Cracked ribs

[Paxton05]

I will assure you this is not a prank and I'm not elderly either. I'm 48 and until recently physically active.
I do think that my cpap device is having the issues, either a defective product or not properly serviced at my last appointment to the doctors office. Im still waiting for my doctors appointment to bring the cpap in. Maybe the memory card will have the history, reading the pressure and all other answers to any questions.

[Julie]

Do you know how much or little your doctor actually understands about how Cpap machines work - how much (how little) air is delivered to your upper airway (not lower ribcage) by them? This really is a nonsense issue! I'm sorry you had an accident, but Cpap is and cannot be responsible even if you have a defective machine. You may have turned over in bed in an odd way without realizing it (possibly onto the hose?) and your muscles could have pulled on your ribs... such things are not unheard of, but Cpap pressure is.

[palerider]

I will assure you this is not a prank and I'm not elderly either. I'm 48 and until recently physically active.
I do think that my cpap device is having the issues, either a defective product or not properly serviced at my last appointment to the doctors office. Im still waiting for my doctors appointment to bring the cpap in. Maybe the memory card will have the history, reading the pressure and all other answers to any questions.

or, like other people that pass through here now and then, you've latched onto some idea that seems to fit your pre-conceived notions and refused to allow facts to get in the way.

[Sonnyboy]

I will assure you this is not a prank and I'm not elderly either. I'm 48 and until recently physically active.
I do think that my cpap device is having the issues, either a defective product or not properly serviced at my last appointment to the doctors office. Im still waiting for my doctors appointment to bring the cpap in. Maybe the memory card will have the history, reading the pressure and all other answers to any questions.

Re:

Machine: AirSense™ 10 CPAP Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Software: Sandman Series Therapy v1.6 Software

The OP has listed Sandman Series as his software.
Is the AirSense 10 CPAP compatible with the Sandman Series Software?

[BlackSpinner]

I will assure you this is not a prank and I'm not elderly either. I'm 48 and until recently physically active.
I do think that my cpap device is having the issues, either a defective product or not properly serviced at my last appointment to the doctors office. Im still waiting for my doctors appointment to bring the cpap in. Maybe the memory card will have the history, reading the pressure and all other answers to any questions.

No sorry, You have a major medical issue that needs to be address ASAP. Cpap can not break the ribs of a normal healthy human.
The healthy human can expand their rib cage by over 2 inches simply by breathing deeply - singers do this all the time (it makes it really annoying when you try to design historical costumes for them)

If you want to see the pressures used install Sleephead and read the card.

[Wulfman...]

I've been working with my doctor on the ramp pressure. I would get so much pressure from my cpap that I was getting bloated to the point where my ribs hurt. This past weekend I fell asleep and my wife heard me choking in my sleep while using the cpap,she woke me up and was worried that I didn't wake up on my own. When I rolled over to get up I was so bloated with air in my stomach I felt my ribs crack.
I went to the emergency room for x-rays and it was confirmed , a cracked rib. My doctor said he's never heard of this , well he has now.
This therapy is dangerous and I wil not use my cpap machine again. If my wife didn't wake me up I could have choked to death in my sleep.

Actually, from the first post, it sounds more like "aerophagia" (ingesting air or intestinal gas)........which is another far-fetched possibility for broken ribs.......and definitely not something you can blame the CPAP for. You may have GERD or a weak LES.


Den

.

[BlackSpinner]

I've been working with my doctor on the ramp pressure. I would get so much pressure from my cpap that I was getting bloated to the point where my ribs hurt. This past weekend I fell asleep and my wife heard me choking in my sleep while using the cpap,she woke me up and was worried that I didn't wake up on my own. When I rolled over to get up I was so bloated with air in my stomach I felt my ribs crack.
I went to the emergency room for x-rays and it was confirmed , a cracked rib. My doctor said he's never heard of this , well he has now.
This therapy is dangerous and I wil not use my cpap machine again. If my wife didn't wake me up I could have choked to death in my sleep.

Actually, from the first post, it sounds more like "aerophagia" (ingesting air or intestinal gas)........which is another far-fetched possibility for broken ribs.......and definitely not something you can blame the CPAP for. You may have GERD or a weak LES.


Den

.

As well as osteoporosis yes. He is a mess, healthwise.

[chunkyfrog]

The facts are in. Blaming cpap is PURE NONSENSE.
The OP needs to see a real doctor, not the QUACK who believes cpap can break bones.
{{--Of course, if one were to hurl an Escape at somebody's torso, that could happen.
Hopefully the bad DME that sold it}}

[ChicagoGranny]

I will assure you this is not a prank and I'm not elderly either. I'm 48 and until recently physically active.
I do think that my cpap device is having the issues, either a defective product or not properly serviced at my last appointment to the doctors office. Im still waiting for my doctors appointment to bring the cpap in. Maybe the memory card will have the history, reading the pressure and all other answers to any questions.

1. A person your age, or even younger, can crack a rib coughing. One of my in-laws did then when she was about your age. Ribs are easy to crack. It's unlikely, but you could crack one rolling around in bed or getting out of bed. If your ribs are so brittle that the tiny CPAP pressure would crack them, you would have had many cracked ribs before from things like sitting down in a chair.

2.

so bloated with air in my stomach

On the forum, this is called aerophagia. It is not uncommon among CPAPers and can range from mild to severe. I do believe your CPAP therapy has not been optimized. Optimized in this context means to find and set the machine to the lowest settings that treat your apnea all night over many nights. If indeed your therapy has not been optimized, you might still be having apneas and struggling to breathe. This struggle can cause you to swallow pressurized CPAP air causing bloating (But not cracked ribs.).
How to optimize CPAP therapy? First, you need some detailed data on how your CPAP system is performing. Download Sleepyhead and get help from the forum in using it - https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead

3.

RLS

Have you had your serum ferritin level checked? What was the value? Your family doctor will tell you the level should be 22 or higher. A knowledgeable sleep doctor will want it from 100 to 175 in patients with RLS. Forum member, Sheffey, has a bad case of RLS and can give you help in managing it. He knows some techniques to moderate side effects if the Mirapex is not treating your condition well. But, repeating myself, it's important that you get your serum ferritin levels checked and, if necessary, supplemented to the appropriate range.

4.

My doctor is having me take a sleep study over night , this will be my 4th .

Since this is already scheduled, I would go ahead with it. But, I doubt it will solve your problems. Your therapy still needs to be optimized at home, in your own bed and under "real life" conditions as compared to sleep lab conditions. And the good news is that this can be done! Many of us have done it.

BTW, what position(s) do you sleep in?

[Paxton05]

With all questions of my health put aside there is no disputing this video.
YouTube cpap air pump
paxton05 terrier

That is completely filled with air, enough to get my ass off the floor.
I'll be honest after that night I had that happen, wheather my fault or equipment fault I've been nervous about trying it again. Atleast till the cpap machine gets looked at and that will be 4/15/16.
For all that think that a cpap can't blow up a baloon or an air mattress or have enough pressure to be capable of doing this plaese don't think that this video is a fake.
This is why I'm stating that maybe my machine is not set properly.

[Julie]

You can lead a horse to water...

It is your choice to believe a random video you found on YT, and make an issue of it, and it is your choice to not use Cpap and have a stroke or other consequence of that... it's your nose and your face being spited.

[archangle]

I still believe that CPAP pressure simply can't crack a rib in a normal person without some health problem.

However, I decided to do a little actual experimentation with the air mattress question. Unfortunately, I think I threw away my Coleman "guest bed" style air mattress. Someone who's got one should do this experiment with an air mattress and a CPAP machine. Fill the mattress with a CPAP set at 4 cmH2O and see if it's properly inflated.

When I used to inflate my air mattress, I noticed that the pressure generated by the air pump was rather low. It didn't feel like more than CPAP pressure. When I had to blow it up by mouth, it wasn't a lot of pressure, you just had to keep blowing for a long time.

Lacking an air mattress, I tried a plastic shopping bag, a large ziploc bag, and a 55 gallon drum liner trash bag.

It was interesting to play with it as the CPAP machine inflated the bags.

At 4 cmH2O, the trash bag got filled very taught and full. It was tight enough that you could thump on it a bit like a drum and hear sound. At 17 cm, I could barely hold the bag around the end of the hose with my hands.

The shopping bag and ziploc bag were easier to control, but still felt surprisingly strongly inflated. At 17 cm, the shopping bags would tear along the seam and start leaking air.

The ziploc bag was interesting as an analogy of the air mattress since it doesn't stretch and seals well. Once filled with 4 cm air, it was fairly stiff when you put weight on it.

[archangle]

regular cpap, 20cm/h20 *max*.

aaaaand, if you put that into a conversion calculator which you can find through that google thing, 20cm/h2o comes out to about 0.284466866686 PSI.

so, for you to be able to comfortably lay on your air mattress... you'd have to be VERY light, otherwise you'd sink to the floor, based on the mattress pressure mapping information one can easily find on the net:

This made sense at first, but I think it's a little more complicated. After playing with a ziploc bag and 4 cm pressure I realized what's wrong.

My "guest bed" style air mattress is made from very non-stretchy plastic/fabric material. You inflate it until it's full and just beginning to resist the pressure. Up until the point it's full, there's very little pressure inside. If you then lie down on the mattress, you compress the air in the bag, which doesn't stretch much. The air in the bag is at 15 psi (absolute). If you compress the bag by 10% by lying on it, you would have about 1.5 psi pressure, even if there is 0 psi with the bag inflated with no weight.

Play with a ziploc bag, and the mechanics of the situation may become clearer.

However, to be sure, we really do need someone to try it with real air mattresses and CPAP machines.

[BlackSpinner]

[quote="archangle"

However, to be sure, we really do need someone to try it with real air mattresses and CPAP machines.[/quote]

No we don't - our bodies are not made of the same materials. We leak air from both ends. We breathe in and out. You can tell this by the fact that people who have CA's on cpap machines do not inflate. Their throats are open but they are not breathing.

People who break ribs using cpap are in deep shit healthwise.

[chunkyfrog]

And we are painfully aware of the failings of "infallible" doctors.
As well as the determination of patients who do not want to wear the mask--even if it kills them.