My remedy for aerophagia

I'm still in the process of evaluating the exact impact of my septoplasty and turbinectomy (I'll write about that a bit later), but in the process I discovered something that may help others, so I thought I'd share my experience.

One of the issues with the recovery was the need to protect the septum from physical impact and, for that reason, my surgeon had asked me to not sleep on my stomach, as I normally do. With my hiatal hernia, sleeping on my stomach had helped keep the lower esophageal sphincter closed, thus reducing the effect of aerophagia, but sleeping on my back in the early days after the surgery, brought the problem back... until I had this idea to use my back support, neoprene trainer belt (around $10 online) while sleeping. I'd just tighten it more and position it a bit higher than normal - centered around stomach-level - and it would make a big difference. Now that I can sleep on my stomach again, I still use it and it reduces aerophagia to practically nothing. As always, your mileage may vary, but I thought I'd just share my experience as it's easy and cheap to try, and it may help someone else.

McSleepy

Thank you! Sharing your tip may indeed help someone else. Very nice of you to do it.

Thank you for the tip! I struggle with aerophagia even when I'm not using my cpap.

Also, how are you doing after the septoplasty/turbinectomy? I had mine a month and a half ago, and my problem turbinate is swelling up again... I'm going in soon to get re-evaluated.

kittyk4y wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 16, 2019 11:21 pm

Thank you for the tip! I struggle with aerophagia even when I'm not using my cpap.

Also, how are you doing after the septoplasty/turbinectomy? I had mine a month and a half ago, and my problem turbinate is swelling up again... I'm going in soon to get re-evaluated.

I'm glad I could help!

Last night I had quite a setback in that my nasal passages shrunk enough to keep me from sleeping all night, for the first time since the initial swelling got down, a couple of weeks after the surgery. I still believe the surgery was a success but I'm still recovering from it, so I can't pass judgment yet. Also, before, I was on steroids, antihistamines and oral decongestants and had higher pressure, so it should still be considered an improvement. My surgeon suggested it will take another couple of months until I can be considered fully recovered (my next appointment is end of September). It may not be prefect in that I may need a lot of fine-tuning (pressure, humidity levels, daytime moisturizing, etc.) but I think it'll be much better than before. I'll write a full report once the surgeon says I'm recovered.

McSleepy