Aerophagia

[Sleepster]

The recommendation was to increase the BiPap pressure from 18/14 cm of water to 18/15.

Which ResMed S9 are you using? I'm trying to figure out what kind of a problem could be fixed by changing your EPAP from 14 to 15. It seems like changing it back to 14 to avoid the aerophagia wouldn't cause any problems.

Do you know why you were prescribed a bi-level (BiPAP) machine rather than a CPAP?

Anyway, a solution for you might be a bi-level machine that auto-adjusts the pressure. That way you'd spend more time at a lower pressure where you're more comfortable, and less time at the higher pressure where you experience aerophagia.

That's exactly what I have to do.

[robysue]

LSSNYC,

Just a quick note to let you know I'm aware that you've posted additional information. Don't have time for a long reply right now, and it may be this evening or tomorrow before I get back.

I'm not in the medical field. I'm just a very well read patient who has been struggling with CPAP and aerophagia and insomnia for the last 6 years. I've reached a good compromise for me, and as far as my BiPAP settings are concerned, my current sleep doc says that I know enough about my own sleep to have a better idea than he would about which tweaks make sense and which don't. So I've got his permission to play with my settings whenever I want.

Getting us some SleepyHead data will help a lot.

My own quick advice is lower the EPAP back down to 14 for a few days and see what happens to both the AHI, the aerophagia, and the elusive "how do you feel" data that is 100% subjective.

The goal of PAP is NOT to get the AHI as close to 0 as possible. The goal of PAP is to allow you to get as much high quality sleep as possible. That may mean tolerating an AHI that runs more in the 3-4 range with no aerophagia rather than using enough pressure to get an AHI < 1 that also happens to trigger enough aerophagia to cause real problems.

[Sleepster]

I split the posts discussing the SleepyHead install to a new thread in the Software Support Form. You can find it here.

LSSNYC please update us here on your progress once you get SleepyHead installed and running. I'd like to see how your therapy is going.

[kwhenrykerr]

1 cm lower raises my AHI but lowers the level of aerophagia.