the minor one, starting last week my throat sort of feels burned. I have my humidity to the max but I now recall I also boosted the hose heat to max because for awhile it felt like I was getting cold air up my nose. I also have sort of a lite dry cough that hits me maybe 2 times a day. The throat issue is slowly fading away but not the cough.

My major issue is while I'm not tired I'm a little foggy pretty much all day. I've heard that the issue is my body is making up for lost "real" sleep.

Please don't ask about stuff like pressures since I haven't installed Sleepy head because of computer issues. My sleep center, part of a much larger pulmonary department of a large major city hospital system, seems to be very proactive. All I know for now is that the Sleep Coordinator called and told me they may up my max pressure since i'm very close to to max every night. Currently my events are around 1.5 to 4 an hour and as a bonus I don't wake up and need to go the bathroom.

If this is fogginess sort of normal I'll wait it out a bit before I call the sleep clinic. Currently my compliance appt. isn't until May 1st.

Wow much longer than expected.

It seems that your treatment is working, since you feel so much better. When you get the computer working right, then try SleepyHead.

Note that when you replace your mask (which I would do at six months or sooner), I suggest that you soak the piece that touches your face in 50% vinegar solution for at least two hours. If the vinegar odor bothers you, wash it off an rinse thoroughly. If not, you can rinse more casually.

The fogginess could be related to not good enough therapy, many wakeups, or the best result... just your brain healing. The brain healing thing is the best because it probably just means you need some supplements to help boost that brain healing. My suggestion is get a good choline supplement (GPC, Citicholine, or phosphatidyl choline (straight Choline doesn't seem to help)), get a good EPA/DHA fat supplement at least. I also took several anti-oxidants to help with the brain clean up now that it's not getting poisoned every night. Just 3 days of DHEA supplement, Tumeric (always good (with Bioprene, pepper, and fat), and I like Jarrow's Astaxanthin, It's a slightly altered form of vitamin a that you can't really overdose on. Any extra just helps your gut if you have issues there. I also take coffee fruit which is supposed to help the hormone that helps you differentiate brain cells (results confounded by the other things I take).

The biggest things that made me feel better though were the citicholine and brain fats.

Taking any medications? If so, what?
How many hours of sleep are your averaging?
Are those hours of sleep fragmented with a lot of wake ups?

D.H. wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:30 am

1. Note that when you replace your mask (which I would do at six months or sooner),

2. I suggest that you soak the piece that touches your face in 50% vinegar solution for at least two hours. If the vinegar odor bothers you, wash it off an rinse thoroughly. If not, you can rinse more casually.

1. I'll have to check my insurance again but I think according to my Dr office and DME I get to replace the cushion every 30 days, the rest of the headgear at maybe 6 months, straps maybe sooner. I have a schedule somewhere.

2. Is that to maybe firm up the silicone?

I cleaned out my hose for the first time with 33% vinegar and smelled Salt and vinegar chips for a few hours. This is even after I hooked it up and used "warm up" for at least 30 min.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:34 am

Taking any medications? If so, what?
How many hours of sleep are your averaging?
Are those hours of sleep fragmented with a lot of wake ups?

Just BP meds I take first thing in the morning.

I get 7.5+ hours a night and maybe stir once that I know of mostly just switching positions. Last night was the first time I really woke up and saw that it was only 2:00 am and went right back to sleep. Didn't wake up again until 7 min before my alarm goes off. What do you call a "wake up"? Before treatment I would wake up enough that my body told me a needed to go to the bathroom. Note I'm getting to late 50's which added to the issue.

But overall its much better since I stopped the, what term is used here? I call them face farts.

A lot of us have not cleaned our hoses in years, literally... no need to as nothing but air passes thru... from the filtered machine to us, but not back.

You can firm up the silicone using baby wipes once a week or less.

Agree, I don't wash my air hose very often either. But once a little stinkbug got in there and stayed there all night long! In the morning it came out, after a night in the wind tunnel, and seemed to be its usual drowsy stinkbug self! I did wash the hose after that.

So here are my issues first the minor one, starting last week my throat sort of feels burned. I have my humidity to the max but I now recall I also boosted the hose heat to max because for awhile it felt like I was getting cold air up my nose. I also have sort of a lite dry cough that hits me maybe 2 times a day. The throat issue is slowly fading away but not the cough.

Too much humidity can be as bad as too little. It can cause nasal congestion that in turn irritates the throat, and causes a post nasal drip--there's your cough. Try adjusting your humidity SLOWLY, one small change every few days until you find that "sweet spot" where you don't have any symptoms.

Don't overlook the possibility that you may simply have had a mild cold. That happens. I love CPAP when I have a cold. I turn up the humidity and heat and sleep better than I ever did before CPAP with a cold.

Janknitz wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:42 pm

So here are my issues first the minor one, starting last week my throat sort of feels burned. I have my humidity to the max but I now recall I also boosted the hose heat to max because for awhile it felt like I was getting cold air up my nose. I also have sort of a lite dry cough that hits me maybe 2 times a day. The throat issue is slowly fading away but not the cough.

Too much humidity can be as bad as too little. It can cause nasal congestion that in turn irritates the throat, and causes a post nasal drip--there's your cough. Try adjusting your humidity SLOWLY, one small change every few days until you find that "sweet spot" where you don't have any symptoms.

Don't overlook the possibility that you may simply have had a mild cold. That happens. I love CPAP when I have a cold. I turn up the humidity and heat and sleep better than I ever did before CPAP with a cold.

Yes tonight I think I'm going to set it back to auto everything and work from there.

Oh and I think I may have described my fuzziness a bit wrong or maybe I just had a revelation when I wrote it down but the fizziness is in the front of my head and of course thats where the sinuses are. But my nostrils are clear so not stuffed up.

chartle wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:16 pm

Yes tonight I think I'm going to set it back to auto everything and work from there.

Ok I put my humidity and tube heat settings back to normal and it sort of feels a little better this morning. I may need to fiddle with the tube heat. The air was just a little too cool.

My only non auto setting is that I put the auto ramp to only 5 min. I think it started at 20 min because that's what I think the tech left it at when she was showing me the machine. I tried auto and I just had the feeling I wasn't getting enough air.

My only non auto setting is that I put the auto ramp to only 5 min. I think it started at 20 min because that's what I think the tech left it at when she was showing me the machine. I tried auto and I just had the feeling I wasn't getting enough air.

Most of us turned off the ramp sometime in the first week. It's there for comfort, under the theory that we will fall asleep and not notice the increase in pressure, but in reality too little pressure feels like suffocation, and once we are over that "wind blowing in the face" thing, it's comforting to feel the starting pressure. I even hate that 2-3 seconds when the Airsense Auto goes from 0 to starting pressure--in my first machine (Philips Respironics) it came on a full blast immediately.

So don't worry if you decide to turn off the ramp altogether, it will make NO difference in your treatment whatsoever.

Janknitz wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 14, 2018 6:30 pm

My only non auto setting is that I put the auto ramp to only 5 min. I think it started at 20 min because that's what I think the tech left it at when she was showing me the machine. I tried auto and I just had the feeling I wasn't getting enough air.

Most of us turned off the ramp sometime in the first week. It's there for comfort, under the theory that we will fall asleep and not notice the increase in pressure, but in reality too little pressure feels like suffocation, and once we are over that "wind blowing in the face" thing, it's comforting to feel the starting pressure. I even hate that 2-3 seconds when the Airsense Auto goes from 0 to starting pressure--in my first machine (Philips Respironics) it came on a full blast immediately.

So don't worry if you decide to turn off the ramp altogether, it will make NO difference in your treatment whatsoever.

Turned off the ramp and didn't notice any difference, after a few minutes I checked the pressure and it was still at 5. I too have to be careful when it starts, I hold my breath, hit the button and then start breathing. I then can get into a rhythm.

Why don't you just bump it to 6 or 7?

Julie wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 15, 2018 12:28 pm

Why don't you just bump it to 6 or 7?

I'm not sure I'm comfortable messing around with the clinical settings just yet. Let me get past my first Dr appt.

Also I just got Sleepy head installed and not sure just yet how to post my results.