Now One month on CPAP and may give up.

[ringo728]

I've now been on CPAP for about one month. I've been alternating between the nasal mask and nasal pillows to reach a decision on what I like best but haven't made a decision yet. I do sleep on average 7 hours per night so I have accomplished getting through the night. My first couple of weeks went well but now the honeymoon seems to be over. I am being aggravated by some rather irritating side effects. One is stomach gas bloating and a change in bowel habits which I never had before CPAP. What happens to your body in this so called healing process? I have constipation and feeling out of sorts. I'm using fiber supplements to help. Secondly, I don't know what to set my temperature and humidifier at. I am presently setting it at 75 degrees with a 3.5 humidifier setting. I live in the midwest and I sleep in a cool room with a room humidity level of 30 to 40%. Now my nose is stuffy and feel like I have a sinus issue. What should I try on both? I still get tired during the day on some days. Other days I'm not. I don't see the sleep doctor until May 17th but maybe I should be calling him sooner than later because I don't know if I can keep going. Maybe this is a real mental thing to get through before it gets better. I'm getting pretty discouraged.

[Wulfman...]

That isn't much information to go on.

What are your machine settings? (pressure, EPR, humidity, etc.)

Are you using software? Do you download your data and review the reports?
Along with that category, do you check the leak numbers?

Are you taking any medications? Some of those could affect your "bowel habits".
"Stomach bloating" could be "aerophagia" (ingesting too much air from CPAP therapy).......look that up in the Search line above.

Are you using any nasal decongestion products?
Are you doing any nasal cleansing before bedtime?

"Giving up" is NOT an option. Especially since you just started.


Den

.

[allen476]

I've now been on CPAP for about one month. I've been alternating between the nasal mask and nasal pillows to reach a decision on what I like best but haven't made a decision yet. I do sleep on average 7 hours per night so I have accomplished getting through the night. My first couple of weeks went well but now the honeymoon seems to be over. I am being aggravated by some rather irritating side effects. One is stomach gas bloating and a change in bowel habits which I never had before CPAP. What happens to your body in this so called healing process? I have constipation and feeling out of sorts. I'm using fiber supplements to help. Secondly, I don't know what to set my temperature and humidifier at. I am presently setting it at 75 degrees with a 3.5 humidifier setting. I live in the midwest and I sleep in a cool room with a room humidity level of 30 to 40%. Now my nose is stuffy and feel like I have a sinus issue. What should I try on both? I still get tired during the day on some days. Other days I'm not. I don't see the sleep doctor until May 17th but maybe I should be calling him sooner than later because I don't know if I can keep going. Maybe this is a real mental thing to get through before it gets better. I'm getting pretty discouraged.

As Den said it is Aerophagia. Search for some remedies.

Stuffy nose is from too much humidity. Sinus issues can be related to breathing too cool air. Turn up the temperature a little and turn down the humidity.

Constipation can be a side effect. Your body slows down your bowels while sleeping.

[khauser]

Actually, humidity is very much a personal choice. So if you have a clogged nose and you have humidity set high, try a lower setting, but if it is low, try a higher setting. 3.5 is middle-ish so try one or the other, and if it gets worse go the other way.

HOWEVER, your nasal issues could be because allergy season is among us. If that's the case, you may need to take some steps to deal with that to get decent CPAP therapy.

Aerophagia, or swallowing air, can be a side effect, but it does have the ability to be treated. It would help to know your hardware and settings. Generally exhale pressure relief might be useful (EPR or Resmed, AFlex or CFlex on Respironics, other brands have similar settings). If that's insufficient you might benefit from BiPap therapy.

Let us know more specifics and we'll be even more helpful!

[Pugsy]

The nasal congestion could be from either too much added moisture or too little added moisture. There is no right or wrong when it comes to personal humidity needs. It's all highly individualized. I need LOTS of added moisture. Wulfman needs minimal added moisture. I had horrible nasal problems when I reduced my humidifier to 1...took me 3 days to get over it.

If you have a choice on your S9 for both temperature and humidity then you have the Climateline hose and it is set up for manual control vs automatic control.
75 degrees at a setting of 3.5 is going to deliver only a small amount of added moisture.

Try setting the Climateline control to "Automatic" and see how you do. You need to go into the clinical setup menu to do this.
Then set it for your 75 degrees if you like that temperature. The humidity delivered will be more constant automatically and more than what you are getting now. There's a good chance it will help with the congestion.
You aren't getting much added moisture now...a little more moisture may help with the congestion.
This is something that each person has to sort through.
You have been using a low humidity setting and are congested...maybe you need more...give it a try and see. Nothing to lose.

Aerophagia...can be dealt with with various measures.
Are you using EPR? If so at what setting?
Wonder if the belly air is adding to the constipation???
What pressure are you now using?

There's nothing going on here with you that hasn't been faced by hundreds of other people...bumps in the cpap road but they can be managed.

[caffeinatedcfo]

Ringo,

DO NOT give up. Let us help you through these obstacles. That's the beauty of this community - we're all here to help and support each other.

If you can get your data and post it here that will give us some good information and then we can give you better advice. Humidity is a personal preference, but I agree with the above that perhaps 3.5 is a bit too high. I use 3.0 and it's perfect. I've heard some people only use 2.0.

I too get a bit of aerophagia, more so when I side-sleep. However, I just perform some easy stretching exercises before getting out of bed that helps to relieve a lot of it.

1. While laying on your back and bring one knee to you chest while leaving the other straight. It doesn't have to touch, just raise it to whatever you're comfortable with. Hold this for 10 seconds. Then switch legs.

2. Repeat #1 three times.

3. Now bring both knees up to your chest (or as close as comfortable). Hold this position and gently roll from side to side just a little each way. You don't need to go all the way to your side, just 10-20 degrees is enough. Roll back and forth for 30 seconds.

This gets the gas moving through your bowels and it usually finds its way out, producing immediate relief. If that isn't enough, try making time for a brief walk when you get up. Walking also helps move gas out of your system. On bad days, I have also taken one Gas-X softgel with my morning coffee.

Good luck and stay with it. Your body is adjusting and will settle down.

Best,
Kevin

[Kenwood]

Don't give up so quickly......give it some time to see if these things can be worked out. You will be added years to your life by using CPAP.

[ringo728]

Thanks for all the support. I was originally diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea in early March with an average of 19.6 events per hour. You have to understand that when the machine and humidifier were delivered to me at my hospital home equipment center, the RT at this center had all of the settings installed on my machine per my sleep doctor's (who is a pulmonologist) instructions. The only settings I've messed with is the humidity and temp. I also have set the ramp at 5 minutes instead of the 15 minutes which was originally set. It starts at a pressure of 4 and goes up from there. The pressure setting in the little window reads 7.6. but the range says it's in between 5 and 10. Is the 7.6 set by the doctor or is that what I'm set to use each night? This number hasn't changed. You have to understand that all of this is alien to me. I did call the RT at the hospital equipment center about the air in the stomach problem and he told me to set the EPR which was set a 1 to 3 for better exhalation. I did this. I think he thought I was some kind of nut complaining of a bloated belly and said that it could be a virus and nothing else. Is the aeorphagia worse with the pillows or the nose mask? I am so frustrated! I'm under the impression that I can't change anything without consulting the sleep doctor first. Also, I'll try a lower humidification and a little higher temperature tonight and see how it goes. All your comments are deeply appreciated!! Whatever you folks can say will help me communicate with the sleep doctor. Thanks so much again!

[letsride]

Hang in there.
Many people get bloated from the Cpap. It took me 4 years to figure out the right combination. The right mask / Cpap machine / Settings.
I recommend downloading ResScan to see what is going on with you.
Your learning curve will be short with the help of this forum.

We recommend you work with your Doctor / Sleep center.

I feel energized everyday with the help of my therapy.

[Denial Dave]

you'd be amazed what a difference of lowering your IPAP pressure by 1 will do

I started out back in September at 21/15 and had really painful aerophagia each morning....

I lowered my IPAP to 20 in December & it helped quite a bit and eliminated the pain... but the gassiness was still bad and annoying in public during the day.

After 30 days at 20, I tried a setting of 19.... all was great, no aerophagia or gas. I'm now at 19.4 and have no signs of aerophagia at all

My nightly AHI ranges from 0.3 to 1.2 these days.

Kepp trying, you will succeed!!

[ringo728]

I went back to the nasal mask last night from the pillows and my AHI reading this morning was .03 but I am still gassy and bloaty. I also have been hit with seasonal allergies because I feel congested in the head. I'll call the sleep doctor today and get his opinion and I'll post back. Thanks again!

[hyperlexis]

I went back to the nasal mask last night from the pillows and my AHI reading this morning was .03 but I am still gassy and bloaty. I also have been hit with seasonal allergies because I feel congested in the head. I'll call the sleep doctor today and get his opinion and I'll post back. Thanks again!

He will put you on a FF mask because of the allergies.

To help alleviate the gas/aerophagia try this technique>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-65JWNBttnE

[quietmorning]

I went back to the nasal mask last night from the pillows and my AHI reading this morning was .03 but I am still gassy and bloaty. I also have been hit with seasonal allergies because I feel congested in the head. I'll call the sleep doctor today and get his opinion and I'll post back. Thanks again!

Ringo, I have really very serious allergies, both nasal and bronchial - because I'm on a beta blocker, the only thing I can take is CTM (Chlor-Trimeton) - but it works VERY well for me. I am on the 12 hour version 24/7 year round. I never get off of it. You can't find it in pharmacies any longer - so I order it from AMAZON as a subscription order.

I also have an air purifier in the bedroom during the worst parts of they year - and if I get stuffed up, I go sit in my bedroom and my nasal passages clear in about thirty minutes. Then I rinse my nose with saline to get any left over particles out of it (can't do this while my sinuses are swollen shut) and go back to the room and read until it's time to sleep.

Being aggressive with your allergies may be a better option than changing masks if your mask works for you.

I cannot take allergy shots, nor do the prick test as I'm allergic to the prick test it self and tend toward anaphylactic shock. I'm gong to talk to my new doctor this Friday about how to use local honey in place of the allergy shots to try to help myself out a bit.

If you take an allergy med, and it works for you, see if you can find the twelve or twenty four hour version (if you haven't already) to get you all the way through the night. Also, in the morning (I say this because a decongestant can really wonk out your sleep) take a decongestant to keep those nasal passages draining.

Hope this helps. Please keep after your health. It IS a FIGHT for the first year. . .but aren't you worth that fight?

[ringo728]

I called the hospital sleep center doctor today but discovered that he won't be back in the center until Friday . I vented my frustrations about the stomach bloating to the RT tech. She said that this wasn't a normal complaint especially with an auto CPAP machine and with such low pressures that were set by the doctor at between 5 to 10 . I'm averaging 7.6 pressure for the last 30 days and my AHI levels have ranged between .3 to 1.3. After reading all the posts regarding this condition I really can't believe this was new to her . Regarding the irregularity I see my regular physician tomorrow. Since then I have taken a wicked brew of apple juice, prune juice and plum smart and a 45 minute walk. It worked and the block has broken . However, I was told by my daughter to start a probiotic like Align. I started that yesterday. She said that I suffer from anxiety anyway (diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and this new CPAP therapy was a big change and challenge in my life which could have thrown off a lot of negative gut issues. Probiotics may help resolve this. Anxiety over this past month could have put me into such stress that my gut has taken a beating. I'll still keep plugin away at getting used to this thing. Sleep doctor will give his recommendations this Friday. Any thoughts from you folks?

[caffeinatedcfo]

My DME is basically a numb-skull, too. He couldn't believe all the trouble I reported with my quattro ffm - said he's never heard of it being a problem.

I'm no expert on anxiety disorder, but remember we're all built different. 10cm seemed like gale force winds when I started therapy a few weeks ago. Now it's pretty much my entire night. My pressures average between 9-12 and I get a little aerophagia if I side-sleep.