Aerophagia after weight loss

[KenIRE]

I am a 44 year old male who was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea 7 years ago. I have been on CPAP since then, I tolerate the treatment well, and am 100% complaint.

Other possibly relevant health issues:
I have a severely deviated septum and have difficulty drawing air through one of my nostrils, even during the day when sitting. I am, therefore, a mouth breather.
I am severally obese (5' 8" and currently weight approximately 300 pounds) but I had gastric sleeve weight loss surgery in August. I lost about 100 pounds in the year leading up to the surgery and have lost another 40 or so since the surgery and further weight loss is expected.
I am a type one, insulin dependent diabetic.
I have high blood pressure which is controlled with medication.

My initial sleep study in July of 2012 found that I was having >80 apneas per hour. My CPAP pressure was set at 20.

With the weight loss in the last year I had begun experiencing bad aerophagia. I would take up bloated, severely gassy, and uncomfortable. So, I had a new sleep study at the beginning on November. I was observed then to be having 57 apneas per hour and was recommended for BiPap with a 14 EPAP and 17 IPAP pressure.

I now have a brand new ResMed AirCurve 10 VAuto. (Finally, I have data! Now I don't know what to do with it!) My mask is a ResMed AirFit F20 full face mask.

Since starting the new BiPap on November 22 I am averaging about 8 hours of treatment per night and 5.07 AHI. My sleep is decently restful, but I do still feel somewhat tired during the day. (This is basically unchanged from the CPAP machine I had before.) The aerophagia is better, but is still happening and is still somewhat bothersome.

Normally I fall asleep on my back, but I usually roll onto my side at some point about 5-6 hours into my night's sleep. When I am on my back, I don't have much aerophagia. But, when I am on my side I still seem to be swallowing a lot of air.

I am looking for suggestions on how to optimize my treatment while reducing or eliminating the aerophagia. Since I am still expecting additional (fairly rapid) weight loss over the next year or two, I realize that this will likely be a moving target.

Especially, I am wondering if the VAuto mode would be useful. Possibly this mode would reduce pressure when I am on my side, potentially lowering the aerophagia?

Here is last night's data from OSCAR, which seems to have been a fairly typical night on the new machine.

[zonker]

I am a 44 year old male who was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea 7 years ago. I have been on CPAP since then, I tolerate the treatment well, and am 100% complaint.

welcome to the zoo! i barely know what i'm talking about regarding apap. i won't begin to guess on your vauto.

weight loss seems to have some affect on sleep apnea, judging by what i've read here. and congrats on the weight loss, btw. anyway, i'm sure that's having an impact on the aerophagia. i have that curse myself. it's something i overcame by doing the smallest of incremental raises in pressure. not sure it applies in your case.

so mainly i'm just babbling and causing this thread to be bumped. soon, someone with some real knowledge will come along.

good luck!

[Anthay]

You can lose weight without health problems

[Julie]

Anthay - you're responding to an almost 1 yr old letter - and neither of those guys have been back.