Any solutions for nasal swelling

I have a nasal mask (Resmed Softgel) and lately I've been waking up around 3 or 4 in the morning unable to breathe. I'm a bit freaked out about this as back in February this happened to me and I went into Atrial Fibrillation. I thought the first time that my problem had to do with dry room air that was causing my nasal passages to swell shut but now the furnace is not running so I don't know what is causing them to swell. My concern is that I have another month to go until I'm eligible for a new mask and need to breathe while using my nasal mask. Has anyone had this kind of swelling? If so, what did you do to reduce the swelling so you could breathe again.

Have you tried varying the humidifier settings?
Is it possible that normal spring allergies are acting up?
Do you do any sort of nasal rinse?

This happens to me about once a week. If it's really bad when I wake up, I switch to my full face mask. If I didn't have that option I might use Afrin to open things up, though you can't use Afrin for more than 3 days in a row. Afrin works every time but has that 3 day limitation.

Sometimes I sit up and gradually things open up and I can lie back down and sleep.

Using a nasal rinse nightly before bed helps, though it's not a guarantee. I use NeilMed. Antihistamines like Astelin nasal spray can be used daily, but nothing works all the time.

I'd get a full face mask to have as a backup ASAP.

Pugsy wrote:Have you tried varying the humidifier settings?
Is it possible that normal spring allergies are acting up?
Do you do any sort of nasal rinse?

Thanks for the reply.

I have been running my my Autoset S9 at a humidity setting of 5 but I boosted it to 6 two nights ago for the rest of the night after I woke up starving for air at 3 AM. Last night I was back to 5 all night long and just toughed it out after waking up at 4:30 AM.
It could be allergies but I'm not sniffling or sneezing I'm just stopped up. Also I'm not aware of having any allergies. I did have my ENT check me out and they did a CAT scan to confirm that nothing was abnormal. My ENT did make arrangements for me to see an allergist however my appointment is not until May 1st.
I have used Nelimed nasal rinse in the past but I have not rinsed in quite some time (last year). I have been using Simply Saline nasal mist which comes in a pressurized can.

So you used a setting of 6 for a partial night but didn't try it the next night?
Did the setting of 6 allow you to get back to sleep and did the congestion reduce?
Are you using a ClimateLine hose or the regular unheated hose? With the Climate Line hose there is a way to set the temperature and humidity settings independent of each other.

One doesn't have to have the prominent allergy symptoms to have minor allergic response.

Though it does sound like your nasal mucosa are rebelling against something. Since you only mention congestion in the wee hours of the morning (you didn't complain of daytime congestion) then one would assume the nasal mucosa are responding to something related to the cpap machine.

Filters? Changed or cleaned?

Most of the time nasal congestion from the use of a cpap machine is either because there isn't enough moisture to keep the nasal mucosa from drying out (and they swell as a reaction) or there is too much moisture and they swell as a reaction. This is why we say play with the humidifier settings. If the setting of 6 seemed to help...try it all night. If it didn't...try a lower setting than 5.

Pugsy wrote:So you used a setting of 6 for a partial night but didn't try it the next night?
Did the setting of 6 allow you to get back to sleep and did the congestion reduce?
Are you using a ClimateLine hose or the regular unheated hose? With the Climate Line hose there is a way to set the temperature and humidity settings independent of each other.

One doesn't have to have the prominent allergy symptoms to have minor allergic response.

Though it does sound like your nasal mucosa are rebelling against something. Since you only mention congestion in the wee hours of the morning (you didn't complain of daytime congestion) then one would assume the nasal mucosa are responding to something related to the cpap machine.

Filters? Changed or cleaned?

Most of the time nasal congestion from the use of a cpap machine is either because there isn't enough moisture to keep the nasal mucosa from drying out (and they swell as a reaction) or there is too much moisture and they swell as a reaction. This is why we say play with the humidifier settings. If the setting of 6 seemed to help...try it all night. If it didn't...try a lower setting than 5.

Lets see.....

I switched from 5 to 6 in the middle of the night as I thought more humidity would be the answer but it really didn't seem to open me up any by itself. I think that using Simply Saline in both nasal passages helped more than turning up the humidity. I was also feeling a bit heavy chested the next day and was worried that I was getting too much humidity so that's why I went back down to 5.

I have the heated hose and I have my machine set up so I can control the heat and humidity separately. I have my temperature set at 81 and have not adjusted it.

In regard to daytime vs late night.... the left side of my nose seems to be swollen all the time right now and I'm mostly breathing thru the right side during the day. When I first put on the mask at night my right side seems to be wide open an the left side fairly closed. By 3-4 however the right side gets swollen.

I changed my filter back at the beginning of April and I was told to change them on the first of the month. Cleaning..... I clean silicone insert, tank and hose once a week and soak the three parts in a vinegar solution once a week for 1/2 hour. I last cleaned everything this past Sunday.

OK. Too much or too little but hard to say which one. Some have suggested that 5 is quite high and adding humidity didn't seem to be the answer. Perhaps I'll try going low tonight and see what happens.

I haven't used the humidifier in a couple of months. It was cold in the house last night at bedtime and I did not want to turn the heat on so I put some water in the humidifier and turned the setting to two. When I got up this morning my nose was stuffy. I will drain the tank tonight and will not use it until next winter.

moondoggy,

I don't know about you, but the Simply Saline doesn't clean deeply enough for me. When I spray it in one nostril, it doesn't come out of the other one, but drips out the same nostril that I sprayed it in. So it only seems good for cleaning the first 1" to 1.5" of nostril (unless it's just my nose...) When I use the NeilMed squeeze bottle, what goes up one nostril comes out the other one. Deeper cleaning.

So while Simply Saline might have its use for moisturizing during the day, I wouldn't use it as a substitute for proper sinus irrigation.

Okay.....you have nasal congestion and swelling issues during the day as well as at night.
Thank you for clarifying things. It makes a difference if the whole picture is seen.

I don't know if reducing the humidity or increasing it will make any difference or not. Worth a try but it sounds like you have other issues causing the nasal congestion that are unrelated to cpap use.
It happens. You have been given some good ideas to try with the rinses. You already have appointment with doctor for follow up and possible allergy evaluation. Going to take some detective work to figure out the cause and then figure out the best solution.

If it is indeed 'swelling' and not just nasal congestion, you may need a steroid spray. Sounds like allergies. The allergist should be able to help you. This is starting out to be a very bad allergy year.

whens the last time you changed your xpap filters?

neverbetter wrote:whens the last time you changed your xpap filters?

April 1st.

Update. Last night I decided to reduce the humidity so I went down from 5 to 4 and the I didn't seem to have the level of congestion I had the last two nights. When I woke up this morning my right side was open and although my left side was more open than the last two nights it was still fairly closed. I'm going to stay at 4 and see if things get better or worse.

Tried a setting of 4 again and it was OK but not great. Woke up at 4 AM and was sleeping on my right side and was having difficulty breathing but things weren't completely closed. Turned over on my left side and it was like night and day breathing so I went back to sleep. Not sure why changing sides made a difference but it did. I think tonight, I'll go down to 3.5 and see what happens.

Pugsy wrote:I don't know if reducing the humidity or increasing it will make any difference or not. Worth a try but it sounds like you have other issues causing the nasal congestion that are unrelated to cpap use.
It happens. You have been given some good ideas to try with the rinses. You already have appointment with doctor for follow up and possible allergy evaluation. Going to take some detective work to figure out the cause and then figure out the best solution.

Someone on another forum suggested that my humidity was too low because of the my 13-17 pressure setting so Friday night I cranked it up to 5.0 and work up at 4 AM barely able to breathe so I turned the humidity completely off and about 10 minutes later I started to open up again.

Saturday I performed a NeliMed rinse about noon and then when I went to bed I set the humidity to 2.5 and I was breathing fine at that time I went to bed and when the alarm went off Sunday morning.

Tonight I'm going to leave it at 2.5 and see what happens tonight.