Stuffy nose

Sleepy Bubba wrote:I just changed the setting..the ramp was at 5, not 4, so I bumped that up to 6 and moved humidity to 6 as well. Should I increase the hose temp now, or see if I get rainout.

And what do I do if I get rainout??

You don't have to immediately change temp, you can wait and see if you get any rainout first. If you do notice a gurgling sound in your hose then you'll have to increase the hose temp at that point. If you like the temp you have try increasing humidity first......I just like my hose warm because I hate cold air blowing in my face and of course there are those that like cooler air in the face.

As far as your question what to do if you actually get rainout.......its a bit of a pain in the rear because inevitably you'll be sleepy and you won't enjoy the interruption, bu you'll have to shut the machine off, detach your mask from the hose and then raise your hose near the machine so that the moisture runs downhill, keep moving down the hose holding it up so all the water runs down the hose and out the end......I am lazy so I just let it dribble on the bedroom carpet, it will dry eventually ......once you have the hose basically empty you can put the mask back on and you're good to go......

Then of course you will want to set your hose temp higher to eliminate the condensation from happening, or the other option would be to lower the humidity setting. With mine set at 7 which I figure is around 90 to 95 percent relative humidity and hose at 83 degrees I don't get any rainout and my bedroom gets pretty chilly at night, of course we have low humidity to start with here, but these newer heated hoses are really good at eliminating rainout. My first machine didn't have a heated hose option and I would get a lot of rainout if I didn't use a hose cover, or put the hose along my body under the covers to keep it warm, but these days I don't have a problem with the heated hose....its a great innovation.

Also it's a good idea to have your machine situated so that it is at a lower level than your head so if you do end up with some water in your hose it won't run downhill and get your face wet, it will tend to run back toward the humidifier instead. Also don't think you can fudge on that fill line on your humidifier tub, the second you start over filling even a little bit the blower will blow the excess water right down your hose and you'll be gurgling immediately! The worse case scenario with over filling is getting water back into the machine which can easily wreck you expensive new cpap!

OK, well after adjusting the humidity up to a 6, I woke up even earlier, at midnight, barely able to breathe, and my mouth was dry as well, which had not been happening.......so, I figured I had nothing to lose, I turned the humidity to below where it had been (4) , to a 3..........that seemed to be much better, and I was able to get back to sleep, and slept til 5:20 this morning, which was a total of 8.2 hours.............My mouth was also not dry, but my nose seems a little raw, maybe the temperature needs adjusting, with the lower humidity setting??

Sounds like low is good. I have the same problem and never use hose heat. I was in CT over Christmas and kept my TX settings - 1/6 humidity and no heat and it worked fine.

I'm definitely getting more congested during the this my first winter with heat, though.

I read somewhere that in a normal nose the passages alternately swell restricting flow to one side at a time so that only one is getting dried out at a time.

When I started I was getting the same stuffy nose. I used a prescribed nasal spray initially to open the passages. It is no longer a problem for me. Before going to bed now I take a hot bath and ensure that my sinuses are free using the steam and hot water to free me up. In Utah, it's very dry. I usually use passive humidification. I put water in the tub but don't turn it on. The air still blows over it and picks up a bit.

When the air is cold it will feel like it is burning. Even more so with nasal pillows than larger masks. I run the hose under my pillow to warm it a bit.

Pig, funny you would say that, because I think that is actually what is happening with my nose at night.........One nostril will be very plugged, I manage to get to sleep and wake up with that one open and the other one pretty plugged. I am going to try to sleep tonight with the settings I ended up with last night.............I may lower the temperature a little, I think I might like the air a bit cooler

Hey England, I see that you are using a nasal pillow. Being a newbie to CPAP use, I am curious about using a nasal pillow........How do you like it? Is it the only type that you have used?

Well at least you seem to have made a discovery that you are a person that doesn't like a lot of humidity, some like it moist, some don't. I look at hose temp, humidity, level, and EPR setting as individual comfort issues with the cpap, you have to just experiment with the settings and find what works best for your individual situation.

Glad you found a setting that seems to work for you.

Seems like someone indicated that my machine goes back to ramp whenever I wake up............If that is the case, I am going to think about shutting off the ramp feature, so that if I get up to use the bathroom, I go right back to the pressure that I was at.
I don't necessarily get that from the ResMed manual, though.

Greg Riddle wrote:hose temp is up to you. If you set the humidity to auto the temp setting will change the amount of moisture in the air. As tangledhose posted, the relative humidity does stay at a certain percentage but the hotter the air is the more water vapor it can hold. Therefore the more moisture you get. If you find that your still not getting enough on automatic then you can mess with separate settings

Greg.....I have a curiosity question for you.......on my S9 I could just leave the climate control set to Auto and then simply adjust the hose temp as you suggested in an earlier post, which I thought was a nice feature, very convenient, but when I got the Airsense machine much to my dismay I no longer had that ability. All you can do on the Airsense is set Auto which gives you a default of 80 degrees hose temp and 85% RH......there is no longer the ability to run it in auto and adjust the hose temp. I was disappointed because I felt like ResMed had "Dummed the System Down" - I have the clinical manual and am pretty tech savvy so I know the system well and I am sure that I can't run the Airsense in auto and independently set hose temp, the only option is to switch to manual now and set each (humidity level, hose temp) at desired level .....not like the S9.

So I notice you have the Aircurve listed in your equipment profile, I would assume the climate control would be the same in the Aircurve and Airsense. Do you have the ability on your Aircurve to run it like the S9 with climate on Auto and still have the ability to change hose temp? I am just curious if they are different.

With climate control in auto I can control the temp just as the s9 but with an added feature of also turning the tube temp to auto. In manual mode the tube temp is adjusted just like the s9 and humidity is adjusted just like the s9

Sleepy Bubba wrote:Seems like someone indicated that my machine goes back to ramp whenever I wake up............If that is the case, I am going to think about shutting off the ramp feature, so that if I get up to use the bathroom, I go right back to the pressure that I was at.
I don't necessarily get that from the ResMed manual, though.

I do not believe that's true, though you could easily find out by looking at the pressure curve throughout the night with sleepyhead.

the F&P Icon auto DOES do what you're talking about, they call it 'sensawake' (maybe misspelled) and it tries to guess when you're awake and change the pressure.

the as10 advertises more of 'sensasleep', if you have ramp on auto, and doesn't start running the pressure up until it thinks you've fallen asleep. as you say, nowhere in the clinician manual does it even hint that it will reduce pressure if it thinks you wake up.

Greg Riddle wrote:With climate control in auto I can control the temp just as the s9 but with an added feature of also turning the tube temp to auto. In manual mode the tube temp is adjusted just like the s9 and humidity is adjusted just like the s9

OK, that's interesting.....would appear that there is a difference between the new Airsense and Aircurve machines in that respect......all you can do with the Airsense as far as climate control with the heated hose is either full auto with no temp control (default is 80 degrees).... Or full manual with independent control for humidity and hose temp.

Wonder why they did that? I much prefer the way the S9 was where you could do auto but still be able to adjust hose temp......that's a big step backwards in my book.......dumb down the product....wish they hadn't done that!

Sleepy Bubba wrote:Seems like someone indicated that my machine goes back to ramp whenever I wake up............If that is the case, I am going to think about shutting off the ramp feature, so that if I get up to use the bathroom, I go right back to the pressure that I was at.
I don't necessarily get that from the ResMed manual, though.

Bubba,

If you mean turn the machine off either by hitting power button, or off with the auto off feature, then take bathroom break, then turn machine back on (which is what you should do, don't leave it running in therapy mode)..... Then yes your ramp feature will start up again if you have it turned on, just like you were getting in bed the first time for the night. Many folks after getting used to therapy pressure do go ahead and disable ramp feature because they don't need it anymore.....your personal preference

Here is a page about ramp from the clinical menu:

OK, thanks Tangle. When I get up to use the bathroom in the night, I reach over and shut it off, then take off my mask.........then I come back to bed, put mask back on (which is actually quite tricky in the dark!), and then turn the machine on.............in that scenario, the unit would ramp again>

Yeah Bubba that's correct.....anytime you turn machine off.....then on again it will start ramp unless of course you disable the ramp feature in the settings menu. Have you experimented with the auto ramp feature?

Also when you mention the difficulty of taking your mask off and then putting it back on.......I have noticed that some forum members actually leave their mask on their face and simply disconnect their hose at the mask end depending on if they have any easy set up to disconect that way.......what ever turns your wheels I guess......kinda cracks me up visualizing in my mind someone running around in their birthday suit with the mask on their face.....lol

The reason I say best to turn off the machine is you don't want it free flowing and messing up your data as far as leaks and such. And with your machine you could turn on the auto on/off feature that will shut the machine off for you when you take off your mask and then turns it back on when you have your mask back on and you start breathing in it....the machine will sense that and turn back on for you.