Questions about heated hoses and dealing with congestion+PAP

[robysue]

The new sleep doctor has suggested that I consider switching to a heated hose. (Not sure why, but nonetheless, that's one of the things she suggested.)

I use a PR System One BiPAP Auto.

Question 1: What heated hoses are out there that will work with my machine? I presume that if I do get one, it will have to be plugged in directly to a power outlet/extension cord or power strip.

Question 2: Is there any heated hose out there that can safely be wrapped in a hose cozy? I absolutely abhor the plasticy feel of the hoses touching me when I'm trying to get to sleep. I use the hose cozy as much as anything in order to make the whole xPAP mess feel less medical and less like a hospital.

UPDATE: This thread has wandered into questions about how to effectively eliminate my not overly severe, but constant nasal and sinus congestion that is adversely affecting my sleep with xPAP in ways that it never did affect my sleep before xPAP.
Thanks

[nanwilson]

Robysue
I have a fleece hose cover on my F&P heated hose ...I hate the plasticy feeling too, I also hate the mask directly on my face so have Padacheeks liners on all 4 masks picky picky me .

[archangle]

I don't think PRS1 machines do heated hoses yet, but it's supposed to be coming soon.

I think the only reason for a heated hose is to prevent rainout.

[Sheriff Buford]

Arch is right.... the only reason for a heated hose is to prevent rainout (the water will condense while traveling through the hose and end up in your mask - or your water reservoir level is too high and some water is being carried up through the hose). Either way, if rainout is not an issue, then stay with the standard hose. Less "bells and whistles" means less problems down the road.

Sheriff

[scrapper]

RobySue.........

I use the Aussie heated hose with a fleece cover, and love it.........mine is plugged into a timer so it goes on and off everyday consistently. On weekends I sometimes override the timer........but appreciate knowing that I won't forget one more thing to turn off. Even with plugging everything into a strip, I sometimes forgot to turn it off.........

The heated air is comfortable without being too warm, even when the humidifer is in passover mode. It's definitely a comfort feature I enjoy..........

[robysue]

scrapper,

Can you send me a link to that Aussie Hose? If I decide to get one, I may need to educate the DME---and my new sleep doc since her office called today saying "we didn't realize, but your machine doesn't have a heated hose. So don't worry about it."

My problem is this: The doc has suggested the heated hose as a way of potentially helping reduce the nighttime congestion from my seasonal allergies. During the winter I had the humidifier set to 2 or 3 most of the time since lowering the humidifier to 1 or raising it to 4 both would trigger nasal congestion problems. But as spring came on with warmer and more humid weather, I found that I had to keep turning the humidifier down for two reasons: First at a setting of even 1, it triggers a small bit of highly irritating rainout on humid nights---regardless of whether the night is (HOT and humid) or (COOL and humid). The rainout is in the pillows barrel and seems to be from my exhalations rather than condensation in the hose. Second, on those humid nights, when I do set the humidifier set to 1 or 2, I feel like I'm breathing swamp air and that makes me very uncomfortable. But increasing the humidity setting does NOT increase my congestion at all, and may in fact reduce it. (It's hard to say for sure since "swamp air" makes me turn the humidifier back down before the higher humidity setting has much time to affect the congestion.)

So I think the doc's idea is that since I'm currently using the humidifier at a setting of 0 (most of the time) and 1 (some of the time) and having congestion problems, that upping the humidifier slightly to 2 might help the nose and sinuses feel better. But upping the humidifier right now makes me feel like I'm sleeping in a swamp and triggers rainout. And I think she believes that having a heated hose might make increasing the humidifier up to 2 a bit more comfortable for me in terms of both reducing the swamp sensation and the irritating rainout. And it is quite clear from my data, that nights where I'm feeling significant congestion often have relatively bad AHIs (above 3) or bad insomnia (both bedtime and sleep maintenance) or both. So reducing the congestion is a priority for helping me to subjectively sleep better and hence feel better in the daytime.

Now the last two nights have been sufficiently warm (and terribly humid) outside that our cranky old AC unit was willing to run all night with our inside thermostat set at 70 degrees. So the house was both cooled and dehumidified all night long. And so I was able to turn the humidifier up to 2 for part of the night and be reasonably comfortable in terms of "swamp air". The rainout problem was also much more minor with the AC on than it had been without the AC.

First night's results were: Nose was a bit more clogged at humidifer = 2, but clogged at both settings (0 and 2).

Second night's results were: Nose felt essentially clear at humidifier = 2, and somewhat clogged at humidifier = 0.

AHI's on both nights were roughly the same (i.e. less than 2), but insomnia was a much bigger problem on Night 1 than Night 2.

So an "obvious" solution to my problem would be to simply run the AC more frequently (or all the time). And I don't mind running the old, inefficient AC when its both HOT and HUMID. But here in Buffalo, we have plenty of summer nights with 80% relative humidity and outside air temps in the low-to-mid 60s and with the inside air temp in the low-to-mid 70s at bedtime. (It's a brick house that bakes in the afternoon sun and is very slow to cool down). Once that outside temp falls below about 65, our rather decrepit AC unit's compressor refuses to come on. Which in turn makes the house on the warm and humid side all night long with or without the AC; in other words, with or without the AC, the air in the house is "heavy" and "stifling" on these nights. So would having a heated hose make any sense at all under these circumstances?

And, yeah, I know the real solution is: Get a new AC unit. It is unfortunately and reluctantly on my wish list and hubby promises me he'll look into it. (Money is tight.) We'll likely call it my birthday present and my anniversary present. It's not what I would really like, but alas, it's what I need. And it will be added to other such exciting gifts he's given me in the past such as the Water Heater and the Garbage Disposal

[chunkyfrog]

weird bit of trivia:
My BCBSNE covered the heated hose, but NOT the washable tank!
FYI for anyone considering them as an insurer. . .

[scrapper]

http://www.sleepzone.com.au/showitems.a ... PAP%20Tube

This is the url for Sleep Zone in Australian--makers of the Aussie heated hose that many of us on this board use. I received excellent customer service from the company--only had to call the credit card to authorize the Australian charge.

I also know that members here have made their own with a reptile heating coil wrapped around a hose.

[robysue]

Thanks scrapper! It's greatly appreciated.

[Uncle_Bob]

Question 2: Is there any heated hose out there that can safely be wrapped in a hose cozy?
Thanks

Yes, i ran one of these between my hose cozy and the plastic tubing when i was using the old resmed S8.

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Repti-Hea ... 868&sr=8-1

Just had to remember to plug it in and unplug or use it on a timer.

Its cheap and it worked for me.

[GumbyCT]

Condensation in the pillow barrels is not likely to be solved by a heated hose. I know this time of year I feel like I get heated from the "inside" after a couple hours with just the heat on the humidifier. I'm looking for a cooling plate now

But look here for an Aussie hose - https://www.cpapusa.com/search.html?Sea ... hGo=Search

If I had nasal congestion, I would take 1 Claratin tab before bed to solve that problem. I use the generic Loratadine from Walmart.

[sol]

It might work out cheaper from cpapusa with exchange rate and the added shipping costs .

http://www.cpapusa.com/search/Heated-Ho ... T2289.html

[robysue]

If I had nasal congestion, I would take 1 Claratin tab before bed to solve that problem. I use the generic Loratadine from Walmart.

Claritin does absolutely nothing for me. Allegra works "sort of". Zyrtec works, but at the full OTC dose every single day, I was having problems with dry mouth and a bad taste in my mouth. At the suggestion of the neurologist's PA, I'm cutting the Zyrtecs in half. That fixes the dry mouth and maybe the bad taste, but doesn't seem to work any better than the Allegra.

And I'm doing sinus rinses and using saline nasal spray daily. The sleep doc has also given me a prescription for Flonase, which I'll start tonight to see if that will help. And at our meeting, the new sleep doc confirmed that there is some swelling and inflammation in the back of my throat due to allergies right now. Those of you who have been following my story may recall that my chronic low-grade system-wide inflammation symptoms had disappeared almost entirely by last February and that was the first and most notable positive change in how I have felt while on xPAP. So having this inflammation come back has made me a very unhappy trooper. And it has come back: In addition to the nasal and sinus congestion, the arthritis-type pain in my joints (particular my hands and feet), which had disappeared completely in February, is back and seems to be growing.

But the big thing that's bugging me is that in the past I never really worried too much about my seasonal allergies. Yeah, I'm stuffy pretty much from the time the trees start to pollinate in the spring until the first killer frost. But on most days, it's just some congestion, a bit of a mild headache, and occasional sneezing fits---stuff I've been living with for as long as I can remember. Pre-CPAP, I could sleep most nights without taking anything. And so pre-CPAP I'd take OTC antihistamines on a strictly as needed basis: Can't breathe today? Take a zyrtec or a benadryl. Sneezing fit? Take something. Can't sleep tonight because of the nose being clogged? Take a benadryl. But I seldom ever needed to take anything for more than 3 or 4 days at a time.

But now? With Kaa, I'm finding that I pretty much have to have a zero-tolerance policy towards my congestion: On nights where I am congested in spite of having taken the zyrtec or allegra and doing the daily sinus rinse, I find it more difficult to get to sleep or stay asleep with Kaa on if I've got even the tiniest bit of congestion; the pressure levels are likely to be higher (hence the aerophagia kicks in); and/or my AHIs hit the 3+ range. In other words, my old "normal" summertime congestion that was tolerable without meds pre-CPAP is no longer tolerable at night because I just can't stand congestion with Kaa: It leaves me feeling even less rested and more lousy in the morning that I normally feel. And unfortunately the three or four main OTC antihistamines either don't work or start giving me rather intolerable side effects if I take them for more than 3 or 4 days at a time.

Re the nasal pillow condensation: I was pretty sure that a heated hose wouldn't help that much---unless it could somehow minimize the difference in temperature of the the air I'm exhaling and the already saturated, but cooler air coming into the tube from the machine. Because what seems to be happening now is that the room air is already pretty much saturated with moisture, and when the body-temperature moisture-filled air in my exhales hit that supersaturated 70 degree air in the tube, it condenses. Nights where the humidity is reasonable don't give me any problems with rainout---as long as I leave the humidifier set on passover. But that may not be giving me enough humidity. And I already have a pillow barrel cozy on the nasal pillows.

[jjed007]

I have a Resmed S9 Elite, I had problems with dry mouth and throat when I first got my machine. I also started having more sinus problems which for me was not normal. So I talked with my doctor and she suggested the heated hose which has been a live saver for me. The machine now monitors the temperature in the mask you wear. You can set the amount of humidity by trial and error until you reach a comfortable range mine was around 70% humidity. I have also heard the rainout theory which makes sense but I never had that problem so I can't vouch for that. I now wake up feeling normal no more dry mouth I love mine and would buy another one in a heart beat. Hope this helps

[GumbyCT]

Claritin does absolutely nothing for me. Allegra works "sort of". Zyrtec works, but at the full OTC dose every single day, I was having problems with dry mouth and a bad taste in my mouth. At the suggestion of the neurologist's PA, I'm cutting the Zyrtecs in half. That fixes the dry mouth and maybe the bad taste, but doesn't seem to work any better than the Allegra.

Could it be time to see an ENT?