My aerophagia nightmare has ended! (Hasn't it?)

For a month or two I have been struggling with really bad aerophagia. REALLY bad. I would wake up in the morning, or the middle of the night, with excruciating pain (like 7 or 8 out of 10). So I decided that my 14.4 pressure was just too high, regardless that my numbers were pretty good.

Here what I did:

• I turned my pressure down from 14.4 to 14.0.
• Enabled EPR at level 1.
• Chew a Gas-X tablet before bed if I feel already bloated or gassy from the IBS.
• Gone back to eating nearly gluten-free.
• Started Klonopin (baby dose of 0.125mg) only as needed for anxiety.
• Started therapy again (CBT).

So far, my results have been outstanding! Although the aerophagia isn't completely gone, it certainly has improved to the point that any remaining excess air is negligible and passed out one end or another.

What's strange is that with my pressure down and EPR on, I expected my numbers to jump up, because my average pressure is down. To the contrary, they have remained the same or even improved a little. My sleep architecture has certainly improved. I'm sleeping more deeply, rarely wake up at night all any more, and I'm dreaming a lot more. I feel so much better during the day now.

It's most likely a "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" situation, but it's working. Klonopin is working wonders for my anxiety and panic attacks. Much better than the Xanax. Since I'm only taking it as needed, and a tiny amount, I highly doubt I'll become tolerant to it. Celexa (like Zoloft) gave me an acute reaction... just horrible. Never will I try that again.

Congrats on finding what seems to be a solution!

AWESOME tattooyu! I'm so glad things are improving for you!

I totally forgot something important! I have also increased my exercise. Not by a lot, but one extra day per week.

tattooyu wrote: Loud Sound or Flashing Light... only in my head?

Since posting last, it has happened only a couple of times, and I am just writing it off as a hypnopompic auditory hallucination with the possibility of astral travel.

From what I've been able to figure out so far, each time this happens I am having a very lucid dream in which I do feel like I'm traveling astrally (from the descriptions). Even if there is no spiritual significance to it, "it is what it is".

tattooyu wrote:My aerophagia nightmare has ended!
For a month or two I have been struggling with really bad aerophagia. REALLY bad.

So far, my results have been outstanding! Although the aerophagia isn't completely gone, it certainly has improved to the point that any remaining excess air is negligible and passed out one end or another.

...ah...I'm just curious....
do these two things....ah...conditions,
have any correlation to one another?

If so, what do you suspect you were passing?
Which kind of astral type travel were you on??
....ah....just a general description will suffice......

...and concerning the spiritual significance....I do believe that it is written,
in the Bible....some where...I'm not a biblical scholar or anything.....
I have just heard it said...many times.... when bad stuff happens,
"like gas, this too shall pass."

Just a thought.

Tat, glad one thing is under control in your life!!!

Hey, just my personal experience - anxiety and depression are chronic. They don't go away. Keep at it, buddy, and know you're not alone. Glad you're back into (MH) therapy. I need to go and start practicing what I preach.

Now you know why I went back on the Prozac. CPAP didn't "cure" me. It makes things better, but there's still some short circuits in the brain space.

BTW, just heard about something new and interesting in mental health therapy. "Systems" therapy. I work with a bunch of MSW's, and when I mentioned my interest in CBT to one of them, she mentioned "Systems" to me. You might ask your therapist about it. I don't know much about it, just enough to be intrigued.

Huggers,
Babs

Yes. I used to use my excess gas to propel myself through the Astral plane. However, now that my aerophagia is under control, I am a stationary soul.

The only thing that might concern me would be that with so many different changes, how will you ever know if possibly only one might be enough? Why not try them one at a time for a few nights each to see what happens. I would (personally) want to know if I need the Klonipin, or even the Gas-X, or when, e.g. lowering the pressure another half notch could do the trick (as it does for many).

WOW! So glad you found a solution....but, won't you miss the traveling?

Julie wrote:The only thing that might concern me would be that with so many different changes, how will you ever know if possibly only one might be enough? Why not try them one at a time for a few nights each to see what happens. I would (personally) want to know if I need the Klonipin, or even the Gas-X, or when, e.g. lowering the pressure another half notch could do the trick (as it does for many).

I actually have been doing that over a period of time and found that all of them together is what worked for me.

•Gone back to eating nearly gluten-free

Did you ever get tested for this? I have and it always comes back negative but I feel better if I avoid gluten in my diet.

raggedykat wrote:

•Gone back to eating nearly gluten-free

Did you ever get tested for this? I have and it always comes back negative but I feel better if I avoid gluten in my diet.

I did. Blood test. Came back negative but I'm the same way. Much better without gluten.

tattooyu wrote:

raggedykat wrote:

•Gone back to eating nearly gluten-free

Did you ever get tested for this? I have and it always comes back negative but I feel better if I avoid gluten in my diet.

I did. Blood test. Came back negative but I'm the same way. Much better without gluten.

FYI, my gastro (who has one of the larger celiac practices in the US) has told me the standard large lab version of the tTG tests are usually only about 70-75% accurate rather than the 95%+ that often gets quoted. I'd have to find my notes to explain it better but can look if you really want to know details.

Unfortunately, the gold standard is an endoscopy and snipping some villi, so if you keep seeing substantially different results with gluten/non-gluten, it may be time to pony up the $1500 or so for one. Untreated celiac disease is almost as dangerous as untreated apnea, and is even less diagnosed.

I had an endoscopy done about 3-4 years ago. I know they did take a biopsy, but I'm not 100% positive they tested that for Celiac. I'll push my doctor again about it.

Hey tat......
One thing came to mind while reading through the post....
You lowered your pressure - numbers remained the same or got better.....
Since you have a way of checking continuously you may want to experiment with lowering your pressure -- maybe .5cm or 1cm at a pop and see where the numbers go......
Remember, there's no prize for the highest pressure , so getting it as low as you can is where I think ya need to go.....

Actually that's what I did - a long time ago - I started at a titrated pressure of 5 -- don't know how they ever came up with that, I can't breathe at 5 ....bumped it to 7, then got the APAP with the range 10-17. As the pressure got higher during the night I started having NR's (which were eventually thought to be centrals - which can happen as pressure rises).....So after monkeying around for a bit I've settled on 10-13 (after spending nearly a year at 10 in CPAP mode)....Bumped it around that general range, but I spend so little time around 13 I just leave it there -- average is 12.1. AHI average over 12 months 2.1, so I'm happy...

Great to hear you're making good progress!!!!!
Take care --
cheers
goose