Full Mask and chest discomfort.

[jims2321]

Going to throw this out there. I was diagnosed with severe central apnea (based upon an AHI over 50+ during two full night sleep studies). I am also an open heart surgery patient and a slack jaw mouth breather. my BiPaP pressures are pretty high (10/22) for me to achieve proper O2 saturation levels. I use a full face mask to help combat the issue with my jaw relaxing and my mouth opening. Here is the problem, when I do that the air flow switches to my mouth as the shortest path, and with the high pressure side, causes severe chest soreness because of the high pressure and the lack of flexibility of the breast bone. I have tried chin straps and they are ineffective as I am an active sleeper and the strap tend to slip. Any thoughts on how to tackle the issue.

[BlackSpinner]

You may want to use a simple chin strap to keep your jaw from dropping open.

I don't see how breathing through your mouth versus your nose should make a difference however, the pressure is the same.

What you maybe experiencing is swallowing the air, called aerophagia (? darned spell check thinks it should be sarcophagi ) which can cause issues with reflux for some people or a sense of pressure.

[archangle]

I make my own chin strap from a non-adhesive Ace bandage and safety pins. It's cheap to experiment with.

Maybe you could put tape on the chin strap to keep it in place.

Are you putting the mask on after putting on the chin strap?

You might look at the "PAP-cap" strap as well.

[maddyn]

My sleep center gave me a pamphlet with some of the symptoms and what to expect. One of them was sore chest. I guess your bodies got to get used to breathing with the pressure and its supposed to go away after a little while.

Im a newbie myself, but i just read the pamphlet, so i thought id share. Im not even sure how long you've been on this.

[Denial Dave]

I'm a newbie too... My pressure for bi-pap is set at 21 inhalation/ 15 exhalation and I started 10 days ago

After I got up in the morning for the first few days, it felt like I had run a marathon all night . My chest muscles hurt and my lungs were exhausted.

It's been little more than a week now & my chest muscles no longer hurt. My lungs still feel exhausted.

[hyperlexis]

Going to throw this out there. I was diagnosed with severe central apnea (based upon an AHI over 50+ during two full night sleep studies). I am also an open heart surgery patient and a slack jaw mouth breather. my BiPaP pressures are pretty high (10/22) for me to achieve proper O2 saturation levels. I use a full face mask to help combat the issue with my jaw relaxing and my mouth opening. Here is the problem, when I do that the air flow switches to my mouth as the shortest path, and with the high pressure side, causes severe chest soreness because of the high pressure and the lack of flexibility of the breast bone. I have tried chin straps and they are ineffective as I am an active sleeper and the strap tend to slip. Any thoughts on how to tackle the issue.

Try using a sports Mouthguard -- check out the Lanky Lefty on Youtube for specifics. Supposedly works well for CPAP patients to keep them from mouth breathing.

However I'd imagine deep breathing in and out at high pressures would hurt you regardless of whether the air goes in through the mouth or through the nose. It all ends up in the lungs anyway....

Will probably feel better as the breastbone heals with time.

[2kittymom]

Yes, I recall my chest being sore in the beginning of CPAP. It's fine now. (78 days). Since you have had heart surgery, I would suggest you talk to your doctors too; heart doctor and sleep apnea doctor. See what they say.