Cpap and swollen uvula

[plumtuckered]

Anyone ever have this problem? The past couple of mornings I have been awakened by a choking feeling. I felt like I had a big lump in my throat. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed my uvula was much longer and touched my tongue when standing or the back of my throat when lying down. No pain, so I don't think it is an infection.

I just switched to a Resmed Activa nasal mask and I wonder if this has anything to do with it Seems to leak much less than the Quattro full face mask.

Any advice or remedies?

Mike

[Slinky]

I'm taking a guess - you need more humidity.

[harry33]

yes, a hunmidifier seems to be needed if you dont have one or increase it if you have

[plumtuckered]

Thanks, I will try increasing humidity.

[tvopdx]

swollen uvula was one of my first symptoms of sleep apnea. i'd wake up choking on the dang thing. so my guess isn't humidity, it's pressure. that being said, soreness may not be a reliable indicator of infection. seems like there are two threads to follow up on, pressure and infection.

changing mask seems likely to change pressure in your airway - though less leaky should imply increased pressure - you could be missing something; and

do a diluted peroxide gargle (or get a throat swab and determine if it's an infection or not).

[roster]

Anyone ever have this problem? The past couple of mornings I have been awakened by a choking feeling. I felt like I had a big lump in my throat. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed my uvula was much longer and touched my tongue when standing or the back of my throat when lying down. No pain, so I don't think it is an infection.

I just switched to a Resmed Activa nasal mask and I wonder if this has anything to do with it Seems to leak much less than the Quattro full face mask.

Any advice or remedies?

Mike

So you switch from a full face mask to a nasal mask.

Full face masks are used when the patient is sometimes breathing through the mouth or leaking air out of the mouth. The full face mask allows the pressure to be maintained while air is passing into or out of the mouth.

If you do mouthbreathe/leak, you should not have switched to a nasal mask. With a nasal mask the pressure can escape through the mouth and without the pressure you could be having apneas again. The other problem is the air escaping through the mouth can dry out the mouth, the throat, and maybe the uvula. The humidifiers are designed to keep the nasal passages moist but they will not keep the throat and mouth moist if you are doing much mouthbreathing/leaking with a nasal mask.

[plumtuckered]

My Dr suggested trying a nasal mask since I was having so many leaks with the Quattro. My DME wants me to try that new full face mask that just came out, but he had to order one. I am also waiting on a new S8 Elite II so I will have data capability. My DME said Resmed was phasing out the S8 series for the S9 series, so inventories were limited. I asked if I should wait for a new S9 and was told that the main differences were cosmetic - looks less like a piece of medical equipment.

Mike

[pitrow]

before I started cpap I often had problems with a swollen uvula. Same as you it felt like something stuck in my throat, and I'd often gag on it, or try to cough it up. I haven't had an episode of it since starting cpap, but that's only but that's only been three weeks.

Anyway, in the short term I've found that a large dose of advil (three or four gelcaps) usually takes care of the swelling in pretty short order. Then again I'm a big guy so a smaller dose might work just as effective on a normal size person. I have yet to find what causes mine, but the one time I mentioned it to my ENT specialist while doing follow ups for sinus surgery he said it looked like it was irritated due to acid reflux (which I also have). To me it always seemed like it happened more when my nose was draining down the back of my throat, so I thought that maybe the excess mucus was irritating it, which is why I brought it up to my ENT. The other seeming cause that I have found is that it seemed (before cpap) to happen more on nights where my partner/roommates/neighbors (lol) would say I was snoring more aggressively. So maybe the extra vibrations caused irritation?

So, in all I'm not sure of what the exact cause is, but there's my story. Maybe something there will trigger a cause for you.

In your case I wonder if maybe you're mouth breathing with the new mask and that's causing irritation?

[jdm2857]

At my first (and only) visit, my sleep doc told my my uvula was red and swollen due to being banged around all night from my snoring. She was sure that it would improve when CPAP eliminated those snores.

[Treehorn]

Swollen uvula was one of my biggest problems for years. For me there was a direct correlation with snoring. The harder I snored (due to alcohol or exhaustion) the worse it was.

Eventually I signed up for laser but was so freaked out by the burning flesh of the first treatment, I never went back for #2 & #3.

I am guessing that you are snoring or at least mouth breathing. Like others said if your mouth breathing and moved to a nasal mask, you are likely going to have a problem.

[spacetoast]

Swollen uvula was one of my biggest problems for years. For me there was a direct correlation with snoring. The harder I snored (due to alcohol or exhaustion) the worse it was.

Same for me. I haven't had an episode of Uvularis Gigantaris Annoyingashellitis since going on xpap. But it's only been about 3 weeks for me too.

[plumtuckered]

Found something that helps on another forum I found by Googling uvulitis. Tumeric with honey. Tried it last night and it really seemed to help!

Mike