Attention: stacey434

[Guest guest]

Stacey;

I tried twice to reply privately to your private email ... and for some reason

(reason given is that my eaddress has been blacklisted!!!!) the mail won;t

go through ...... so .... with apology to all .... here is my reply!

Jean

********

Stacey;

CPAP = Continuous Pulmonary Air Pressure. You have a machine which blows room air through a tube to a mask worn over the nose. The CPAP blows air in at set (or variable) air pressure and the air forces its way through the obstuction from the back of the throat at the uvula (the flap which hangs down like a tiny baby carrot at the back of your throat). The uvula's job is to block air from going up through the nostrils during speech ... and protect

against food going down your airway into your lungs. You can blow the air

through a tank of water to humidify the air .... or you can add oxygen.

It is actually quite comfortable and helpful once you get over the closed in feeling ...... and you can sleep without opening your mouth to breath.

BiPAP = this machine actually kind of pulsates (not sure of the technical term) but it blows air then it STOPS .... and this allows your body to breathe out. If your lung function isn't strong enough to breathe out against the incoming air, then the BiPAP helps you breath. It doesn't suction the air out ... but the stopping of the air flow kinda creates a vacuum. You use the same equipment ..... but the machine is different.

You can see the equipment at Respironics (click on the link!)

Personally I use the CPAP and I really like it now ... it took a little

getting used to having something on your face ... but they set the machine

up to start of at a low air pressure and ramp upwards (mine goes from 4 to

13 lbs pressure in 20 minutes ... so I am asleep before the higher pressure

is reached)!

Hope this helps ...... but ... as I said ..... there is a strong feeling among the adult patients that getting oxygen levels up really helps as much as anything!

Jean

stace434 wrote:

Hmm, that's a very good point. Oxygen's kind of important. Our ENT recommended a sleep study to see if the apnea's causing low oxygen levels but the place he referred us to said they didn't take 2-year-olds and then Sheldon was hospitalized and we kind of forgot about it. The apnea always seems better when he's sick, I think it's because he breathes through his mouth more then. What are CPAP and BiPAP?