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Hi Echo.

Glad to hear you're feeling a little better.


Den

Wulfman wrote:Hi Echo.

Glad to hear you're feeling a little better.


Den

Den speaks for me too.
O.

Echo, take good care of yourself. Thanks for the update!

Thanks for the nice thoughts

I'm still sleeping/resting a lot, slowly getting better ...

catch ya later.

Hi guys,
Thanks for your earlier words of support! I'm on the last day's worth of antibiotics, and I have some residual coughing but I'm feeling much better. My chest still feels a bit full and heavy and I haven't yet noticed the positive effects of stopping smoking (except for the lightheadedness and the strangely slow and consistent heart rate). The weird chest pains were gone this whole time, but have come back again. ??
I've learned my lessons though, I will definintely followup with another PFT, but probably after the Xmas holidays.

So to get back to answering some questions...

kteague wrote:Just curious, Echo, about what it is about the head of the bed being raised a little that you are unable to tolerate? As long as it's the bed or the whole mattress, I couldn't tell it was lifted as long as I didn't go high enough to cause sliding. Could not sleep with a wedge - that was too uncomfortable to me.

It's hard to say, actually. My parents' bed is a bit springy to begin with, I think, so whenever I sleep in their bed i feel like I'm on a trampoline tilted up. I twist and turn a lot while falling asleep, and between the springyness and the tilt I feel very .... disoriented. It's not so extremely tilted that I feel like I'm sliding off, but I still don't like how it feels.
And I think I have a psychological block against it. I don't know why. Probably because my dad did that for years and STILL died from esophagael cancer. So I'm a bit ... annoyed ... when it comes to (what in my head are labelled as) the standard GERD - "avoidance" tactics like raising the head of the bed , or Prilosec, or whatever (....rather than finding and treating the root cause of the GERD).

I had been able to successfully avoid reflux for a long time through good diet and low(er) weight, but I've gained ~10 pounds since last year and in that time it's gotten worse. I just keeping thinking to myself "if only i lose some more weight and watch my diet" then I can avoid raising the head of the bed and the meds. That to me is about finding the root cause of the GERD, rather than trying to trick it or avoid it.

I know that's not what it is, but that's how I think about it. Feel free to convince me otherwise!

Kathy, sorry to hear about the chronic inflammation in your lungs. Is that also from smoking, or something else?

LSAT wrote:Right side is bad if you are refluxing. If you look at a diagram of your anatomy, you will see that the esophagus enters the stomach on the right. If you lay on your right side, acid from the stomach can leak into the esophagus. If you lay on your lefty side, any acid in the esophagus drains into the stomach...where it belongs. Often the problem lies with the valve that separates the esophagus and the stomach.

Thanks for that info LSAT! I'm actually a right-side sleeper for the most part, I'll have to try sleeping on the other side instead.

CorgiGirl wrote:Echo, I know that my GERD exacerbates my asthma, so I'd guess it could cause problems farther down in your lungs, if it gets that far. I'm taking Prevacid every day to control my stomach acid and doing very well. After your endoscopy, will you be taking a prescription proton pump inhibitor like Prevacid?

GERD, what a pain in the chest I wish we all had gills instead of lungs. I don't know what they will give me after the endoscopy, but yes I assume something like Prevacid or Prilosec. The GP said the meds were in the $100++ category per month! Yikes. I think I prefer the diet + weight loss route.

mindy wrote:Week before last I got some kind of bug (cold, cough) and fever started going up. Saw doc who said my lungs sounded bad. He said if I didn't have bacterial pneumonia yet that with my messy lungs I would probably have it soon and put me on antibiotics. Apparently once you have had it, you're more likely to get it again.

Mindy, I hope you're still feeling OK and didn't end up with pneumonia yourself! That last bit of info is not so nice... I wonder if having pneumonia once actually causes permanent damage to the lungs (I thought I read that somewhere)? As for the cleaning, ya gotta do what ya gotta do Just be careful that overdisinfection could reduce the life-time of the plastic/silicone, but maybe the Control is not so harsh??

needingu wrote:Just a tidbit of an idea. To raise the head of your bed.....<snip>.

Thanks for the tidbit of an idea If / when I get over my psychological block over the bed thing, this is a nice bed-hack.

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but i did have some good information, i have walking pneumonia and was also unsure of using my CPAP (and Im a respiratory therapist even lol)

The AARC (American Association for Respiratory Care) has published a Clinical Practice Guideline on using positive airway pressure adjunction to bronchial hygiene theraoy, which includes CPAP. It indicates that CPAP is good for secretion mobilization. I dont know if you will have access to the entire CPG (http://www.rcjournal.com/cpgs/papcpg.html so below are some exerpts from it.

PAP 4.0 INDICATIONS:

4.1To reduce air trapping in asthma and COPD(16,29-31)
4.2To aid in mobilization of retained secretions (in cystic fibrosis and chronic bronchitis)(14,15,17-24,32,33)
4.3To prevent or reverse atelectasis(6-13,34-36)
4.4To optimize delivery of bronchodilators in patients receiving bronchial hygiene therapy(37,38)

PAP 5.0 CONTRAINDICATIONS:

Although no absolute contraindications to the use of PEP, CPAP, or EPAP mask therapy have been reported,4,39 the following should be carefully evaluated before a decision is made to initiate PAP mask therapy.
5.1 Patients unable to tolerate the increased work of breathing (acute asthma, COPD)
5.2 Intracranial pressure (ICP) > 20 mm Hg
5.3 Hemodynamic instability(4)
5.4Recent facial, oral, or skull surgery or trauma4
5.5 Acute sinusitis(39)
5.6 Epistaxis
5.7 Esophageal surgery
5.8Active hemoptysis(39)
5.9 Nausea
5.10 Known or suspected tympanic membrane rupture or other middle ear pathology
5.11 Untreated pneumothorax

PAP 6.0 HAZARDS/COMPLICATIONS:

6.1 Increased work of breathing(4) that may lead to hypoventilation and hypercarbia
6.2 Increased intracranial pressure
6.3 Cardiovascular compromise
6.3.1 myocardial ischemia
6.3.2 decreased venous return(4)
6.4 Air swallowing,(4) with increased likelihood of vomiting and aspiration
6.5 Claustrophobia(4)
6.6 Skin break down and discomfort from mask(4)
6.7 Pulmonary barotrauma(4)

PAP 8.0 ASSESSMENT OF NEED:

The following should be assessed together to establish a need for PAP therapy:
8.1 Sputum retention not responsive to spontaneous or directed coughing
8.2 History of pulmonary problems treated successfully with postural drainage therapy
8.3 Decreased breath sounds or adventitious sounds suggesting secretions in the airway
8.4 Change in vital signs-increase in breathing frequency, tachycardia
8.5 Abnormal chest radiograph consistent with atelectasis, mucus plugging, or infiltrates
8.6 Deterioration in arterial blood gas values or oxygen saturation

Hi, that's a very interesting list you've posted, but it worries me because I think that without more information, many people who depend on the internet for help with Cpap and other problems can easily misinterpret items, then decide that because e.g. they have (possibly self diagnosed on top of it!) sinus issues, or 'nausea' (from what, when, etc. etc.) that they should never use Cpap, which could be the life saving treatment they need. If all of us here who'd ever had sinus trouble, never mind nausea, stopped using our Cpaps, the neuro and cardiac wards would fill up quite quickly with many of us having strokes and/or MI's.

I also think that the list needs further elucidation in terms of who it was meant to apply to, e.g. patients already in hospital with possibly very serious conditions that may not be apnea related, but which need coordinating by professionals, or e.g. patients being cared for at home but who are not mentally competent to help monitor or understand their conditions, etc. etc.

I do realize that much of the list was likely written more specifically to address other respiratory issues, more likely for inpatients, but it's not all that clear. And saying that ischemia is a 'hazard' or complication is just plain silly I think, because I think possibly a majority of people these days have some level of ischemia, however low, and if we all did not use Cpap because of it, the likelihood of our demise would go up a lot faster!

I think that the list may have been written years ago for a certain number of patients under certain circumstances, likely before a lot of things were as well understood about OSA/Cpap as today, or else just not well written to begin with, and I would not want people (here) who are tentative about going on Cpap to begin with, to decide that they shouldn't based on something or other on that list.

Hope you feel better soon.

I tried cpap for a month and found it to be unacceptable. While on the cpap, I caught a "cold" which stayed with me for months until it was diagnosed as pneumonia. Did the cpap contribute to my catching pneumonia?

nyandjim wrote:I tried cpap for a month and found it to be unacceptable. While on the cpap, I caught a "cold" which stayed with me for months until it was diagnosed as pneumonia. Did the cpap contribute to my catching pneumonia?

No.
Do you know what fragmented sleep and suboptimal oxygenation do to your body? I find that far more unacceptable than anything related to CPAP.