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+--- Thread: (Another Newbie) Mask Humidity (/Thread-Another-Newbie-Mask-Humidity)
(Another Newbie) Mask Humidity - janeaverage - 07-18-2016
So hi everybody! I am a week in and things are going real well; AHI is already down in the "treated" range and I kind of feel like I have no room to complain, but... gosh my mask gets hot and humid.
I do wear a full-face mask now, which is an improvement – the nasal mask woke me up 2-3 times per hour with that "suffocating" feeling and my AHI was still close to 20. I've reduced the humidity from 3 to 1 (0 wakes me up with a parched throat) and turned the heated tubing off. It still gets to a point (after anywhere between 1 and 3 hours) where it gets swampy enough to wake me. I see a lot of posts talking about suffocating/drowning feelings; I guess it could be described that way, but I got sent off to camp a lot as a kid and it reminds me of trying to breathe in a sweat lodge.
I've gotten to the point where I'm aware enough, when it wakes me up, to pull the mask up and let the air clear a little, press the ramp button, and (try) to go back to sleep, so that's great. But I'm wondering if there's something I can do to avoid it altogether? I got the nifty iPhone app to go with my machine, and it has a slew of videos for troubleshooting and how-tos, but nothing seems to address discomfort in quite that way, which makes me feel like I'm doing something enormously stupid and wrong. Any ideas?
Thanks so much!
Jane
RE: (Another Newbie) Mask Humidity - chill - 07-18-2016
Welcome to the Apnea Board, Jane.
Some like the humidity and some do not. You can turn off the humidifier entirely and just use what is termed "passover humidification" (the air passes over the unheated water). People have been known to do this and fill the tank with ice! Or you can disconnect the humidifier entirely if that is better for you. The humidifier is there for your comfort, not for your therapy. And is it not very comfortable for you is it?
RE: (Another Newbie) Mask Humidity - trish6hundred - 07-18-2016
Hi janeaverage,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck to you with your CPAP therapy, hang in there for more responses to your post.
RE: (Another Newbie) Mask Humidity - PoolQ - 07-18-2016
One thing I noticed when learning CPAP is that I had trouble connecting what I was feeling with what CPAP "thing" could be causing that, humidity was a big issue for me.
We are pressurizing our air way, that used to mean congestion. SO I always felt congested.
I thought I liked humidity and then not, tried passive (no heat at all, humidity turned off) then I put ice cubes in the tank with some water. kind of liked that for a while
If my starting pressure was too low I felt suffocated, mine has to be above 5.8 and yes you can be that sensitive.
I love ramp and still use it, just with a slightly higher starting pressure.
you have flex settings that provide a different machine response to your breathing, try the different ones and see what you like
If you change one setting you may need to readjust another that worked before, but not so much now.
This is a alien sitting on your face blowing air up your nose, it is not "natural" and like nothing before. Adjust bot the machine and get adjusted to it. wear it while watching TV if you need to.
A journal that tracks your settings and how you felt in the morning might help, so many things to adjust that I ended up forgetting what was what
RE: (Another Newbie) Mask Humidity - JudgeMental - 09-11-2016
I think this time of year with the (hot, muggy) summer that you have had in " Ball-a-mer" , that perhaps just a low bottom range (1-2) of humidification is all that you may need, if any. Maybe you bedroom temp is a bit high also.