Doctor told me "some people just don't tolerate CPAP"

"Trust me, I'm a DOCTOR." --Larry Nassar

I'm beginning to think that perhaps I'm one of those who just don't tolerate CPAP. My untreated AHI was 88, so I had good reason to give it a good try. But I've been on APAP now closer to five months than to four with little success.

I just had a second sleep study Friday night, this time for a possible bi-level. But the same problems showed up in that test that I've been having all along with my AirSense at home. As soon as I relax in a sleeping position, my mouth drops down enough to break the seal of the FFM. Sometimes my mouth even drops below the mask, in spite of wearing a cervical collar. Leakage is particularly bad with a pressure of 14 and up, which doesn't begin to take care of my apneas. I've been getting AHIs at home regularly in the 10s, 20s and even 30s with the mask. And because of the noise of all the leaks plus the aerophagia even with pressure at 14, I can rarely tolerate the mask on more than four hours a night.

The technician at the sleep center couldn't find a mask that worked for me either. He tried two of those I'd previously used at home, plus two more that were new to me. All used with the cervical collar. Nothing worked. That makes a total of seven different masks I've tried now that didn't work adequately. (Medicare partially covered the cost of only two of those.) Using a chin strap so tight it gave me jaw pain worked for a while, but within a week I had to stop that as the jaw pain became so bad I couldn't get many foods in my mouth, couldn't chew meat, and could hardly open my mouth to even brush my teeth. Two months later, my jaw has mostly recovered, though I still have a hard time opening my mouth enough to eat a banana or a plum and can't eat hard nuts. Obviously a tight chin strap is not the solution for the mask leakage problem for me.

My appointment with the sleep doctor isn't for another three weeks, so I don't know what recommendation she is going to make after this recent sleep study, but I can't see that a bi-level is going to do me any more good.

You, snarch, have only been at this five or six weeks, so there are probably a lot of more things for you to try to get adjusted to a CPAP system and arrangement that works for you. But I'll admit, I don't think there are many more things for me to try.

I strongly recommend you get a firm foam cervical collar. This will help to hold your chin up when you sleep and prevent your jaw from dropping. I get ours from Walmart. I use a 4 inch collar and my wife uses a 3 1/2 inch collar.
: https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=d ... dmi%20firm

I changed to nasal masks after I woke up with the bottom of my full face mask in my MOUTH.
I found that poli grip strip between my lips kept my yap shut all night.
Messy, but it worked.

Okie bipap wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 23, 2018 7:44 pm

I strongly recommend you get a firm foam cervical collar. This will help to hold your chin up when you sleep and prevent your jaw from dropping. I get ours from Walmart. I use a 4 inch collar and my wife uses a 3 1/2 inch collar.
: https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=d ... dmi%20firm

Not sure if you are talking to me or to the OP here. If to me, as I said above, I am already using a cervical collar; it is a firm foam one. Used it with all the masks I've tried. I might try one half an inch deeper, but I question whether that would work. I feel like the one I'm using now is already about one-fourth inch too tall, as I can't get it as tight as I think I should. And since it isn't that tight, my receding chin still can manage to slip down enough to break the seal in the lower part of the mask. And I already awake even after an hour or two with a very stiff neck. But one a half an inch shorter definitely didn't solve the problem either. It wasn't deep enough.