Swallowing air

ellijacket · Post by **ellijacket** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:39 pm

Have used my machine 5 nights (39 hours of run time over those nights). I have a pressue of 13.

I am having a terrible time with swallowing air. I wake up in the night and burp huge amounts, I get the hiccups, and I have an incredible amount of gas in the morning. I could win any contest I entered if it was held before 7:00am!

Anyway, I didn't have this happen during my sleep study. The only difference I can think of is that my chinstrap at the study was very tight and I don't wear mine at home as tightly.

Any ideas on how to stop this?

TXKajun · Post by **TXKajun** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:05 pm

elli, what you have is aerophagia. Here's a link to the definition and some treatments. viewtopic.php?t=3831

Also, you may want to do a search on topics for aerophagia and gas and bloating (not all at the same time, though! LOL)

Good luck.

This therapy WORKS!!!

dsm · Post by **dsm** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:25 pm

Elli,

What type of machine ?
- If Remstar are you using CFLEX & What setting for that ?
What type of mask ?

Cheers

DSM

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:59 pm

ellie, I'd ask the doctor if it would be ok to lower the pressure to a level that doesn't cause you that kind of trouble...especially if the bloating is painful. Even if it's not painful, it can be disrupting to sleep. Then start raising it gradually every few nights as you get used to it.

Better yet, get an autopap. It may be that you can spend much of the night with lower pressures taking care of things fine, with the machine going up to 13 only when needed. It might be that there are only a few brief minutes during the night that the full 13 is actually needed.

Also...chinstraps do absolutely NOTHING to stop mouth air leaks no matter how tightly they are cinched up IF the tongue cannot hold an airtight seal within the mouth. Do a search also for "mouth air leak".

ellijacket · Post by **ellijacket** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:10 pm

It's a REMStar Pro with c-flex set to 3.

Mask is a Comfort Gel
_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): C-FLEX

dsm · Post by **dsm** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:33 pm

ellijacket wrote:It's a REMStar Pro with c-flex set to 3.

Mask is a Comfort Gel
_________________

Two experiments to try.

1) Follow advice of RG re trying lower cms & raising slowly each night
2) Set CFLEX to 1 or even off & use ramp to get you underway.

If you try 2 (esp if CFLEX right off), pls let me know what happens.

Cheers & good luck.

DSM

momexp5 · Post by **momexp5** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:41 am

After several months on CPAP with aerophagia continuing, I will soon be switching from a CPAP to a BiPAP to address the aerophagia - have doctor's prescription, calling the DME after posting here. I am a small woman - I started at a straight 8 on a REMStar Plus, which got lowered to 7 - now I'll be going to 8 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale. I'll be insisting on BiFlex as well. I will let people here know if it helps.

ellijacket · Post by **ellijacket** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:17 am

Started doing a little research based on responses. I noticed that I only have the hiccups at night when I lay on my right side. I only had 8 apneas/hour on my right side during my studey vs. 138/hour when on my back. I decided to stay off my side last night and see if there was a difference since I would need much less pressue on my side than my back.

Also, my wife bought me a pillow that allows my head to lay straight back with neck support instead of being angled up thus pushing my chin towards my chest.

Results, hardly any swallowed air issues to report. Had a little but was very, very mild compared to before.

Thanks for the advice. Just finished night number 7 and am using all night long. My wife was up most of the night and she said my breathing was perfect and she didn't notice me stopping breathing at any time.

Thanks.