Breathing difficulties

Hi all, nice to meet you.. Name's Paul..

Hoping I can get some answers!!!..

A bit of background (apologies for the essay!)

I was diagnosed with mild/moderate OSA 2 months ago, because I'm symptomatic (rarely have restful sleep and always tired) I was put onto CPAP.. after struggling for 3 weeks with a full face mask and sinusitis, the technician gave me a humidifier for my S10 Autoset and switched me to Resmed nasal pillows (later to dreamwear under nose pillow.) My sinuses were closing up completely after 5 mins of having the CPAP on. I started using one spray of decongestant spray before bedtime, which worked but then I started with nosebleeds!! so, got the humidifier which solved the problem with the sinuses and thus my compliance went up to where it should be... pretty much all night every night, very few leaks and AHI running at 1.5... all good.... sort of!!!


Firstly, I don't feel any different fatigue wise during the day since starting therapy, in fact, I am consciously half waking numerous times most nights dealing with perceived minor leaks, mask adjustments when turning on my side etc.. but Im aware that daytime fatigue is just one symptom and I'm conscious of the longer term preventative benefits of CPAP... so I' persevering.

The big issue for me, and the reason for the post in the hope that someone may be able to shed some light, is my breathing... I've never had lung or breathing issues, gave up smoking 20 years ago, am relatively fit, play golf etc.. am quite a big lad though (and currently on an upward bounce.) I can pinpoint the issue to the first night I used the humidifier.. had it set to 3... The next day, It felt like someone was sitting on my chest, was short of breath, felt like I couldn't empty my lungs properly etc.. a bit like the period of a nasty chest infection before the mucous breaks up and you can cough it out! Anyhoo… tried going through different settings on the humidifier to see if that helped but to no avail, so after 2 weeks I took the humidifier off and went dry again... next day things seemed better but have been dry since then and back to short of breath and struggling to breath! For one reason and another, I ended up not using my CPAP the night before last and the day after chest felt fine with just a little tightness.. used my machine for 8.5 hrs last night and again, I'm sat here struggling to breath!!!


Anyone else had anything like this or can shed any light? I went to the doc Weds (not my usual GP) and he listened to my chest, did peak flow (I should explain, I'm a brass player and have always had a huge peak flow, way off the scale so his observation of that was pointless!).. he said, don't worry, it won't be anything sinister and sent me on my way... still struggling to breath!!!!

I also have a hiatus hernia and have suffered from reflux/gerd most of my adult life.. controlled by drugs. On more than a few occasions in my life, I have woken up choking after having aspirated acid!! not a pleasant experience. My chest feels like it has for the couple of days when that has happened. I had the thought that the cpap was splinting my oesophagus as well as my airway and allowing stomach acid to bath my lungs, bypassing the choking/coughing reflex that usually kicks in when that happens, but then, the CPAP couldn't bypass the burning symptoms of such an event.... could it? I do feel like my throat is closing up too!!!


Again, sorry for the essay.. but I'm in bother and it is starting to get (just a little) scary!!



Paul

I will leave it to others to answer some of your questions (and I am not a doc). But I will share a few observations:
1) Chest and abdominal pain can be a bear to diagnosis. When starting xpap therapy, chest discomfort is often an issue (muscular in nature). You also might sleep more soundly (less moving) which can create some issues as you are adjusting as well.
2) I wonder about potential air swallowing and the hernia. I wonder about the weight gain. And I wonder about GERD.
3) Is your therapy dialed in well? No mouth or mask leaks, very low AHI, etc.
4) Don't confuse correlations for causation. I would be surprised if adding humidity made you breathing worse.

I would check back with your doc (and her) for #1 and 2. #3, if you post some data (please see sticky posts) people her can be very helpful.

PaulHen wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:29 pm

next day things seemed better but have been dry since then

What's dry?

Welcome!

PaulHen wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:29 pm

Hi all, nice to meet you.. Name's Paul..
<snip>
Again, sorry for the essay.. but I'm in bother and it is starting to get (just a little) scary!!

welcome to the zoo! the more folks here know about you, the better.

we have some other UK residents who visit here regularly, so if there is anything that is specific to your area, you'll get the good stuff from them.

as tropicaldiver mentioned, there is some information you can start busying yourself with. see my signature for the links to the "newbie" sticky and for the software oscar.

once you have oscar in hand, the experts here (not ME!!) will be able to comment on your data. you'll have to capture some screenshots from oscar, then post them here for all to see.

this is a bit of a journey. a very few people will come in and say they take to cpap right away. but most of us didn't and most of us don't.

please stick with us and you'll get lots of helpful advice.

good luck!!

ETA: do you know what your minimum and maximum pressure is?

ChicagoGranny wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 3:59 pm

PaulHen wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:29 pm

next day things seemed better but have been dry since then

What's dry?

Welcome!

ie.. no humidifier

zonker wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:06 pm

PaulHen wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:29 pm

Hi all, nice to meet you.. Name's Paul..
<snip>
Again, sorry for the essay.. but I'm in bother and it is starting to get (just a little) scary!!

welcome to the zoo! the more folks here know about you, the better.

we have some other UK residents who visit here regularly, so if there is anything that is specific to your area, you'll get the good stuff from them.

as tropicaldiver mentioned, there is some information you can start busying yourself with. see my signature for the links to the "newbie" sticky and for the software oscar.

once you have oscar in hand, the experts here (not ME!!) will be able to comment on your data. you'll have to capture some screenshots from oscar, then post them here for all to see.

this is a bit of a journey. a very few people will come in and say they take to cpap right away. but most of us didn't and most of us don't.

please stick with us and you'll get lots of helpful advice.

good luck!!

ETA: do you know what your minimum and maximum pressure is?

Thanks Zonker.. When I first got the machine it was set to a range of 4.0-20.0 but I was waking in the night feeling like I was drowning.. my numbers say I am running at 11.8 so the tech turned my max down to 13 which helped. I have since turned my start pressure and min up to 7.6.. at 4 it was becoming an effort to get air in and I started feeling like I was suffocating! even 7.6 might not be quite enough to allow for nice easy breathing so it might creep up a bit yet!

I'll post some data later

Hi PaulHen,

I note that you're a brass/ wind-instrument player. You may have hyper-ventilation syndrome – it's quite common in opera singers and wind-instument players. You might want to read up on it. Usually HVS manifests itself in the daytime. But it can also be found in sleep-apnea patients. And if it presents in both the day and at night, it obviously needs treatment.

Treatment during the day is breathing exercises, and becoming aware of over-breathing and stopping it. And for sleep apnea patients, the hope is the habits engendered by these day-time exercises spreads to nocturnal activity.

PaulHen wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:23 am

Thanks Zonker.. When I first got the machine it was set to a range of 4.0-20.0 but I was waking in the night feeling like I was drowning.. my numbers say I am running at 11.8 so the tech turned my max down to 13 which helped. I have since turned my start pressure and min up to 7.6.. at 4 it was becoming an effort to get air in and I started feeling like I was suffocating! even 7.6 might not be quite enough to allow for nice easy breathing so it might creep up a bit yet!

I'll post some data later

oh, all right, then. i was thinking that maybe you would have some lower pressures like that 4 you mentioned. that can be the culprit in many cases. and once it's increased, the new user can find relief.

sounds like you have that part covered. so i'll be quiet now and we'll both learn from what the experts have to say!

good luck.