This past admission, my doctor thought it would be a good idea to start me on bi-pap at night. I normally sleep with oxygen and my CO2 levels were getting too high. Anyway- there is no doubt that I sleep much better with bi-pap than without, and I don't have any CO2 headaches in the morning when I wake up; I have so much more energy during the day, too. The only problem I have with this is that when I wake up and take off the mask and try to breathe on my own, it feels too hard! That feeling stays with me all day, like I can't breathe well enough on my own. Lung function wise, I am the highest I have been in a long time, but after a night on bi-pap I feel out of breath all day.
It almost feels like my body gets used to having something else do most of the breathing work and when I take off the bi-pap it doesn't want to go back to doing the whole job on its own! I have actually been looking forward to putting it back on at night, just because it relieves that (extremely uncomfortable) feeling of strain.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it something that will go away, or that I will get used to? I hate feeling like I can never catch my breath- especially when I know that my pfts are up right now and I should be feeling good! I tried increasing my O2 to 3L right when I take the mask off and while I get ready for my classes, but that didn't help at all and I still went through the whole day struggling for air.
I am going to bring this up when I see my doctor again on Thursday, I am just hoping for a little input from anyone else who has been there <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Thanks!
-Julie
It almost feels like my body gets used to having something else do most of the breathing work and when I take off the bi-pap it doesn't want to go back to doing the whole job on its own! I have actually been looking forward to putting it back on at night, just because it relieves that (extremely uncomfortable) feeling of strain.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it something that will go away, or that I will get used to? I hate feeling like I can never catch my breath- especially when I know that my pfts are up right now and I should be feeling good! I tried increasing my O2 to 3L right when I take the mask off and while I get ready for my classes, but that didn't help at all and I still went through the whole day struggling for air.
I am going to bring this up when I see my doctor again on Thursday, I am just hoping for a little input from anyone else who has been there <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Thanks!
-Julie