30 Day Newbie with Questions.

Hello Folks,

A 30day newbie with a Philips BiPap machine.

The night of the second sleep study. I woke up after 4 hours of sleep ready to take on the world! (Until about 8 years ago I only slept 4 to 5 hour a night.) This is a feeling I have not had for 5 or 6 years. So I was excited to get my machine!

Well, the last 30 days have been a real treat. First night I made it 1.5 hours and bounced the hose and nasal pillow off the wall. Now things are better as they turned down the machine. I started at 24/20 then they went to 20/14 now 20/18, working my way back up.

The problem now is I seem to be eating / swallowing air. So after about 4 hours I wake up with a bloated stomach.

Any ideas on what I can do to help this problem?

Thanks

Capt. Chrysler

I would edit your post and change the subject to something about adjusting bipap pressures.....it will capture the interest of those on bipap that can help you best

are you using biflex... and if so what's it set to?

You can try sleeping on your left side. Helps keep the air out of your stomach.

I can't offer any advice re adjusting your bi-pap, but here is my experience with aerophagia.

I'm using a apap, but find that aerophagia was decreased by having a narrow range, using maximum of 3 cm EPR (exhale relief), and limiting the maximum pressure to whatever triggers aerophagia. In other words, finding the balance between a little less pressure and having a few apneas versus too high a pressure, with no apneas, but severe aerophagia.

I also tried a fixed pressure (cpap) at 1 cm H2O below my 95 percentile pressure, and again, it was a compromise between apneas versus stomach pain. Then every week, I increased the pressure by .2 cm.

When I 1st started, I could only tolerate a max of 10 cm, but have increased my tolerance over a period of months. Now I'm back on apap, with a narrow range of 11-12.6, and seldom have obstructive apneas, and no more aerophagia.

I suspect changing my diet helped alot. I now eat a very light dinner, and nothing but water, 3 hours before bedtime. And cut down or stopped foods that relax the LES such as caffeine, tomatoes, onions, fatty foods, etc. When its occasionally impossible to avoid eating late, eg social events, I take a Tagamet before eating, or sometimes a spoon of Maalox before bedtime. When it was very severe, I found that Gax-X helped relieve the pain.