Miserable Stomach Pain

I woke up after about 90 minutes with the worst stomach pain. Been awake for about an hour now waiting for the gas--sorry to be so graphic--to subside. I must have been swallowing air.

Tired and sad. Wanted desperately for a good night with Pappy

Does this happen to you?

Yes, it happens to me frequently. You may wish to search on the word "aerophagia" to see what solutions people have come up with.

Is that what that is? I've seen the word mentioned. Thanks!

Welcome to the fart club. Unfortunately aerophagia is a quite common side effect of cpap. I'm not too terribly overweight (6'3" 230 lbs) and sometimes wake up looking like I swallowed a basketball.

ameriken wrote:Welcome to the fart club. Unfortunately aerophagia is a quite common side effect of cpap. I'm not too terribly overweight (6'3" 230 lbs) and sometimes wake up looking like I swallowed a basketball.

OH no, LOL!!!! So many clubs....so little time.

LOL, I am a member too! Mine was worse the first week on CPAP than it is the second week, so I am hoping it will dissipate. Ha ha.

Does it dissipate with time?

I'm hoping! I've never had such painful--a-hem--gas.

Mine does go away during the course of the day only to return again the next morning. I am hoping the entire problem will lessen in severity with time. It seems to be doing that.

Resister wrote:I woke up after about 90 minutes with the worst stomach pain. Been awake for about an hour now waiting for the gas--sorry to be so graphic--to subside. I must have been swallowing air.

Tired and sad. Wanted desperately for a good night with Pappy

Does this happen to you?

The only time I've woken up with "the worst stomach pain", it was from a kidney stone. It wasn't stomach per se, but lower abdominal pain. I thought it was gas. It wasn't until I woke up weeks later with 10 out of 10 flank pain and going to urgent care, that I discovered I had a new hobby of passing kidney stones.

c-pap has always causes me gas and miserable stomach pain and I have been on c-pap 5 years in november!
No hope for me I guess. I finally have mastered the sleep to 4-5 hours a night so I am thankful for that.
Then I have to get up and walk 2-3 miles to get the gas moving in the morning.
Like everything else,different with everybody I guess.
Good luck to you!

I had it early on when I was experimenting with higher pressures. I backed off the pressure and it went away. I haven't had a problem since.

I'm another member of the fart club. I really wish that I could transfer to the burp and belch club because it seems to me that a really good belch or burp ought to relieve the pressure immediately instead of having to wait for that air bubble to wind its way down to the other end. But I just can't burp or belch very effectively even when I try to.

In the beginning I had terrible aerophagia. As in waking up with a rock hard stomach that was swollen like I'd swallowed a basket ball. Part of the problem for me was that I was slightly over titrated in my first titration study. Long story short: several pressure changes and a switch to BiPAP Auto finally got my aerophagia down to the irritant level. Most nights it's not a problem anymore, but whenever I spend a significant amount of time with my EPAP = 6 (max EPAP), I'm sure to have some issues the next day.

So----since the aerophagia is really painful AND waking you up at night, I'd recommend reporting it to the sleep doc's office. You might want to push for a week of autotitration on a loaner machine to see if your pressure setting could be reduced. And as part of that trial you might find out whether APAP is more comfortable than your current CPAP machine.

Other things to try:

• Gerd self-help tips. There is a correlation between gerd and aerohpagia. And many of the things that irritate gerd tend to make the aerophagia worse.
• Sleep with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth right behind your top front teeth. When the tongue is in this position, it helps keep air from getting into the mouth. Once air is in the mouth, there's a tendency to swallow it.
• Sleep on your LEFT side. Our insides are not as symmetric as our outsides. And sleeping on the left side seems to help keep the esophageal sphincters closed. Not only does this help minimize acid leakage from the stomach into the esophagus, it also helps keep air out of the stomach.
• Play around with the exhale relief system setting if your machine has one. For some people the wrong exhale relief setting tends to aggravate the aerophagia. And like some many other things with CPAP, the "best" setting for exhale relief is highly personal. Some people like and need it set at its maximum value; others prefer no exhale relief at all. And many are most comfortable with a middle level setting.

I really wish there was some sort of good maneuver or technique I could figure out to let me belch out the gas in my stomach easily. Or to speed the progress of gas out the other end as well.

Sometimes I can make myself belch by working at it, and/or partially swallowing some air and letting it out before I completely swallow it, but it doesn't really work that well. Really letting the belch rip when it finally does happen works a little, but has social consequences if I'm not alone.

robysue wrote:I'm another member of the fart club. I really wish that I could transfer to the burp and belch club because it seems to me that a really good belch or burp ought to relieve the pressure immediately instead of having to wait for that air bubble to wind its way down to the other end. But I just can't burp or belch very effectively even when I try to.

In the beginning I had terrible aerophagia. As in waking up with a rock hard stomach that was swollen like I'd swallowed a basket ball. Part of the problem for me was that I was slightly over titrated in my first titration study. Long story short: several pressure changes and a switch to BiPAP Auto finally got my aerophagia down to the irritant level. Most nights it's not a problem anymore, but whenever I spend a significant amount of time with my EPAP = 6 (max EPAP), I'm sure to have some issues the next day.

So----since the aerophagia is really painful AND waking you up at night, I'd recommend reporting it to the sleep doc's office. You might want to push for a week of autotitration on a loaner machine to see if your pressure setting could be reduced. And as part of that trial you might find out whether APAP is more comfortable than your current CPAP machine.

Other things to try:

• Gerd self-help tips. There is a correlation between gerd and aerohpagia. And many of the things that irritate gerd tend to make the aerophagia worse.
• Sleep with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth right behind your top front teeth. When the tongue is in this position, it helps keep air from getting into the mouth. Once air is in the mouth, there's a tendency to swallow it.
• Sleep on your LEFT side. Our insides are not as symmetric as our outsides. And sleeping on the left side seems to help keep the esophageal sphincters closed. Not only does this help minimize acid leakage from the stomach into the esophagus, it also helps keep air out of the stomach.
• Play around with the exhale relief system setting if your machine has one. For some people the wrong exhale relief setting tends to aggravate the aerophagia. And like some many other things with CPAP, the "best" setting for exhale relief is highly personal. Some people like and need it set at its maximum value; others prefer no exhale relief at all. And many are most comfortable with a middle level setting.

Is there a way to master this while sleeping? I usually fall asleep with my tongue in place, but it flops back in the night.

Thanks for the tips!

archangle wrote:I really wish there was some sort of good maneuver or technique I could figure out to let me belch out the gas in my stomach easily. Or to speed the progress of gas out the other end as well.

Sometimes I can make myself belch by working at it, and/or partially swallowing some air and letting it out before I completely swallow it, but it doesn't really work that well. Really letting the belch rip when it finally does happen works a little, but has social consequences if I'm not alone.

Been wearing your mask in public

But now that you mention it, I do think I was belching a bit before I finally really woke up and got out of bed.