Musculoskeletal Aches and Pains

[Janknitz]

One of the unexpected bonuses of CPAP treatment for me was that all my musculoskeletal aches and pains disappeared, almost miraculously! I had "rusty joints" throughout, but my worst things were neck and shoulder pain that had a baseline of 7 out of 10 on the perceived pain scale and often the pain was worse than that. Within about 2 months of starting CPAP, almost ALL the pain was gone.

Well, it's back, with a vengance. I haven't looked at my data in a while, but I suspect that something there is going on. My nose is really sore and irritated still, so I don't tolerate the nasal pillows and even a nasal mask (mirage micro) is bothersome--I think seasonal allergies may be a problem, so I've been using the Quattro almost exclusively.

Many nights that darn Quattro is leaky, no matter what I do. I use my own techniques for "taming" , have a pacacheeks mask liner and anti-leak strap, and still have some leakage, especially at the bridge of my very narrow nose. I actually registered a 1% "large leak" for the first time ever on my machine last week--that will be a fun graph to look at!

My AHI's have been good, and up until the past two weeks I've been feeling OK, but now my body is screaming at me. Not just the usual shoulder and neck stuff I always had, but lately my back, knees, hips as well. I suspect that when I take a look at my graphs (will make time to do that this weekend) that I will see that the leaks are causing issues. Then I have to figure out what to do about masks--I haven't a clue. This is one of those times I'm really envious of ResMed owners, because if I had a resmed I could just look at the data instead of all the rigamarole to download my card to Encore.

[Otter]

At least you've got a pretty good idea what to do about it. I hope you're right and you can fix this just by tweaking your pressure settings.

Please keep us posted. I'm very interested in the link between OSA and fibromyalgia or other creakiness.

[Hawthorne]

Have you seen a doctor about these added painful areas? Have you been diagnosed with some kind of arthritis? Sorry if you have already told us this but I would wonder.

I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and, while the cpap helps me sleep well so that I can better cope with the pain, I do go into flares periodically with all my affected joints being very painful and it has nothing to do with sleep apnea. When I am going through a flare, my sleep is fragmented and I wake a few times in the night with pain.

[robysue]

One of the unexpected bonuses of CPAP treatment for me was that all my musculoskeletal aches and pains disappeared, almost miraculously! I had "rusty joints" throughout, but my worst things were neck and shoulder pain that had a baseline of 7 out of 10 on the perceived pain scale and often the pain was worse than that. Within about 2 months of starting CPAP, almost ALL the pain was gone.

Well, it's back, with a vengance. I haven't looked at my data in a while, but I suspect that something there is going on. My nose is really sore and irritated still, so I don't tolerate the nasal pillows and even a nasal mask (mirage micro) is bothersome--I think seasonal allergies may be a problem, so I've been using the Quattro almost exclusively.

Same story here: The only genuinely positive difference I've noticed in my seven month long adventure into hosehead land was that about 3 1/2 to 4 months into therapy all my minor aches and pains had magically disappeared. And I had been officially diagnosed with minor arthritis in the past.

But the pain is back (not quite as bad as before) with the beginning of tree pollen season. Along with the sniffly nose, more bad snoring nights, and just plain bad sleep in general, along with an uptick in AHI from the 1.0--1.5 range to 2.0--2.5 range it seems like.

[Janknitz]

I haven't looked at the data yet, but I must have been coming down with something yesterday as I started to feel worse as the day progressed--although it's been coming on for a week or two. I posted too soon

I have a history of this weird thing where I get all the symptoms of a fever--chills, very painful body aches, "squinchy" stomach, but nothing else. Sometimes I actually run a fever up to 104, but often there's NO fever at all. I've been through every test in the book and nothing ever shows up. I can give you a long list of what it's NOT.

When I posted yesterday, that was brewing, just didn't realize it since it's been quite a few years since I've had a bout of my mystery disease. I left work early, took Tylenol and laid down with my CPAP on, and felt much better after a rest. That was kind of new, because before CPAP lying down when I felt so bad didn't help at all--I'd still be in a lot of pain and often could not sleep because of it.

Sometimes this mysterious thing lasts only hours, and sometimes weeks at a time. I feel better today--shoulders and back are still hurting but the rest of my body is not. And I got some good, restful sleep with my CPAP--it wasn't leaking much last night either.

PS: Yes, I do have diagnosed osteoarthritis in my shoulders with bone spurs. That's why I was so surprised to NOT have much pain at all during the past year--something I definitely attribute to CPAP.

[kempo]

Have you ever checked in to this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension_myositis_syndrome

Here is a forum for it. http://tmshelp.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=2

I would recommend reading these books by Dr. Sarno. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_ ... John+Sarno

I hope you find a solution for your pain, good luck!

[Janknitz]

Lovely, a psychosomatic illness caused by repressed emotions

I generally don't stop my activities when I have bouts of this, simply because I'm not any more comfortable resting than I am doing my normal activities--I just get on with life. It's uncomfortable, but it's clearly not going to kill me. Going home early yesterday was very unusual for me--I only did so because it was a slow day and I was done with my work.

I also don't get too wrapped up in it--it's just an annoyance and very rare these days--it's been several years since my last bout. It was more frequent in my younger days. I can get good short term relief from the pain with Ibuprofen usually--don't know too many psychosomatic illnesses that respond so well to that. Yesterday I could not take Ibuprofen because I'd already taken Alleve in the morning for my back pain.

[kempo]

I read a couple of Sarno's books and they helped me. Anyways, have a nice weekend.

[schneider4]

I've been on CPAP for 5 nights now, and I too have noticed a significant improvement in a few nagging aches and pains. In particular, after a fall skiing in late February I had either fractured or badly bruised some ribs, and they were taking their sweet time clearing up. Last night, when I rolled onto my right side I realized that the pain in those ribs was completely gone!

[JointPain]

Well, as you might guess I've had a fair bit of joint pain lately (and I chose my nym the day before this thread was started).

And I've not been a compliant CPAP user recently, so perhaps there is a link.

I did see my doctor about my joint pain a while ago, but they couldn't find any signs of RA.

Since I'm now going to be a good hose jockey, we'll see if the joint pain improves.

[Janknitz]

I had absolutely NO expectation that my pain would be helped with CPAP but it was the only change in my life I could attribute the reduction in pain to--whether it was from better sleep or better oxygenation I don't know but it's been a very nice "side effect".

[robysue]

Like Jan, I had no expectation that the xPAP would do anything at all for my daily nagging low grade pain---pain that I'd learned long ago to ignore on a daily basis since it was not a big issue. I'd take ibuprofen as needed---mainly in cold wet weather.

Unlike Jan, the absence of pain was until recently the only positive change since starting xPAP. So that one "side effect" disappearing is noticed. *sigh*