AUGH!

Its 1 am on my 4th night with CPAP. Im in alot of pain right now. Every breath I take with the mask on it feels like someone is shoving a knife into my sinus. Im not congested at all. I can breath through my nose. I have been having sinus headaches since I started but tonight is horrible. I was able to wear my mask all night the first 3 nights but tonight I woke up in so much pain. I had a sinus headache this evening I took 2 asprin and was feeling a little better before I went to bed at 11. I would say it took me about 30 minutes to fall asleep. I woke up at 12:40 with a bad sinus headache. Every breath just made the pain worse. I took the mask off and came to the computer. I have been trying so hard to make this work. I know how important this is but I dont want to put that mask back on tonight. I dont know what to do. I had the setting on 3 on my heated humidifier and the air still felt cold. I ordered a hose cover but it didnt come yet so I tried putting the hose under the comforter to keep it warm. Its about 66 degrees in my bed room but I like sleeping in a cool room. Im so frustrated. I was one of those people who was never tired. Even though I was having 30 plus apnea events per hour I always felt rested in the morning. I have never felt so tired as I do now that I have the cpap machine. I dont know what to do.........

Take it easy, Andy. And take a break if you have to - but don't give up.

I needed a heated hose to make the air temprature tolerable http://www.sleepzone.com.au.

Nobody expects you to suffer through headaches with cpap therapy - so the problem is finding out what is causing them, and making that stop.

The air being too cold?
The air being too dry?
The mask pressing on a nerve?
The way the maks delivers the air?

Take is one step at a time, tell us what you've tried, what worked and didn't - we're here for you.

O.

Andy,
Sinus headaches are the worst! If it's not a sinus infection and just the cold air, maybe you could try warming your water a bit (not hot enough to damage the plastic) and putting it in your humidifier. Have read on here that some have done that. Others have added ice water to theirs - go figure! Everyone's different. If you find the humidifier is not heated enough for you, there is other equipment to help with that. Until you get a hose cover, you can cut the toe out of a few pairs of thick socks and slide them over your hose end to end.
If you must sleep without your machine, elevate the head of your bed a little and try to stay off your back. Some say stomach sleeping is best, can't say that for sure. Hope you get the sinus thing resolved real soon. You're off to a rough start, but that doesn't mean you're destined to finish like that. Hang in there.
Kathy

Im sorry, I just needed to vent. This is alot harder then I thought. I thought to my self OK no problem get a machine put on the mask and problem solved. But im seeing now its not that easy.

Maybe you need to try some of this stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLYK9RC1mTw

Hi Andy, sorry to hear it. There is indeed nothing worse than a sinus headache. There's not much else I can add that hasn't already been said. Just hang in there (as in: don't give up completely). I know that it seems like it's taking forever and ever to get the whole setup working, but once you get the hang of it, you won't look back. The problem is that each of us is so different, we can react to the same setup in a million different ways. And that makes it frustrating to figure out the real problem. As for venting, VENT AWAY (that's all i seem to do sometimes )

Just on the off-chance that it's not the air itself, but the mask, there is a known condition called trigeminal neuralgia, and it can be made worse by the cpap mask and straps. -SWS has some good info on this topic, since he suffers from it: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34029&p=289585&#p289585
In this other thread he reveals that for a long time he thought it was sinus or dental pain: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33524&p=284752#p284752

good lord, how did i remember the name of the condition enough to search for it? The damn CPAP must be working. (that joke's on me, not you BTW )

I hope someone else will chime in on this because I'm not sure if it's a good idea in your case, Andy .... have you tried a nasal rinse (like a neti pot or NeilMed Sinus rinse)? I use it all winter because it keeps my sinuses cleared out and so CPAP is more comfortable for me that way.

Mindy

update!

I stayed up until about 2 :30 then I went back to bed and turned the humidity dial to 4. After about 20 minute the air started to not feel cold. I woke up once to adjust the mask and I turned it back to 3 and slept until 7:30. I think the water Im putting in even at room temp. is to cold. It makes the air so cold it hurts. I wish there was a way to turn on the heat plate in the humidifier to heat the water about 20 minutes before turning on the actual cpap....

Thanks for all the support

Andy99 wrote: I wish there was a way to turn on the heat plate in the humidifier to heat the water about 20 minutes before turning on the actual cpap....

Maybe you could nuke the HH water in the microwave just before you put it in the tank.

If you buy a Fisher & Paykel HC150 stand alone heated humidifier (check it out at cpap.com) you can preheat the water in the humdifier. It works with any cpap machine. It's a great humdifier.

You would remove your integrated humidifier and set this up as per the instructions. Then you can have heated humidity as soon as you put on your mask. All you have to do is turn on the humdifier to your setting about 20 min before you go to bed.

It's worth looking at.

hang in there andy, it does get easier. i'm 2 months into the process and finally getting 3 -4 comfortable hours mask usage a night which only started a few days ago and was up from mostly 0-1 and a high of 2.

so a few brief thoughts i have before heading to work.
1) have you considered another type of mask. even though i am a nose breather, i couldn't get used to a nasal mask. it was hard to find a good fitting FF mask but i'm much happier now that i have.

2)the netti pot or it's equiivalent is a great idea. though for me i prefer the pressure of a bottle rinse and have a "neilmed sinus rinse" kit with bottle. here's the website http://www.neilmed.com but almost any drugstore carries them too.

3) also i always wear a "breathe right" strip on my nose under the mask and find it makes a significant difference. it's also a cheap item found at any drug store.

4)i really liked the sock idea too, i never would have thought of that. but now that i have the hose huggy i really love it. i also bought a cord designed to heat reptile cages (to save on the expense of the aussie hose right now, though it's a future option) that i found on this forum (my apologies i can't find the name right now) and it worked great. too great in fact as i had to keep reducing it's contact with the hose as i found the air too warm. now i only have it touching one quarter of my six foot hose under the hose huggy and it totally prevents my previous rain out and i'm thinking might be even more adjustable than the much more expensive aussie hose because i can modify the heat as much as i want by how much of the cord is in contact with the tube. that statement of course is without ever trying the aussie tube.

5)i liked the heating the water idea too, though for me, i just turn on the machine 20 minutes before bed (just on, not blowing) which allows the reptile cord to preheat the tube and i think allows the heater (which is set on 2 or 3 at that point) to heat the water too, though i have not checked to see if it actually is heating in the machine, but whatever the repti cord is doing it's thing.

6)as for the pepper spray, all i can say at this point is i'm intrigued, regardless of cpap use but would need to research more on just how and why it does what it does

anyway i wish you all the best,
gregg )

If you're going to use the reptile cord, just make sure you read all the instructions in danmc's post carefully so that all the evidence is destroyed in the ensuing carnage: How to set your hose on fire with a reptile cord. Be sure to look at the photos for guidance.

That thread still cracks me up

echo wrote:If you're going to use the reptile cord, just make sure you read all the instructions in danmc's post carefully so that all the evidence is destroyed in the ensuing carnage: How to set your hose on fire with a reptile cord. Be sure to look at the photos for guidance.

That thread still cracks me up

Im not that daring

Andy,
Delivery of the heated hose takes about 10-14 days.
Mine has been serving me for more that 3 years, and is still fine. Take the price of the hose, $109 (US) including delivery. Divide that by by the 1200 days of service it has given, and it comes out to less than $ 0.1 per night.

O.

I had the same issues when I first started. I like to sleep in a cool to cold room. That made the air too cold from the hose and since my exhalation was warmer than the room ,I had a lot of rainout. The Aussie Heated Hose solved all these issues and I can't sleep without it! My adapter broke as I dropped it and I was without it for a few nights and the air was too cold and the rainout started again. So glad to have the heated hose working again!. Good luck!