I've been on CPAP therapy for about a year,and it has been succesful so far. The last couple of daysI've come down with a bad head cold. Snifflinge sneezing coughing runny nose, the whole works. Everytime I sneeze the mask comes off my face, and generally it feels very hard to breath with it on. Any advice on using the mask while sick? I think the humidity does help the stuffed nose though.

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Is your mask a nasal mask, covers just the nose? Some people will get a full face mask (covers nose and mouth) if they find they get lots of colds or have other nose breathing issues from time to time. The key is you want to be breathing well enough through your nose if it's a nasal mask, so you're not mouth breathing too much, and not getting the full benefits of your cpap pressure. Perhaps others might have some suggestions. Hopefully you don't get many colds. Actually, with cpap, I find I get far fewer colds than I used to. But sometimes I've had a cough, and that is hard with cpap, because the air pressure aggravates the coughing.

If you find the heated humidity helps, keep using that or increase the humidity. Some people may have inflamed nasal passages with a cold and actually feel better with the cooler air, with just cool passover, no heated humidity. Depends on the situation.

Is it getting any better?


Linda

i had a cold when i started my cpap and the full face mask i use was great. the humid air cleared my nose out so i could breath and it went away within a day. the filtered air plus the humidity from the machine was great for me. plus if you use a full mask if your nose is clogged you can still breath through ur mouth so u get some benefit from the machine.

hope you get to feeling better.

I could not use my nasal mask and on a night where my nose was really runny and sneezy I just had to go without CPAP. I slept badly and snored so much I drove my husband out of bed. It was a terrible night.

There was only one really bad night like that, but then I could not use my nasal pillows for a few weeks--even after it seemed my nose was clear. My nasal passages were really irritated, especially around the nostrils which really got red and raw from wiping and sneezing.

The good part is that I FINALLY figured out how to wear the Quattro comfortably and even a nasal mask was tolerable when I couldn't use the nasal pillows. Now I feel like I have several choices of masks each night, and I'm kind of enjoying that.

Thanks for your replies .I have a fullface mask, I turned the humidity up a little, and that really helped. This is actually the first time I've had a cold since I started using CPAP, 18 months. I was just saying to my wife last week how nice it was not to get colds as much as I used to, jinxed myselfI guess. Anyway, It's going better, hopefully It'll be gone soon, thanks all for your input.