I am new to my Cpap machine. I have gone through testing and sleep apnea study and my pulmonologist diagnosed me with sleep apnea. It has been a month on it and I am still having problems. At first the mask kept leaking, I tightened the mask a little at a time as the medical supply store recommended. It doesn’t seem to be leaking now but it is hard to exhale and it is so noisy you can hear every breath I take and what sounds like a pump. My my life partner is wearing ear plugs because it is so loud. When I first started with it was quiet. I am also coughing up clumps of thick phlegm now. I am a snowbird in Florida now and my pulmonologist doctor’s office refuses to have him call me because he does not do video or phone appointments, although my insurance pays for them. Should I get a pulmonologist for when I am here in Florida to resolve my issues? Or is a very noisy machine normal?
I would reach back out to your CPAP company and talk to the Respiratory Therapist on staff. Many CPAPs have comfort settings to help with exhalation. If they have not adjusted that for you, I would ask them to do so.
Mask leaks can still happen once we fall asleep, you will want them to look at any detailed data to see if that is happening to you. If you are using a nasal mask you may need a chinstrap or a full face mask if you are having oral leaks after falling asleep. You may try a different mask and that can make a huge change for you too. Last but not least, please wipe your mask off daily and re-adjust daily for best fit, sometimes the oil on our face can cause leaks too.
If you ruled leaking out and your mask is stil to loud, you can have that checked by your company too. One thing you can try is to unplug your machine and let sit for 30 mins and before plugging it back in. Sometimes a simple reset will fix things like this. I would also check your water chamber for anything peculiar looking, there have been some issues with that making more noise than usual. In addition, drain your tubing to see if any water has accumulated in that too, sometimes water can make your machine louder.