Swollen lips with cpap

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bdrcm
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Swollen lips with cpap

Post by bdrcm » Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:27 am

I started using the cpap with full mask about 10 nights ago. I have no history of cold sores or any lip problems. My lips are swollen and covered in blisters/spots. I assume its do with the cpap. I assume if it was an allergy to the silicone, I would have redness or spots on my face. This is just on my lips. Has anyone else experienced this? My nose is permanently blocked so I really dont want to change to the nose mask but I cant continue as I am.

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Pugsy
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by Pugsy » Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:38 am

What pressure are you using? Is it possible the lips are reacting from dryness...sort of like wind burn without the wind?
Are you using a humidifier? If so at what setting?

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Ogeo
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by Ogeo » Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:51 am

I would say it is not from allergy. I believe if it was, you would have the blisters on all the area that the silicone touches, not just your mouth. I do not have reaction from the silicone they use for the maska I've tried but I have had a reaction from another source of silicone and my skin was blistered on the whole area that covered my skin. I use chapstick at night before I mask up and that helps my lips from getting dried out.

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OkyDoky
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by OkyDoky » Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:57 am

I also noticed a break out about a week after use but I have a history of cold sores. They rarely break out so I attributed it to the tx. I know that wind and sun will cause mine to break out. I was also having trouble with leaks and my N10 seemed to be venting a lot of air so I think this dried my lips out. Add on to that the stress of getting used to tx and dealing with an unresponsive DME to problems (which included irritation from the silicone on my nasal mask). Its no wonder they broke out. I used Abreva and they healed up. No more episodes in a couple of months.
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by chunkyfrog » Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:59 am

You say your nose is permanently blocked. Are you using the Oracle mouth mask?
You could still mouth breathe with a full face mask, and using a cloth mask liner could help with the skin sensitivity.

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bdrcm
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by bdrcm » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:15 am

Thanks for the replies folks. Im using a full face mask with the liners. Its a philips amara mask for the resperonic. Im using the humidifier at level 4. My min pressure was 4 and max was 13 but Im waking up every half hour so I increased the min pressure to 8. This has helped with the repeated waking. Last night, I covered the lips in a thick layer of vaseline. Prior to that, I was just putting on a thin layer of lip balm. The respiratory consultant put me on a steroid spray because the nose blocking is a long term constant problem. The suppliers of the cpap dont know the cause of it. If it continues I will have to change mask or go back to my consultant. Hopefully it settles because its very noticeable as it is.

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chunkyfrog
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by chunkyfrog » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:38 am

What is your humidity setting?
Too much or too little humidity can be irritating.
Have you considered a Sleepweaver Anew fabric mask?

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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by BlackSpinner » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:01 am

Cold sores (Herpes HSV1) are usually triggered by stress of some sort and the life style change of xpap therapy is bound to be somewhat stressful.
You can have the Herpes virus in your system for years before something triggers it to explode.

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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by chunkyfrog » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:03 am

Good point, BS. Good idea to ask doc for a round of valacyclovir to help with the herpes.

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Julie
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by Julie » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:27 am

You could well be allergic (all of a sudden) to the lip balm, OR to the silicone, or to some chem reaction between them... try things without the balm (or vaseline which can wreck the silicone) and see what happens.

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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by Starlette » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:53 am

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Newbie Welcome Wagon



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PS: Then my post will return back to the top of posts for other newbies to stop by for a treat.

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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by Tatooed Lady » Sun Nov 02, 2014 4:51 pm

redness and blistering on the inside or outside of your mouth? Do you wash your face at night and use some cream/lotion/etc that could be interacting? Are you drooling on yourself (don't laugh too hard, it's possible) while using the mask, and in this way causing sores from moisture? Do you have any facial hair that's being irritated from mask rubbing? (these questions assume the blisters/redness are on the outside of the mouth, of course)
Enquiring minds want to know. WE want to know. Or something like that.

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Julie
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Re: Swollen lips with cpap

Post by Julie » Sun Nov 02, 2014 5:35 pm

See a dermatologist, not a bunch of non-medical internet people... like us.

We can only guess at what's wrong and it may or may not have anything to do with Cpap.