Constant Aerophagia

[dtorpey]

Therapy started in February and I have been battling Aerophagia nearly the whole time. Doctor put me on an acid inhibitor to counteract the heartburn/reflux that it was causing (though it still sometimes exists). Burping all day and stomach pressures is constant. For a week now, however, I have felt very fatigued and I can't figure out why.

I have been retrying a wedge pillow for a few nights now, no improvement.

I generally fall asleep on my left side, but more than half the time, wake up on my back.

https://sleephq.com/public/teams/share_ ... edf4f17f23

[Pugsy]

You may need to reduce your pressure settings in small increments to see if you can get to a point you don't have the aerophagia bothering you so much...like reducing the max setting by .2 cm increments. This option will take some time.

How did you or your medical team come up with the settings you are currently using?
They sure aren't very high but you aren't the first person to have significant aerophagia with rather low pressures.

Another option is to back way up with the pressures and work upwards monitoring data to evaluate the results as far as therapy effectiveness and aerophagia relief.
Like start at 4 minimum and 6 maximum and EPR at 2..or 4 min and 7 max with EPR at 3.
This might be a faster option.

[dtorpey]

I was initially started on the standard 4-20 (through Lofta). After my first follow up (complaining about Aerophagia), the tech lowered me to 4-7.6.

based on advice from the board here and other sources, I have been raising my minimum to avoid larger spikes during reactionary events.

it's kind of a weird toss up between getting the lowest pressure versus stability and good sleep.

[zonker]

did you try pugsys suggestion in your other post? she said set epr at 3. did you try that yest?

[dtorpey]

i raised my ERP to 3, but forgot to put my SD card back in. i'll run it for three nights and see what happens.

[Pugsy]

it's kind of a weird toss up between getting the lowest pressure versus stability and good sleep.

Sometimes we have to make compromises when we have aerophagia and it's the pressure causing it.

wiki/index.php/Aerophagia

If the bulk of the apnea flags you are seeing are CA/centrals the machine won't/can't treat those or prevent them.
The machine responds to OAs, hyponeas, flow limitations and snores with more pressure but in your case it's the pressure feeding the aerophagia monster. Gotta try to find a happy medium if possible.

BTW just changing EPR to 3 won't do a damn thing if your minimum is 5.8 and the max is 7.6. You have to have room available between inhale and exhale for there to be a 3 cm difference if you want to use 3 EPR.
So you can decide what the max you want to try and then set the minimum 3 cm lower (or more depending on what you want the max to be).
Example with your 5.8 min and 7.6 max you can only achieve 1.8 cm difference between inhale and exhale so essentially EPR is only 1.8.
Another example.... minimum of 4 and max of 6 gives you 2 cm difference even if you set EPR at 3....you can't get the 3 cm drop unless there is enough room for the 3 cm drop during exhale.

So if you changed EPR and didn't change your minimum and max settings....it won't do anything.