What's appropriate to ask of DME?

I have already done that, Den, but thank you for mentioning it in case I hadn't found that yet. I am personally an obsessive information gatherer, always looking to be well informed...but on this particular subject, it seems like very little is under my own control other than what I've done. I am so new to this that I am not confident enough to start tweaking my own settings, especially since I had a large number of central apneas on my sleep study (in fact more than half), and I'm afraid to do anything, with my limited knowledge, with the settings might affect that part of it adversely. I will most certainly bring up the subject with my doc, though, when I see him on the 28th. It seems like most reasonable doctors would be open to a couple weeks of APAP just to see what levels are actually being needed, etc., but who says all docs are reasonable? I'm somewhat surprised that a doctor would be willing to let patients go a whole month on CPAP without discussing their sleep study with them or assessing the situation personally, but I guess they are confident in the information they glean from the one-week report the DME sends and feel they don't need more.

Peggy

pjwalman wrote:I ended up with an average AHI of 10 when I went in for my one-week appointment with the DME. The apneas range from 1.6 to 9.2, most days being in the 3-5 range. Strangely enough, the 9.2 came from a one-hour nap, and it kind of skewed the average. The hypopneas range was from 1.3 to 3.8.

You're right, Peggy, that the 9.2 from a one hour nap probably skewed your data considerably. I'd throw that number out and go by what the rest of your data showed. If most nights during that first week were in an AHI range of 3 - 5, sounds like you're off to a good start.

Oh, crud! The aerophagia doesn't get better as you get used to the machine??? [Expletive!!!] I've been telling myself just to be patient.

There are no hard and fast rules about whether aerophagia will eventually go away or not. Some people on the message boards have reported that it did stop after they had used cpap for awhile (how long, dunno.) And some have reported it subsided to the point it no longer bothered them most of the time.

Many do continue to have it. Some find either an APAP or bilevel machine relieves it. Some get no relief from it no matter what machine they use.

If a person has a damaged "LES" (lower esophageal sphincter) from years of untreated or undertreated acid reflux disease (and there's such a thing as "Silent GERD" -- having acid reflux but having no symptoms you'd notice), that weakened LES could allow air to be shoved the wrong way -- into your stomach -- resulting in aerophagia. If the LES is weak enough, some people continue to have aerophagia from even the lowest pressure, and from any type of machine.

At least one message board poster that I recall, had a procedure called Nissen fundoplication done, to repair a severely damaged LES.

With luck, your aerophagia will subside. If not, and if APAP mode or a bilevel machine doesn't help, you might want to have an ENT check out the LES. Heck, might be a good idea to see an ENT anyway, as nightly acid baths are not good for the esophagus, period.