Suddenly I couldn't breathe last night!

I've had sleep apnea for a number of years, and I've been using a Resmed S9 Autoset for nearly a year. (I use a Swift LT mask.) Everything has been fine until last night.

Suddenly, for no reason that I can figure out, I woke up at 1:30 and was barely able to breathe. Suddenly I wasn't getting enough air. Only when I turned the machine off and removed the mask did I feel better and was able to breathe again. After a while I put the mask back on, turned the machine back on and went to sleep again, but the same thing happened again at about 3:30.

As I said, until last night everything has been fine.

Any thoughts, and any suggestions, will be very much appreciated.

Addendum: I don't know if it's relevant, but I also use a Climateline hose. And I change mask, hose and filter every 3 months.

Can you post a print-out from last night?

Sorry; I don't know how to do that. Do you possibly have any suggestions of what may be happening without a printout? Thanks!

There is software available to get the print out of reports.
This would help someone give you an idea what might be happening.
Without more details other than your feelings if is extremely difficult to come up with any meaningful ideas.

Harold1111 wrote:Sorry; I don't know how to do that. Do you possibly have any suggestions of what may be happening without a printout? Thanks!

Without a print out we can't tell if it is the result of an un treated apnea or just some anxiety attack you got during your sleep. Many people experience some form of emotional reaction to wearing a thing on their face that make them think they can't breathe when actually even if the power went off you can still breathe quite well.

(1) Would that be ResScan? If so, how can I get it?

(2) In any case, I'll reformulate my question because I have to decide what to do tonight: Has anyone here ever had an experience that was similar to mine, where your machine seemed to choke you after running fine for months?

All replies will be very much appreciated.

Many thanks.

I have not experienced this, but are you sure the machine is blowing the air like it's supposed to? I would want to rule out machine malfunction.

It could be your pressures could need to be different, but I am a relative newbie here and others have already asked about data and graphs.

Good luck tonight!
Jill

Harold1111 wrote:(1) Would that be ResScan? If so, how can I get it?

(2) In any case, I'll reformulate my question because I have to decide what to do tonight: Has anyone here ever had an experience that was similar to mine, where your machine seemed to choke you after running fine for months?

All replies will be very much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Honestly, it doesn't matter what anyone else has experienced, it only matters what the problem is and what you can do about it.


If you put on your mask and hook up the machine/hose to it, but don't turn on the machine, do you feel like you can still breathe?

If yes, are you running your machine in auto mode?

If yes, then I would guess that what is happening is that the pressure is going up higher than you have experienced before. It make take a bit of work to learn how to breathe with higher pressures. Try this experiment: hold a hair drying blowing on high fan at cool temperature close to your face, and try to breathe. You may find it difficult at first, but if you just relax, it will start to be easier. That will give you a sense of what may be happening.

I vote for anxiety as the cause. Not sure what the cure is, but when it happens, I would first check the mask vent to make sure air is flowing, and if the vent is putting out air harder than usual, I would turn the machine off and back on. I also suggest you make sure you sleep on your side, in case you have positional issues--many people need higher pressures on their backs, and you could be causing the machine to ramp up the pressure if you are on your back. If all else fails, and if my conjecture is right, you can try lowering the top pressure level to something bearable, then as you get used to higher pressures, start to raise it a a few notches at a time.

BlackSpinner wrote:

Harold1111 wrote:Many people experience some form of emotional reaction to wearing a thing on their face that make them think they can't breathe when actually even if the power went off you can still breathe quite well.

As I tried to make clear in my original post, I've been using CPAP machines for years without ever having an emotional reaction such as you describe.

My question to all the helpful members of this forum really comes down to this: Has anyone ever had an experience of the sort that I described, where -- after using CPAP machines successfully for a long time -- you suddenly felt that you couldn't get a full breath of air while on the machine?

Thank you again!

Harold1111 wrote:My question to all the helpful members of this forum really comes down to this: Has anyone ever had an experience of the sort that I described, where -- after using CPAP machines successfully for a long time -- you suddenly felt that you couldn't get a full breath of air while on the machine?

Why don't you do a poll? You might get a better answer to this question. I suggest you start a new thread for it.

The next time you hook up to the machine, open your mouth and let some air flow through. Hold your hand in front of your mouth and get a feel for how much air flows through.

Then, if you get a "no air" experience, if you can keep your wits about you, do the same thing and see if you are getting the usual good amount of air flow. This should give you some idea whether you have the machine not working for some reason.

Also, don't forget you can open your mouth and breathe somewhat normally for a few seconds if, for some reason, you aren't getting enough air through your mask. This may help you stay calm long enough to figure out what is wrong. With a little practice, you can even "shut off" your nose breathing and breathe entirely through your mouth for a while, just like you do if you try to talk or drink water while CPAPing.

When you get a "suffocation" attack, look over and see what the pressure reading is on your machine.

By the way, please register on the board and fill in the equipment listing on your profile so people can help you better.

I want to thank everyone who posted suggestions for me today, especially LoQ and archangle for their many ideas.

I'll follow as many of the suggestions as I can tonight, and let you know tomorrow.

Many thanks again.

Harold1111

As I tried to make clear in my original post, I've been using CPAP machines for years without ever having an emotional reaction such as you describe.

My question to all the helpful members of this forum really comes down to this: Has anyone ever had an experience of the sort that I described, where -- after using CPAP machines successfully for a long time -- you suddenly felt that you couldn't get a full breath of air while on the machine?
Thank you again!

Harold:

I had the experience with my Respironics equipment of the power going off because the power plug disconnected from the machine. In reviewing the data later together with the time I woke up with the power off, I calculated that I was breathing through the mask with no machine ventilation for about 90 minutes. I woke up because it was hard to breath but I didn't feel like I was choking.


A long lead in to suggesting an experiment: Turn off your machine, put on the mask and see if the effort is similar to that which you experienced. If it is, but the power to the machine when you experienced the difficulty was on and the machine seemed to be running, then it may be that you experienced a malfunction that intermittantly cause the air flow to stop or become greatly restricted. If, on the other hand, you can breathe reasonably well with the mask on, mchine off, then its probably something else.

It would be helpful if you could click on the user control panel (upper left) and select the list of equipment that you have. I prefer selecting TEXT mode for display 'cause I don't know on sight all the various models out there.

If you can get a copy of the reporting software for your machine, then you can look at what the machine is recording at the time you are having one of the episodes. My first machine had episodes of detecting snoring ( erroneously ) and jacking up the pressure to IPAP max and keeping it there. My normal EPAP/IPAP was 9/11 but the machine jacked that up to 23/25. Breathing under those conditions was extremely difficult and I had to turn it off and back on. After a couple of more incidents, I replaced the machine.

Update:

I increased my maximum pressure slightly (from 16.0 to 16.6), and the suffocating experience wasn't repeated last night.

I've also been able to arrange my next sleep test for tomorrow night, so I hope to get an even better idea of what's happening.

I'll register officially here when I get a chance. But in the meantime, my deepest thanks again for all who made various helpful suggestions!