High Pressure

lostone · Post by **lostone** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:01 pm

Hi I am new to cpap. I have just been using it for a couple of months. I started out with a nasal mask that pumped up to seal but my nose got really congested and I had to quit. I also am a mouth breather. I next tried the breeze with the nose pillows and a chin strap. It was good for a bit then my nose got sore and irritated from the pillows and I congested up again! Now I am using a full face mask with a chin strap(I will actually open my mouth lower than the mask when I sleep! I us a heated humidifier and finally got it to the comfortable level. Here is my problem now. Since I started using the full face mask I have started swelling up in my stomach area and around. Even though I have lost weight my clothes are fitting tighter and its makes me very uncomfortable. My pressure is a 20 because I was told I have severe apnea. Does anyone else have this high of a pressure? Another problem I have is I keep getting congested and it is causing me to have horrible upper respitory problems. My allergys and asthma have gotten a lot worse since I started on cpap. I am taking medication for all of this, and using nasal spray. Does anyone else have this problem?

glassgal · Post by **glassgal** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:01 pm

Hi Lostone,

Can you give us more information on the type of machine (brand & model) & the interface (mask) that you use?

The bloating is from swallowed air called aerophagia. It can be quite painful. Please talk to your doctor about this right away.

Learn as much as you can from this and other forums -- they are a great resource! Use the search function for aerophagia, bloating, stomach pain, swallowed air. This topic has been covered many times on the forum.

If you don't have an APAP, you need to convince your doc that running at lower pressures when you don't need the higher ones will help to relieve the aerophagia and promote general comfort (and compliance). I speak from experience here! I thought that I was going to explode for a while. It does get better as you adjust to the therapy, but the AutoPap really turned the corner for me.

Many docs are not comfortable with APAP's -- they do not understand the algorithms that drive them, and the earlier models were not very good. The current ones are wonderful! You can search for links on autopap & APAP. There is a fairly current thread called "Medical rationale for CPAP over APAP?" started by Newsgrouper. Tonight it is about 1/2 way down page 2. I think that this will turn into a link when I post (never done this before! ) topic.viewtopic.php?t=2422

The really important thing here is to get this addressed by your doctor or sleep clinic so that you remain compliant. For those of us with high AHI's (mine was 78/hr) this treatment is NOT an option. My titrated pressure was 14 and I average between 10-12 generally on my auto. That much of a drop in average pressure is HUGE as far as comfort goes! You have a harder time with a pressure of 20. LDuyer has a BIPAP set at 18/20 (I think!) Check out some of her posts for high pressure issues. She is still struggling with the pressure. If you have other medical issues like COPD, asthma, etc, you need to work very closely with your doctor. I am not a doctor or in any way related to the field of sleep medicine -- just a APAP user!

Good luck and let us know how you are doing.

ballast949 · Post by **ballast949** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:33 am

Hi Lostone, My prescribed pressure is 23 cm. - Since they don't make a CPAP machine that goes over 20, the DME gave me a BIPAP, but set it at 23/23 so it would act like a CPAP. I have since fiddled with the pressures and am trying to find a compromise between low AHI and high pressures that blow my FF Mask off or force me to strap it WAY down. I'm doing ok with swallowing air. I need the full face mask because I'm a mouth breather (or I was). I have noticed that breathing through the mask at this high pressure, my nose stays pretty open - enough so that I may try a nasal mask.