Aerophagia problems on Cpap auto

[Atmosphere00]

So im starting to have really bad flairs with my GERD lately and its starting to sound like Aerophagia. I have wicked acid reflux, gas, bloating ect ect. All the fun stuff basically.
My question is on my Dreamstation Auto I have no exhale relief setup on my machine. Is this something I should try and see if it helps? I don't really know much about it but I know how to go into the machine to change it.
anyone's advice would be appreciated!

[Pugsy]

Worth trying the exhale relief to see if it helps. The amount of reduction during exhale in Respironics machines is flow based and not a per cm reduction as with the ResMed machines.
This means if you breath more forcefully you are likely to get maximum reduction but if you tend to breathe rather shallowly you may not get as much reduction.

It's not all that much of a reduction...I think 2 cm is the most you can get at the setting of 3...but it is sure worth trying.
If that doesn't help then perhaps you can take a close look at your reports and see if there is some room for pressure reduction depending on your settings and where the machine wants to go and why it wants to go there.
Meaning if it is increasing the pressure just to deal with some snores it might be that you could compromise and let a few snores slip through the defenses in exchange for a lower maximum pressure and less aerophagia issues.

[Atmosphere00]

Worth trying the exhale relief to see if it helps. The amount of reduction during exhale in Respironics machines is flow based and not a per cm reduction as with the ResMed machines.
This means if you breath more forcefully you are likely to get maximum reduction but if you tend to breathe rather shallowly you may not get as much reduction.

It's not all that much of a reduction...I think 2 cm is the most you can get at the setting of 3...but it is sure worth trying.
If that doesn't help then perhaps you can take a close look at your reports and see if there is some room for pressure reduction depending on your settings and where the machine wants to go and why it wants to go there.
Meaning if it is increasing the pressure just to deal with some snores it might be that you could compromise and let a few snores slip through the defenses in exchange for a lower maximum pressure and less aerophagia issues.

Pugsy Thank you for the quick reply!
ill try the exhale relief tonight on 3 and see if that helps. I couldn't even use the machine last night I just went with out.
Ive been on a pressure of 6 to 20 when all this started and last week I kicked it up to 9 to 20 (my doctor isn't much help I think I need a new one).
My AHI went from a 3 down to a 0 or a 0.4

[Pugsy]

Why such a big jump from 6 to 9...did the aerphagia start with the jump to 9. Maybe a smaller jump would have done a similar job and not cause the belly issues.

Are you using the available software to evaluate the results?

Given a choice between AHI of 3 and no aerophagia issues...and AHI of 0 with aerophagia so bad I had to forgo the machine and not use it at all...I would take AHI of 3 any day of the week.
Besides...what do you think your AHI was last night without using the machine?

Give the Flex relief a try and see if it helps enough...if it doesn't maybe a combination of lower starting point and limiting the max might be worth investigating.

[Atmosphere00]

Why such a big jump from 6 to 9...did the aerphagia start with the jump to 9. Maybe a smaller jump would have done a similar job and not cause the belly issues.

Are you using the available software to evaluate the results?

Given a choice between AHI of 3 and no aerophagia issues...and AHI of 0 with aerophagia so bad I had to forgo the machine and not use it at all...I would take AHI of 3 any day of the week.
Besides...what do you think your AHI was last night without using the machine?

Give the Flex relief a try and see if it helps enough...if it doesn't maybe a combination of lower starting point and limiting the max might be worth investigating.

It all started while my low number was on 6, I started on 4 but I felt like I wasn't getting any air so I put it on 6 and I was pretty comfortable. I went from 6 to 9 because I was still feeling really tired and from the info I gathered on sleepy head I needed to push it up some. I was getting on average 25 to 30 hypopneas a night. I figured those probably didn't help so at 9 it cleared them all up.
I'm defiantly going to put on that flex option when I get home tonight and see if that helps calm things down. I'm now on double dose of PPIs and its not really doing anything.

[Pugsy]

You might not have needed that full jump to 9 cm to reduce those hyponeas.
Might have gotten by with less and not put yourself through all this discomfort.
For some people there is sort of a line in the sand where they don't have any aerophagia issues and just above that line they have serious aerophagia issues. Sounds like you may have inadvertently crossed that line.

It may take a few days for your belly to get over the trauma so I don't know that you will be able to tell how much Flex is going to help or not with just one night's using it. Just wanted you to be aware of that potential problem.

Hyponeas usually respond to rather minor increases in pressure...you might find that a minimum of 7ish would do an acceptable job of reducing the number of hypoenas and not cause the belly issues.
So if Flex doesn't help enough or fast enough you might back up and start over but with a smaller increase in that minimum pressure.

[Atmosphere00]

You might not have needed that full jump to 9 cm to reduce those hyponeas.
Might have gotten by with less and not put yourself through all this discomfort.
For some people there is sort of a line in the sand where they don't have any aerophagia issues and just above that line they have serious aerophagia issues. Sounds like you may have inadvertently crossed that line.

It may take a few days for your belly to get over the trauma so I don't know that you will be able to tell how much Flex is going to help or not with just one night's using it. Just wanted you to be aware of that potential problem.

Hyponeas usually respond to rather minor increases in pressure...you might find that a minimum of 7ish would do an acceptable job of reducing the number of hypoenas and not cause the belly issues.
So if Flex doesn't help enough or fast enough you might back up and start over but with a smaller increase in that minimum pressure.

Pusy are you good with using Sleepyhead? If so, if I can figure out how to post my screen shots on here, can you take alook at my results maybe you can give me a better idea how to read these charts. Maybe im just not understanding whats going on then. This CPAP stuff is getting alittle overwhelming witch is said being someone who works in the medical field.

[Pugsy]

I am pretty good with the software.

Here are some instructions on how to share images of your reports so we can see what you are seeing.
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

Here's some instructions on how to organize the graphs...there are 3 pages..please read all of them
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize

People often try to paste all the graphs and we don't need or want them and they just make more work for every one.
See this thread for some examples
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

[Atmosphere00]

I am pretty good with the software.

Here are some instructions on how to share images of your reports so we can see what you are seeing.
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

Here's some instructions on how to organize the graphs...there are 3 pages..please read all of them
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize

People often try to paste all the graphs and we don't need or want them and they just make more work for every one.
See this thread for some examples
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

Thanks again Pugsy. When I get home tonight ill try and take some screen shots and see what you think.

[Atmosphere00]

I am pretty good with the software.

Here are some instructions on how to share images of your reports so we can see what you are seeing.
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

Here's some instructions on how to organize the graphs...there are 3 pages..please read all of them
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize

People often try to paste all the graphs and we don't need or want them and they just make more work for every one.
See this thread for some examples
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

So it looks like I'm on a-flex and a flex level of 2 already. I do have culex if that makes a difference

[Pugsy]

CFlex isn't all that different from AFlex....at least in terms of the amount of reduction.

[guest345]

Hello -

Did you make any progress with solving this issue? I am experiencing the exact same issue, so I was just wondering.

Thank you,
JV