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Waking Up Breathing Against The Machine
#11
RE: Waking Up Breathing Against The Machine
Just to reassure - the air blowing out of your mouth is just a matter of getting used to it. The first week I used mine, same thing - "look hun! I can whistle for an hour!" - but it's just getting used to letting your tongue and throat keep your esophagus closed. I actually tried to let air blow out my mouth the other day, and it was more effort to consciously do so, then it ever was to keep it from happening. Took me actually about 5 minutes to figure it out.
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#12
RE: Waking Up Breathing Against The Machine
(05-13-2012, 03:01 PM)xroad Wrote: The pressure peaked at 15 after having dropped to 4.5 or so a number of times and that is probably where air backed out through my mouth. I narrowed the range for tonight to 7 -15 given that my average for the four nights is around 6. I have also learned that my apnea is mild, given the data so I will have to think about other causes for my lack of good sleep.

You can't conclude that your apnea is mild. When your mouth opens the machine isn't capable of measuring your apneas, so you can't use the machine's data to draw any concusions about the number of apneas you're actually experiencing. When you wake up with air hissing out your mouth, it's likely that you just had an apnea and that's what woke you up.

You shouldn't have made that particular change to your pressure settings. Lowering the upper end of the range might help, but raising the lower end of the range makes no sense.

Hopefully the use of the chin strap will train you to keep your mouth closed. Practice tucking your tongue behind your upper teeth, tight to the roof of your mouth.

With time hopefully the mouth-breathing will subside. If not, you may need a full face mask.

Have you contacted your doctor and your DME. If you call the doctor's office and report a problem with the therapy they've prescribed for you they must do something other than make you wait.
Sleepster

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#13
RE: Waking Up Breathing Against The Machine
Thanks for all the help. I had a much better night with a more narrow range. Now that I have learned that the severity of apnea and the amount of pressure aren't necessarily related I see things differently. I raised the minimum to 7 to stop the oscillations that started with a drop to 4 and shot to 15-16 then back to 4 for a number of cycles and may have caused the mouth breathing. I know that the minimum number is going to have to go down to be correct but I think it will have to be gradually and the upper is going to have to come down a lot more. With a narrower range there should not be the oscillation problem. As to apneas, the 0.1 rate is probably deceptive on two counts. First, the few registering are all central not obstructive and second I must be having them given the sleep problems and the diagnosis but they may be short enough duration to cause problems without being counted and also they were probably associated with the mouth breathing and so not counted. I did not experience any air loss through my mouth that I was aware of so things are better all around. The leak rate appears to be infrequent and low when it does show. I am going to leave things alone for another night or two then start to slowly and gradually narrow and lower the range some more. Also, I tried the EPR feature and felt more comfortable. Does anyone have advice on its specific action or settings? I tried it on "Patient".

I did not want to go off topic with my wife's health but only meant that my sleep issues were from several sources. In brief, she is a certifiable miracle. No one who has researched or is familiar with the topic knows of anyone who has survived gall bladder cancer that spread to the liver. Most of one liver lobe and part of the other were cancerous when it was discovered in October. At present her blood chemistry has the signature of a pinhead sized tumor. The radiologist's findings from Thursday's MRI stated that one lobe of her liver is completely clear and the tumor in the other lobe has shrunk almost 50% and appears to be almost completely dead. She goes in for surgery to remove the tumor next Monday. This has come about from a large network of friends and family that have put out a tremendous prayer effort on her behalf that has been answered.
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