Stomach pain

Hi,

I've been searching, reading, and trying to become more informed about my OSA. This is my first post here so forgive me if I seem to be muddling through.

I was diagnosed with sever apnea in Feb 2009. My sleep study was done while I was having some health problems. I used to be a diabetic, alcohol and drug abuser, had high blood pressure, and alot of anxiety. I was in the process of cleaning my life up and I've been clean and sober since March 2009. Since then, I've managed to control my blood sugar and lowered my BP with diet and exercise but at the time of my sleep study I was still drinking some, abusing xanax, and taking metformin.

My sleep doctor told me I had the worse case of apnea he had ever diagnosed. He said I was having 140 apnea event per hour and prescribed my CPAP (equipment listed with profile) therapy with pressure setting of 17. This study was done on one night. I've been using the CPAP every day since it was delivered. At first, I had real difficulties with the pressure and he lowered the pressure to 13. I had some initial gas and bloating but those issues went away after I got used to the CPAP. I actually started really feeling good and rested.

Here is the reason for my post, this past spring I started having severe stomach pains, massive amount of gas and diarrhea. The gas wakes me up after 3-4 hours and the diarrhea is always soon to follow. I've had a full GI workup and the GI doctor could not find anything to cause these symptoms. The only thing he told me was I had a very inflamed duodenum. He diagnosed this as IBS and prescribed dicyclomine for the cramping and pain and told me to modify my diet, take fiber supplements, and probiotics. Yes, Imodium does stop the diarrhea temporarily but nothing works for the gas or pain and the diarrhea returns once the Imodium has run its course. This has been going on for almost six months. No pun intended but my life is in the crapper.

OK. I should be more informed about my OSA than I am and that's what I'm trying to do but here is the thing. Last week, I decided to try a few days without CPAP just to see if my stomach issues persisted. To my delight, those symptoms have gone away. Yes, it has only been a week but I was having severe pain every single day since these issues started. I've talked with my sleep doctor about this and he assures me it is only a coincidence. Of course, now that I'm not using CPAP, I'm very tired and fatigued. I've also talked to my GP about all of this and he has scheduled another sleep study.

My question to the forum is this: Have any of you had a similar experience with persistent stomach pain, gas, and/or diarrhea? Could the things that were going on with my health have skewed the sleep study? Could too much pressure cause these issues?

On a side note, I've asked my sleep doctor for a copy of my study and stats of my CPAP therapy but he does not want to provide the information for some reason . I don't understand his reluctance. I want to know more about what is going on with my sleep therapy. Can you suggest a card reader and software that works well with my equipment and will help me understand and monitor my therapy?

Thanks in advance. I really would appreciate any relevant information.

Yes, I do use a full face mask.

You need to modify your equipment profile to allow other users to see your equipment and select "type" to make it easy to read.

I do not have that problem but reading posts here it sounds to me (no doctor just a fellow hosehead) like you need increased exhalation relief...EPR (Resmed) or Aflec or Cflex (Respironics) to help with the gas. If increasing these don't help, you might need to get a biPAP machine...that's a machine that blows one pressure for inhale and a lower one for exhale. Some get relief from that 'gas in the stomach' (that descends lower) when increasing their machine's exhale relief, other do not.

Likely some who've battled that fight will post and offer some suggestions.

Did you also happen to have a change in diet at the same time?

I would want to see what happens if you try the experiment the other way (starting PAP therapy again) without changing your diet or other factors. If the diarrhea returns, then try quitting again and starting again. I'm not yet convinced that it is correlated with PAP therapy, just because it happened to go away at the same time you quit therapy.

I failed to mention earlier that I usually never remember by dreams. However, since stopping CPAP I have been remembering very strange dreams that wake me and I'll be very sweaty. The only other time I remember waking up sweaty is when I was a heavy drinker.

I also failed to mention that since I've stopped using CPAP at night, I've tried to take a nap a couple of times with CPAP. I know, naps are bad. I have never been a napper except for when I was really young but since I'm only sleeping 3-4 hours a night without CPAP, I thought it might help my fatigue and general tiredness. The only other naps I've taken is the occasional dosing off watching TV... Anyway, these couple of 1-2 hour naps with CPAP have resulted with the big time gas returning. This has to be related to aerophagia but I hardly ever have burps.

As for the C-flex setting, it is at 3 (least exhalation pressure setting).