throat leaks

First I am new to this so have mercy.
I did the sticker shock BCBS insurance rental and because of you all I bought outright, and wil use my Flex to pay for it. It cost a lot less than my deductables would have been.

I have been using it for 2 weeks now the first week I worked through sore nose mask adjustments, and other fitment problems. Leakes were easy to solve because of the cod spots they create. It took a while to see that the air preassure and pliability of the nasal pillow stopped leaks and not tight straps.

This week I have been having problems with my throat not sealing or leaking into my mouth. it starts with air coming out around my back teeth and blowing out one cheek. the other problem is when I am awakened by the noise of air rushing out of my mouth. My teeth are shut but my lips are bowen open. All of this wakes me up. The cotton mouth is really bad and I have to drink something to clear that up. I don't think sealing my lips would work because the blow fish cheeks currently wakes me up. I didn't have these problems the first week but now it happens several times a night. I sleep on my side.

At least now I can stay down for 6 hours at a time and not up every 2 hours walking around trying to get exausted enough to go back to sleep.

Thanks for being there/here.

Bill

This is known colloquially on this forum as "The Blowfish Effect." JeffH has rigged up a great little solution - he wears a regular workout sweatband around his mouth and back of his head.

I believe he tapes his mouth shut first, then puts on the headband. Jeff, correct me on all the wrong details, you know I'm sleep deprived.

So, contemplate taping your mouth shut, and then wrapping something around your head at the level of your mouth - like a sweatband or a length of some sort of stretchy fabric, like an ACE bandage. Or some pantyhose. RestedGal is our resident expert on other uses for pantyhose then putting them on your legs.

Best of luck!!!!
Babs

My suggestion:

Setup and use Ramp on your machine,
Get some BIOTENE mouthwash sold next to Listerine at the store, it is in a while smaller bottle,
give yourself a squirt of that right before bed,
Practice keeping your tongue planted into your hard palate and keeping your lower jaw from dropping helps. If you
are considering a chin strap get the Pur Sleep Pap Cap, that works the best.

Your CPAP pressure coming in from the nose is maintained by the soft palate sealing against the base of the tongue. If you allow your tongue to wonder around and come out of the hard palate your mandible will drop and that "seal" is lost. CPAP pressure as a result escapes via the mouth. If you had your tonsils removed as a kid or the soft palate trimmed in surgery you may not be able to use a nasal interface and maintain that seal.

You can also try taping your lips, if you do tape goes across the lips horizontally and you should apply it with a quick removal flap in case you need to remove it in a hurry. To create the flap, you fold the tape back over itself about 1/4" on one end. That flap then goes on your favored hand side, if you are right handed you put the flap on the right side.

Some people have used 3M blue painters tape, but I prefer the 3M 1" medical paper tape, the adhesive in it is less irritating to your skin.

I did have my tonsils removed as a kid. With my tonuge stuck to the roof of my mouth air leaks in little"farts" around my wisdom teeth puffing one cheek at a time in spite of my my tonuge seal. I often have panic attacks with just the covers to close to my mouth, I don't think I could tape it shut. But I was real supprised how soon I was able to acept the nose/ head geer so I may try it. I do have a full beard a face/mouth mask may be hard to do.

I started this because my cartiologest and endroconology couldn't help me any more I am so insulin resistive that 100 units of Lantus and 60 units of Humalog daily would only keep my blood sugars in the 250s. I am on close to max dose on 4 different types blood preasure medicines and still in the 170/ 100 range. I quit a stressful job this summer and in 2 weeks my BP dropped 20 pts. If I can start sleeping more than 4 hrs a night the rest may get better.

Thanks
Bill

What Babette said except now I use polident strips instead of taping. Got a full beard and taping and beards don't get along well...LOL

JeffH

You can also try a hybrid mask.
Cami

Here is a link to the Hybrid Test-Drive if you'd like to check it out.

viewtopic/t33434/Hybrid-TestDrive-Continues.html

Peggy

I get that kind of leak also - tongue firmly planted to the roof of my mouth mandible firmly shut, and air blowing out around my tongue and teeth. Maybe having had 4 wisdom teeth taken out (my jaw was too small for all those teeth) has something to do with it.

The leak may actually be a result of your falling into deeper sleep.

My solution is mouth taping - and idea that filled me with horror for about 8 months before I first tried it.

And then, it was only trying to tape my lips, in the bathroom, in broad daylight, and nothing to do with sleep.

Once I discovered how simple and easy it felt for me, I decided to try it at night.

Your panic reaction to even the touch of the covers could be a deep seated reaction to being choked in your sleep by OSA.

You will have to find a way of stopping those mouth. And if comes to the choice between sacrificing your life and sacrificing your beard....

RestedGal is our resident expert on other uses for pantyhose then putting them on your legs.

Babs, I couldn't help reading that literally:
I think even Rested Gal gives up on putting panty hose on your legs after all those other uses. However, she being who she is, I have no doubt that if the need arose, she would suggest the use of altered headgear straps to shore up previously decontstructed panty hose....

O.

Now I know, for certain, that the name "wisdom teeth" is a misnomer!! You have none and look how intelligent and wise you are!!!
I had to have all my wisdom teeth pulled for the same reason alot of years ago!
I'd like to think this means I am as intelligent and wise as you are!!
I'm not sure I will ever be as intelligent about things "cpap" as you are but you, like others on the forum, have sure brought me a long way!

willib12 wrote:I did have my tonsils removed as a kid. With my tonuge stuck to the roof of my mouth air leaks in little"farts" around my wisdom teeth puffing one cheek at a time in spite of my my tonuge seal........... But I was real supprised how soon I was able to acept the nose/ head geer so I may try it. ..........
Bill

Bill,

I had many of the same problems you are having and tried many of the fixes mentioned here including taping my mouth for six months. When the Hybrid mask was introduced in August 2006 I hurried to get one and have been very satisfied ever since. I do not have a beard now but some report using the Hybrid successfully with a beard.

If you decide to try one we can help with adjusting the mask.

Good luck,

willib12 wrote:I did have my tonsils removed as a kid. With my tonuge stuck to the roof of my mouth air leaks in little"farts" around my wisdom teeth puffing one cheek at a time in spite of my my tonuge seal. I often have panic attacks with just the covers to close to my mouth, I don't think I could tape it shut. But I was real supprised how soon I was able to acept the nose/ head geer so I may try it. I do have a full beard a face/mouth mask may be hard to do.

I started this because my cartiologest and endroconology couldn't help me any more I am so insulin resistive that 100 units of Lantus and 60 units of Humalog daily would only keep my blood sugars in the 250s. I am on close to max dose on 4 different types blood preasure medicines and still in the 170/ 100 range. I quit a stressful job this summer and in 2 weeks my BP dropped 20 pts. If I can start sleeping more than 4 hrs a night the rest may get better.

Thanks
Bill

I have borderline type II and control it by eating the correct foods, mainly reducing carbs to no more than 36 per meal. There are a lot of studies out there on the connection between apnea and diabetes. Here's one I found that is an easy read.

APNEA AND DIABETES
You're being proactive in your health care and it seems like you're making decisions, such as reducing stress that should, as you say, help the rest get better. I'm rooting for you and hope that very soon you will feel more rested.

Masked Marvels: Why Treating Sleep Apnea Helps Diabetes
Author:
Karen Barrow
Medically Reviewed On: March 17, 2005

Treatment for diabetes usually involves insulin injections or pills to control blood sugar levels. But a study shows that for some people with diabetes, a therapy that helps treat a serious, but common, sleep disorder can also help keep your blood sugar levels in check.

The study, published on February 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a treatment for sleep apnea, improves insulin resistance and, as a result, blood sugar levels in patients who have both sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes. Full article here: http://www.healthology.com/diabetes/article381.htm

Mouth Breathing
For years I was a mouth breather. I started out with a chin strap and eventually learned to keep my mouth closed. To do this, I exercised my throat and tongue to strengthen my throat muscles.

I now breath through my mouth and sleep with my mouth closed. I think keeping at it has strengthened the muscles that support the tongue staying in the correct position. I also believe, that by not mouth breathing, which requires a slack jaw, that this too strengthens the inner throat muscles.

I do a small amount of exercises to strengthen the throat muscles during the day, otherwise, just keeping my mouth closed and my tongue at the roof of my mouth has helped a lot. There are many places on the web that describe exercises for the throat such as for singers and snorers. My favorite is a fake yawn (for the back of the throat), sticking my tongue straight out with my mouth in a variety of positions, and pushing my tongue up into the hard palate of my mouth.

Best wishes!

Hawthorne wrote:Now I know, for certain, that the name "wisdom teeth" is a misnomer!! You have none and look how intelligent and wise you are!!!
I had to have all my wisdom teeth pulled for the same reason alot of years ago!
I'd like to think this means I am as intelligent and wise as you are!!
I'm not sure I will ever be as intelligent about things "cpap" as you are but you, like others on the forum, have sure brought me a long way!

Thanks for those kind words, Hawthorne.
I'm sure the wisdom impacted in wisdom teeth has the smarts to move to other teeth when the dentist starts messing around in your mouth....
As for cpap wisdom - I too wouldn't be where I am without this forum and its members!

O.