transition from cpap to bipap

[crob]

Hello,
I have started with a cpap......unsuccessfully. I fall asleep and wake up as soon as I do with a feeling of the increased pressure. I have had times with uncomfortable feelings in my esophagus and feeling like I need to burp.
My doctor is changing me to bipap.
Any success stories out there?
I have mild apnea and I am a slim woman.

[Guest]

Me. I like bipap better.
You need to check your data with Sleepyhead if you haven't.
The bipap makes exhaling sooo much easier.

[robysue]

Hello,
I have started with a cpap......unsuccessfully. I fall asleep and wake up as soon as I do with a feeling of the increased pressure. I have had times with uncomfortable feelings in my esophagus and feeling like I need to burp.

The uncomfortable feeling in your esophagus and stomach is called aerophagia. And it can be a very difficult xPAP problem many people. It also sounds like you are either using the ramp (and waking up as the pressure approaches your therapeutic setting) or APAP (and waking up when the machine decides to increase the pressure in response to events) or both. Do you know what your pressure setting is?

My doctor is changing me to bipap.
Any success stories out there?
I have mild apnea and I am a slim woman.

I'm a very petite woman---5'1" and 110 pounds or so. I was diagnosed with moderate OSA back in 2010. And I had an awful time trying to adjust to CPAP and then to APAP. One of my many significant adjustment problems was really painful aerophagia. When the PA in the sleep doc's office suggested a trial on BiPAP, I was shocked. But I was so desperate for a semi-decent night's sleep that I agreed to the switch.

And I'm glad I did. While the BiPAP didn't totally eliminate the problems with aerophagia, the switch did reduce them substantially. It still took some hard cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia for me to finally get to where I could sleep with the machine reasonably comfortably, but reducing the aerophagia problems to where aerophagia was not waking me up multiple times each night was also critical in my becoming an xPAP success story.

[haiku]

robysue, would you say that aerophagia is one of the top reasons why people go to bipap machines?

[ChicagoGranny]

robysue, would you say that aerophagia is one of the top reasons why people go to bipap machines?

The reason BiPAP was developed was complaints from many users of having trouble exhaling against the prescribed CPAP pressure. (Some doctors prescribe BiPAP when the required CPAP pressure is 14 or higher.)

Please see this for tips on dealing with and preventing aerophagia - wiki/index.php/Aerophagia

[LifeAltered]

Interesting. I also have the same issues as you and I'm on wk 3 of full face mask after two different nasal masks. I have limited motility in my esophagus so suspect air is slipping down causing the problem. I also find the Quattro Air is really noisy when it ramps up and it wakes me or at least I'm guessing that since I'm waking up periodically during the night. My daily reports are saying that there are no leaks but my hypoxia events are increasing. I had been having great success on my second nasal mask and taping my mouth closed but my tech flipped out so that didn't work. I feel like I've gone backwards after a successful three weeks with the mouth taping.

So it sounds as if I should be suggesting a bipap next week when I go back. Here's hoping.

[robysue]

robysue, would you say that aerophagia is one of the top reasons why people go to bipap machines?

Answering that question is above my paygrade.

More seriously, I'm not sure there is a list of "top reasons" why people are switched to BiPAP.

My understanding is that BiPAPs were developed in part because of patient problems exhaling against CPAP pressure, even with exhalation relief. Some sleep labs will routinely switch a new CPAP patient being titrated from CPAP to BiPAP if the titration reaches 15cm. Some don't. Some sleep labs will switch a new CPAP patient being titrated from CPAP to BiPAP if there is real evidence that the person is having substantial trouble exhaling against the pressure.

My understanding is that some (maybe many) sleep docs will consider switching a new CPAPer to BiPAP if the newbie has ongoing problems related to the pressure setting (regardless of what those problems are) for a month or two---particularly if the newbie is reporting that they're getting significantly less sleep due to not being able to tolerate the CPAP very well.