O2 bleed to Cpap

[txdave]

I have had ECH for 12 years and each episode seems a new item. Since sleeping seems to bring on the curse, the on and off of high flow 15lpm was making sleep impossible for more than 90 min. This season my PCP recommended to “bleed” oxygen from my concentrator into the cpap that I started using last year. It has water in it, which adds humidity, a good seal on nostrils and lowering flow from 15 down to 8 seems to work for me. Any others out there doing this ? 

[Bejeeber]

I recall at least one other report from pretty way back in the day of the successful use of continuous low flow oxygen while sleeping (I'm pretty sure it was with a cannula, to avoid suffocation type risks).

With your cpap, you have a different, and also interesting thing going on there. I'm tempted to tag @Racer1_NC on this for any observations, since he is what I would consider a genuine O2 guru. 

 

[Racer1_NC]

I too have heard of people trying low flow O2 while sleeping with mixed results. 

I recall one person stating that just a plain CPAP seems to help with night attacks.

Combining the 2 is an interesting idea but I can offer no personal experience, nor can I recall anyone trying such a setup. It would seem that using a concentrator AND combining the room air flow from the CPAP wouldn't give the user anywhere close to the pure O2 we recommend for an abort but as a preventative....I guess it could help? The setup would definitely increase the level of O2 per breath verses room air. Perhaps that might make a difference for some? 

Please update us as to its long-term effectiveness. This is worth watching. 

[jon019]

...this is one of those "it seems like it should work" deals.

...the old CH board (clusterheadaches dot com) sadly nearly forgotten and increasingly hard to navigate (a cursory search found nothing) ...used to have a discussion on this on occasion. nobody ever reported success, and the consensus was "it doesn't work". it always seemed a bit of a knee jerk "no" to something different to me when brought up.... and perhaps some were disinclined because of that...

....we really don't know enough about how O2 works for us to dismiss out of hand any method. whether this could work or not i know not...certainly worth the try. i'm guessing...just like adding caffeine/energy drink to O2 usage enhances effectiveness for aborting a hit for many, perhaps some adjunct like that would be effectiveness enhancer/enabler for continuous low flow prevent.....dunno, but carry on..

 

 

Edited March 17 by jon019