Upper/mid back pain

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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chunkyfrog
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by chunkyfrog » Thu Nov 20, 2014 6:31 pm

Muscle pain for me is a reminder to stretch a bit more often, but carefully to prevent injury.

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borgready
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by borgready » Fri Nov 21, 2014 3:27 pm

You might want to check into a bipap machine as they seem to make the breathing less labored. Instead of pushing air out against 12 you can push it out at say 6.

Are you having apnea events/obstructions in the night and your back and rib muscles are going into overdrive to try to get you to breathe. You have to watch some videos of a person trying to breathe on an obstruction. The video will speak for itself as you watch the ribs expand.

So you have to look at your breathing data for long apneas or shallow type breathing for an extended time. Does your nose swell up after use of the cpap so that it restricts airflow. You might start out fine but after using cpap for an hour your nose passages can swell up. You might want to get up for 15 minutes if you find something is not going right and your tossing/changing positions. Don't lay there and struggle through it. Force yourself to get up and clear your head and evaluate what is getting screwed up.

You can get pulse oximeters that will monitor your O2. If it drops below a certain point the alarm will go off. I will guess that your O2 is dropping low enough to send your rib and back muscles into overdrive(adrenaline kicks in)

User77
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by User77 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 8:44 am

Hi,

I'd suggest you get checked out by a Cranio-Sacral therapist, if you can find one in your area. It's a deeply relaxing therapy that gets to the bottom of what you're complaining about.

Best Wishes,
David.

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Julie
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by Julie » Wed Dec 31, 2014 8:59 am

No such animals over here.

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cathyf
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by cathyf » Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:24 am

Not really sure about the back pain, but it does sound like you might have the mask on too tight. The mask should "float" on your face, so that you can move around without causing leaks. Something that was happening to me a couple of weeks ago was that I was pulling the mask down my face as I put it on, and getting the cushion all pushed out the wrong way, so it was leaking multiple times each night and so I kept tightening it. A vicious cycle! I finally broke the cycle by putting the mask on and loosening the straps, then pulling the mask straight out and gently letting it go back on my face. The seal is much better, no more nasty big marks on my face that take hours to fade, and I can move around at night without popping leaks.

I wonder if the back pain could be caused by you tensing up your body to keep still while you are asleep? The disease process of apnea is that you "sleep with one eye open" because you need to wake yourself up when you stop breathing. Those of us who have survived years and years of apnea are obviously pretty good at it. And it's easy to transfer the "alert sleeping" to deal with mask leaks. So maybe you could try loosening up the mask and running the "mask fit" cycle on your machine while moving around a bunch on the bed, and see if you can get a good fit & positioning with looser straps, and see if the night goes better.

Also, mask fit is highly individual. You may have a mask type that will not work for you. It may be that the particular shape won't work for you in any size. It may be simply the wrong size. (I was given a size small mask, and finally realized after about 6 weeks that it is just too big. An x-small was a special order that took 3 weeks to get.)

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avi123
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by avi123 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 4:53 pm

I see two issues here:

1) Spinal, probably b/c you don't change your body position enough which causes your spine to stiffen, i.e.,you're hooked to the CPAP's air hose.
2) "but I do toss and turn all night, and fix leaks all night", this does not mean that you change your body position from lying on back and both sides often enough. But it does interrupt your sleep and causes lack of REM sleep which is bad. What kind of air- hose hanging support are you using?

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Radarman
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by Radarman » Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:12 am

Ok since I originally posted, I have figured out what the problem is, First I have a Phillips Respironics machine with the C-Flex+ .... well I kept adjusting the C-flex level until the pain went away. it was gone for over a month. so I decided to turn the C-flex off all together and see what happens... sure enough back pain came back in full effect. So if you have one of these machines and your pressure level is higher, mine is set to 12, make sure you use the C-flex setting and adjust it for the level that best fits your needs. Once I get the level set correctly all back pain goes away, and if I change it all back pain come right back. I hope this helps someone else, and thank you all for your help.

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archangle
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by archangle » Wed Jan 21, 2015 6:12 am

Radarman wrote:Ok since I originally posted, I have figured out what the problem is, First I have a Phillips Respironics machine with the C-Flex+ .... well I kept adjusting the C-flex level until the pain went away. it was gone for over a month. so I decided to turn the C-flex off all together and see what happens... sure enough back pain came back in full effect. So if you have one of these machines and your pressure level is higher, mine is set to 12, make sure you use the C-flex setting and adjust it for the level that best fits your needs. Once I get the level set correctly all back pain goes away, and if I change it all back pain come right back. I hope this helps someone else, and thank you all for your help.
That's weird. I would expect C-Flex to make the pain better, not worse. It just shows you sometimes have to experiment with things in CPAP.

Thanks for reporting back.

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SGearhart
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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by SGearhart » Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:37 am

Backache and blurred vision are known side effects of some blood pressure medications. Have added or changed any medications? The reason I ask this, is because on several posts people have failed to mention their medications and go straight for the CPAP as the problem.

Either way, I hope you feel better.

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Re: Upper/mid back pain

Post by Jbrooks8 » Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:03 am

I have the same pain! I've had my CPAP sonce I returned home from Iraq in 2005. It just started this year! I have been to the VA, civilian doctors, etc. Everyone acts like they have no clue...hell, they even sent me to a hospital for a full chest XRay and all results came back "normal". The pain I have is upper mid back as well. I can't sleep with my mask on for more than 5 to 6 hours because this pain wakes me up. I feel like I've aged wearing it overnight. I wake up in the fetal position almost to tears sometimes and have to hobble to the shower and try to run hot water until I can stand up straight. I haven't tried this "C Flex" option yet (will be doing that tonight!) --- but God I hope this helps. I'm to the point where I don't know what to do. I've had a machine for 12 years and this started 2 months ago!