RE: Not Getting Enough Air
(12-07-2021, 07:41 PM)ThisIsNotHowIAm Wrote: I may be experiencing this with the f30i as well, I wake up every night after about 20 min with a sharp inhale, I suspect from CO2 build up. I tried upping the pressure but get aerophagia. Have you found any masks that may have a smaller co2 buildup?
I've been on this journey. I've found that my problem in this area is there's either CO2 build-up (and thus awful symptoms for me) or there's too much breeze coming from my mask which wakes me up throughout the night (with thus not restful sleep). So I've done a lot of experimentation.
Masks that cause me to get the CO2 build-up symptoms are: F30 & F20 (with the "quiet elbow"), Brevida (with the diffuser), and P10. (That's not conclusive. But it's off the top of my head, of the masks I've tried.)
I can get rid of the CO2 build-up symptoms for the F30 & F20 by using the older not-quiet elbow (which vents a lot more air); with the Brevida if I remove the diffuser; and with P10 if I poke a bunch of small holes in the diffusing mesh with a safety pin.
I've tried ~10 different masks over the last few years, and I always come back to P10. So I poke about 8 holes on each side of the diffuser mesh (left & right), and it diffuses enough air to not give me the symptoms but still keeps my apnea controlled.
I believe the reason I experience this and many others don't is perhaps because I have a weak exhale. Unfortunately I can't use the EPR (exhale relief) because the constant pressure fluctuation throughout the night messes with my ears in a major way.
RE: Not Getting Enough Air
I agree with SevereApnea.
My sleep "doctor" prescribed me a pressure of 5, because during my sleep study I had the least number of apneas at that pressure. Nevermind the fact that I hardly slept during the sleep study, didn't sleep many hours, and they only trialed a couple of pressures.
I responded GREAT to CPAP therapy from day 1 (straight pressure of 5). But after a few weeks, I was having the air hunger symptoms mentioned above. At my 30 day check-up with my sleep "doctor", I mentioned this to my sleep "doctor" and told him I was struggling majorly and wondered if we could up the pressure or try an auto-adjusting machine (as I had learned from this board that those were the 2 logical solutions for my problem), and he refused. So I gave him back my rental machine (he was also the DME - talk about double-dipping), found a DME who provided me an APAP (instead of a straight CPAP), I dialed in my own pressures (higher than 5) once I got home, and I've been alone (and successful) ever since!
So I would encourage you to try a higher pressure, and see if that helps. I ended up on 7 for quite a while, and it was enormously better - no more air hunger.
RE: Not Getting Enough Air
(12-09-2021, 01:45 AM)Hydrangea Wrote: I've been on this journey. I've found that my problem in this area is there's either CO2 build-up (and thus awful symptoms for me) or there's too much breeze coming from my mask which wakes me up throughout the night (with thus not restful sleep). So I've done a lot of experimentation.
Masks that cause me to get the CO2 build-up symptoms are: F30 & F20 (with the "quiet elbow"), Brevida (with the diffuser), and P10. (That's not conclusive. But it's off the top of my head, of the masks I've tried.)
I believe the reason I experience this and many others don't is perhaps because I have a weak exhale. Unfortunately I can't use the EPR (exhale relief) because the constant pressure fluctuation throughout the night messes with my ears in a major way.
Thanks for the reply! Some of the points you made definitely resonated with me, I am using a f30i with the elbow connector on top, and I also have a weak exhale which I believe it's contributing to the possible CO2 buildup. If you don't mind, could you see if these OSCAR screenshots look like what you were experiencing? I feel like at an EPAP of 6 I have this sharp inhale right at about 20min like clockwork. I'll try upping the pressure to see if that clears out more CO2 but as you said the turbulence of the air can also prevent me from sleeping.
broken link because I can't yet post links
apneaboard[.]com/forums/Thread-OSCAR-Data-Random-spike-in-flow-rate
