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FlyingMoose wrote:I have been through all that, multiple times, including more EKGs and blood enzyme tests than I can count, 3 echocardiograms, even a catheterization with contrast, which showed 0% blockages, and am under the care of a cardiologist, who agrees that it is being caused by CPAP, and that is it better to continue to use CPAP despite the pain because it is still better than OSA. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on tests for something that I pretty much knew from the start is caused by CPAP, and I am glad that I now know for sure.

After going through all that testing, discussions with your cardiologist and knowing that CPAP causes chest pains in some people, why are you worried about what some people on this forum say?

Susie Kay wrote:After going through all that testing, discussions with your cardiologist and knowing that CPAP causes chest pains in some people, why are you worried about what some people on this forum say?

Because I would like to hear suggestions from others who have solved this problem about how they solved it. There are plenty of posts about aerophagia, for example, with lots of helpful information, but every thread about chest pain seems to devolve into people saying to go to the ER and anecdotes about heart attacks, even though it seems to be fairly commonly caused by CPAP.

For a short period of time I slept in a recliner at night, every morning I would be sore in the chest area. It only lasted a few minutes in the morning. I got a replacement bed (why I was using the recliner) and the issue went away. While I was using CPAP survey night it had nothing to do with CPAP, and everything to do with position sleeping.

BTW, I have CHF (congestive heart failure) and deal with heat related pain on a daily basis. CPAP is not a contributing factor and actually helps at times.

FlyingMoose wrote:Because I would like to hear suggestions from others who have solved this problem about how they solved it.

How bad is this pain? Does it interfere with sleeping?

Can you not just ignore it?

What about physical activity? Are you in good shape? Do you use the gym regularly?

I find the gym will cure many problems and it is also a lot of fun.

We get all kinds on the forum, people that do nothing to people that could write books. Since you have already checked out that you are NOT having heart problems, just say so when you start a new thread, some may still ask because they missed it in your post. or the subject "chest pain, not my heart"

VVV wrote:

FlyingMoose wrote:Because I would like to hear suggestions from others who have solved this problem about how they solved it.

How bad is this pain? Does it interfere with sleeping?

Can you not just ignore it?

What about physical activity? Are you in good shape? Do you use the gym regularly?

I find the gym will cure many problems and it is also a lot of fun.

It is fairly mild, 1 or 2 out of 10. It's never woken me up. But it aches all day. I can ignore it but it's an annoyance, all day, every day.

I walk 5-7 miles a day, and the hills are fairly steep around here. I'm not in great shape but not bad shape either.

It only happens when I sleep on my stomach. If I sleep on my side, I don't have any pain the next day, but I am usually woken up several times by aerophagia. Now I am getting acid reflux from that.

So it's kind of a tradeoff, I either get aerophagia or an ache in my chest all day.

While this may not be relevant...

Does it hurt when you blow up a balloon?

PoolQ wrote:We get all kinds on the forum, people that do nothing to people that could write books. Since you have already checked out that you are NOT having heart problems, just say so when you start a new thread, some may still ask because they missed it in your post. or the subject "chest pain, not my heart"

or, just do like chunkyfrog did in her long breast cancer thread, and edit the title in the first post as the thread progresses.

FlyingMoose wrote:I walk 5-7 miles a day, and the hills are fairly steep around here.

WTF??? That's over two hours a day. Maybe that is why your damn chest hurts. What do you do with the rest of your time?

FlyingMoose wrote:It only happens when I sleep on my stomach. If I sleep on my side, I don't have any pain the next day, but I am usually woken up several times by aerophagia. Now I am getting acid reflux from that.

You ever tried sleeping on your damn back?

FlyingMoose wrote:It is fairly mild, 1 or 2 out of 10.

Cut the walking in half. With the time you save, join the gym and do some chest exercises https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... es+for+men

HoseCrusher wrote:
Does it hurt when you blow up a balloon?

The balloon hurts like hell.

Have you been checked out for a hiatal hernia?

So...it only happens when you sleep on your stomach but not when sleeping on your side....so assuming you are using cpap for both the variable is sleep position.
Have you tried stomach sleeping without cpap to see if it is the added cpap that causes the problem?
Not that I advocate doing that but you really don't know that cpap is the culprit....or maybe it's a combo problem.
Maybe the problem is related to stomach sleeping and might be present even if you didn't use cpap.

What you are describing is not something that we commonly see here. Usually the complaint about chest soreness related to cpap use is from newbies whose chest muscles get a bit of a work out and the issue is resolved with some time. What you are describing is not something that we normally see cpap veterans complain of plus you have narrowed it down to one sleeping position and not all sleeping positions which is what we would normally expect if it was related to cpap therapy.

I am not saying it isn't cpap related ....just to be clear...I am just saying that I tend to look at science experiments and monitor the variable when trying to establish a results pattern.

Julie, good catch!
Heart doctors only look at the heart.
HIATAL HERNIA, hmm, run that by the medics.
Sleeping on the stomach, it kind of fits.

Pugsy wrote:Have you tried stomach sleeping without cpap to see if it is the added cpap that causes the problem?

Pugsy, thank you for your analysis.

I have always slept on my stomach. The chest pain started the first night I used cpap, was pretty bad, but reduced over the first 2 weeks or so until it was almost but not totally gone. It does get significantly better as I get used to the cpap but never completely goes away. My back hurt for a week or so several weeks after I started but that went away and hasn't returned. Several times I have taken my CPAP off after a short amount of sleep and/or fallen asleep without it, and did not have any pain the next day, even though I slept on my stomach.

When I sleep on my side, I usually get soreness in my neck on whichever side is up when I'm sleeping.

So, it is probably related more to sleeping position and staying still all night, than it is to the pressure from the CPAP.

I am losing weight and I hope that helps, but it will be 6-9 months before I get to my goal weight (just low enough to not be considered "overweight")

Is there anything else possible to do about pain caused by sleeping position that goes away mostly but not totally over time?

DeadlySleep wrote:WTF??? That's over two hours a day. Maybe that is why your damn chest hurts. What do you do with the rest of your time?

I usually go for a 40-minute to 1-hour walk which is about 3 miles. The rest is just walking around my house and stuff during the day (I work at home), as logged by my FitBit. I have stairs in my house and usually log 10-20 flights a day.