First Day! Can't wait to sleep!

I got my CPAP machine today. This has CPAP machine and humidifier in two pieces that click together, it has a heated hose, adjustable temperature and humidity, and adjustable ramp time. I have a Zest nasal mask. I do not know what the software is, but was hoping you (all) might know what it is and/or where to get it. The RT did not know where I can find it, said that she had heard about people using it, but did not know anything about it.

I took a nap with it to see how it would go, and found a couple of little problems. First, my pressure is 15, which is a lot of pressure, so if I move my head around much, it is easy to break the seal, which is not terrible - I will figure out how to move around without dislodging it, I think. My problem was that I have a chin strap, because apparently when I fall asleep I will start to mouth-breathe. The strap slides around a bit, but I think I will be able to fix that by putting it on in front of a mirror where I can see how the straps are overlapping.
My concern was that a couple of times during my nap (2-3 hours) I noticed a little bit of air leaking into my mouth. It did not bother me, until I woke up and sat up and had a lot of air in my stomach to belch up.
Is this normal?

Thanks.

Aerophagia...swallowing air..while technically not really swallowing it ...result is the same.

Fairly common...some things you can try are listed here...wiki/index.php/Aerophagia

SleepyHead will work with the S9 machines..software to show how your therapy is going..see the links in my signature.

S9 machines are indeed in the drop down menu...See my profile equipment line. I think only 1 high dollar S9 ASV machine is not listed.
What does your machine say on the upper left corner above the on/off knob?

Ah. found the machine. I was looking under "ResMed".... found it under S-9 instead! Thanks. I will look at the article.

You got the pink Autoset?
Awesome!

Hmmmm.... mine isn't pink. I have the manual and I can see that it's the manual for several different models. I think the picture on my info now is closer to what it looks like. it has a separate humidifier and the CPAP machine and humidifier snap together. The info on this model (now on my profile) says that there is a smiley face to tell you that the thing is working. I did not see this on the screen on mine. I will be reading the manual this evening before bed. I downloaded the software. Free software! That's the best!

Thanks!

The pink S9 Autoset was offered for breast cancer awareness. Other than the color there is no difference between it and a regular Autoset.

Breathing wrote:My concern was that a couple of times during my nap (2-3 hours) I noticed a little bit of air leaking into my mouth. It did not bother me, until I woke up and sat up and had a lot of air in my stomach to belch up. Is this normal?

Hi,

Air in tummy is not very fun. I went through a period when losing weight were this suddenly started happening to me. It lasted about 6 months or so. I am not sure why it went away, but it is probably due to continued weight loss. My sleep doctor tells me that it is likely due to the mechanics of how our airways are built. It hit me so bad at times that it was painful, and I was "tooting" so much at night that it would wake me up. If you are doing mouth breathing, you might want to try a full face mask. When you breathe CPAP air through your mouth, it can deflect differently and might avoid going down into your stomach. Another thing to try is setting your exhale pressure relief to its maximum value.

A pressure of 15 is pretty high for a single pressure machine or an APAP machine. That is usually the dividing line where people are more comfortable using BiPAP. Insurance companies play this game where they want you to fail on CPAP or APAP before they will allow you to have a BiPAP. If this air in the tummy thing turns out to be a recurring problem, you might want to talk to your sleep doctor and see if you can arrange to fail and get a BiPAP. That might not cure all the issues, but at least it might be more comfortable.

-john-

You should communicate this information to your RT. It is common (the norm, actually), for new CPAP patients to experience certain things that might need to be adjusted those first couple weeks to month of CPAP. Chief among things that might need adjustment is mask changes. 15 is a high pressure and if you are experiencing mouth leak, a full face mask like the excellent Resmed Mirage Quattro might be in order.

Stomach pain from CPAP is not good, perhaps utilizing the EPR comfort feature built into the S9 will relieve that. If not, maybe an APAP.

I get stomach pain from any sustained pressures much over 10. I really need to be on a higher pressure, but whenever Ive tried that stomach pain comes back. What you are experiencing is pretty typical, actually. The one thing you need to remember is to not give up and persist and sometimes, it takes experimenting with different masks, even different types of machines, APAP works for many, using the comfort features such as EPR or C-Flex or A-Flex or Biflex works for some.

The thing is, when you are a newbie and dont know the ropes yet, you need a real life RT to help you to get thru that first month to six weeks or so.

Breathing wrote:I got my CPAP machine today. This has CPAP machine and humidifier in two pieces that click together, it has a heated hose, adjustable temperature and humidity, and adjustable ramp time. I have a Zest nasal mask. I do not know what the software is, but was hoping you (all) might know what it is and/or where to get it. The RT did not know where I can find it, said that she had heard about people using it, but did not know anything about it.

I took a nap with it to see how it would go, and found a couple of little problems. First, my pressure is 15, which is a lot of pressure, so if I move my head around much, it is easy to break the seal, which is not terrible - I will figure out how to move around without dislodging it, I think. My problem was that I have a chin strap, because apparently when I fall asleep I will start to mouth-breathe. The strap slides around a bit, but I think I will be able to fix that by putting it on in front of a mirror where I can see how the straps are overlapping.
My concern was that a couple of times during my nap (2-3 hours) I noticed a little bit of air leaking into my mouth. It did not bother me, until I woke up and sat up and had a lot of air in my stomach to belch up.
Is this normal?

Thanks.

There's a simple way to prevent air in the stomach. Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind the front teeth. This position seals off the mouth from the airway so that air leakage into the mouth stops and so does swallowing a lot of air.

It's easier than you think to learn to keep the tongue there all night. Practice all day unless you are eating or talking. It works.

If the aerophagia persists and is bad enough that it is making you miserable and doing the tongue blocking thing doesn't help...talk to your doctor about it.
For some people the problem is in the LES (Lower Esophageal Sphincter) at the esophagus/stomach level.
It sometimes is rather lax and doesn't prevent the air from entering the stomach as it should.
Sometimes the air that goes down the airway just slips into the esophagus and even though it may not be a huge pressure the sphincter doesn't close well enough to prevent leakage into the stomach.
With higher pressure use...the chances of leakage with a weak LES increase.
Sometimes using a Bilevel machine will greatly reduce this annoyance.

If my pressures are in the 15-20 cm H2O range, air starts going down into my tummy. Not a lot at 15-17, but enough to be bothersome. I only ran at 20 one time for a few minutes, based on a pulmonologist's recommendation and I "fixed that" immediately (I went back to 15 max).

I did an experiment a while back that went bad. I ended up with APAP going to 20 cm for at least half the night. I got blown up like a balloon and I was physically ill it was so bad. I normally don't have any aerophagia problems even when my APAP would go to 18 cm but it was never there long.
I can certainly sympathize and for those who have this problem..no one should have to "accept it" if the normal things to try don't eliminate it.

FWIW...it doesn't have to be just high pressures that cause it. RobySue had horrible aerophagia and her pressures are quite low by normal standards. She barely keeps it controlled using a Bilevel machine.

A little burping and farting is one thing but severe pain, nausea and misery are another.

Hmmm... what is this: " perhaps utilizing the EPR comfort feature built into the S9 will relieve that. "

I will look through the manual.
I slept through the night. I knew it was going to be a little cumbersome to get through the first night, so I took an Ambien. I went to bed around 10 pm. I think I was asleep by 11 or 11:30. Slept all night. Woke up feeling pretty rested. Tired, but not miserably sleepy like I usually am. That was cool!

I took the card out of the machine and looked at the data, and wondered about a couple of bits of information it gave me.

First - it says I went to sleep at 0205 and woke up at 0600. I did wake up at 0600, so the time is not set incorrectly, but I really did not feel like I was awake for four hours. How does the machine determine that you are asleep? I wonder if I breathe like an awake person for the first couple of hours of sleep. In my lab sleep study, my sleep latency was about 20 minutes, which I think is probably about right for me.

next, there were a couple of stats for "average leaks" 4.9 and
"95% leaks" 14.40...

what do those numbers represent?

Thanks.
This board is very helpful. I appreciate everyone posting.

btw- my AHI for my sleep study was 74. last night it was 1.3

whooohooo!!!

The machine doesn't know if you are awake or not. The times are the time you turned the machine on and time you turned it off.
What software are you using?

I think I turned it off and back on at some point to re-position the mask. so it must have started at that point.... Thanks.