Severe chest and back pain

Chest/back pain.

I have been on CPAP since the beginning of January, diagnosed with severe OSA in December. I have a Respironics dreamstation auto CPAP with the f30 mask, my pressure was initially set at 5/15. Despite my complaints of severe chest and back pain, I was advised to keep at it. I couldn’t handle the pain and the bloating so I manually turned down my machine. I slowly adjusted it down, 14, 13, etc. I have dialed it down for the last two months, with very slight progress. The biggest improvement has been my bloat and gas, once I got below 12 that went away. It’s been almost 4 months still dealing with this pain though. I finally got used to the mask and falling asleep. I have changed pillows and even slept without a pillow, which tends to eleviate some of the back and chest pain but instead I back up with lower back pain. The pain is so excruciating that it wakes me up any more than 4-5 hours on the machine. I am miserable. I have gone as low as 8.5 just to see if it made a difference and have found myself with a dry sore throat. My pressure was consistently staying at 10 according to the data.

I’m just miserable, absolutely miserable. I feel like one health issue has been replaced with another. I dread going to to sleep, I have to take nsaids every night prior to bed or when I wake up. I was hoping my blood pressure would prove with CPAP therapy but it’s not because I am in pain during the night and for several hours in the morning.

Side note- I will be going to a sleep clinic for a visit. I no longer have my previous insurance policy and haven’t been able to afford a visit. I also have to switch clinics because of a poor experience with the initial diagnosing sleep clinic. Any feedback would be helpful! I have NEVER had this issue before being in CPAP. I hope that someone out there has found the answer to this and can help me determine what may be the issue. I am intending to follow up with a new sleep clinic but in the meantime I want to have as much knowledge as possible to bring up. In my past experience, docs tend to be know it all’s and disregard my concerns only leading me to continued pain/issues.

I really sympathize, because I’ve been contending with hip pain at night. Questions for you: Do you sleep on your back? If so, have you tried sleeping on your side? At the lower pressures you’ve tried, what is you AHI?