Air Swallowing

[johnny]

Hey all,

I'm Jonathan, 24 years old and from Germany. I've had my diagnosis (Severe sleep apnea with AHI 40 to 70) in 2007, so I'm using my CPAP since 6 years now.

In 2007 I've accepted this therapy method right away and started using it every night until nowadays. But since two or three years I'm having serious problems with air in my stomache, it's like I am "swalloing" air, my stomach is filled up with air. I think some of you know what I mean, since this problem is getting more popular.

Until last year I used a ResMed S8 AutoSet with first 7mbar, then after 3 years with 8mbar and with 9mbar at the end (the pressure was adjusted by the sleep doctor because I felt more sleepy symptoms again).

Since October 2012 I'm using a ResMed S9 VPAP S, because me and my sleep doctor thought we could erase the air swalloing by using a bilevel-machine. But actually it didn't work out really. I'm still having these problems and it's getting really really annoying and painful.

Does anybody have any tips on these symptoms? I've already tried many different settings with my VPAP S (Ti Max/Min, Rise Time, Backup Rate, IPAP, EPAP etc.) but either the air-swalloing-symptoms get slightly better and the therapy is not effective (if I set a low pressure) or it gets worse.

Furthermore I always read on resmed.com etc. that most of their machines have "EPR" (exhale pressure relief), but I don't find it on both of my machines, neither on the S8 nor on the S9 (yes, I've searched the clinical menu). Are there different types of the models? Some of them have EPR and some of them don't? Are there software/firmware updates available for the machines?

Thank you very much for any helping answer.

Many regards from Göttingen, Germany

Jonathan

[trish6hundred]

Hi johnny,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Hang in there for suggestions to help you with the problem you are having with air swallowing.
Best of luck to you.

[johnny]

By the way, I am not sure if I set the VPAP S to its correct settings, because the sleep doctor just handed the machine over to me, without changing any settings or explaining me anything. So that's why I started to try out all the different settings on my own.

Does someone have any tips on making accurate settings on a S9 VPAP S?

[PaulaO2]

There's some things to try. Not sure if you have done them or not.

Raise the head of your bed. Either sleep on a wedge pillow or put a wedge under your mattress. You can also put boards under the feet of the headboard in order to raise it. It does not have to be much, usually just an inch or so (in terms of using the boards).

[Sleepster]

By the way, I am not sure if I set the VPAP S to its correct settings,

If the pressure is too high this will result in you swallowing air. I suggest you find out what it's supposed to be set at, or set it at 8 IPAP and 4 EPAP. Monitor your AHI and see if you need to raise it higher.

If you need to raise the pressure do it by small amounts, like 0.5 cm per month. If you raise it too much too fast you will start to swallow air again. It's likely the increase in pressure is what caused this problem to start in the first place.

[lincolnr]

I have a Resmed Elite II. It says EPR right on top, and, as I recall, it appears in the clinical menu. I didn't like it, though, so I turned it off. If yours doesn't say EPR, maybe it doesn't have the feature?

You can see a picture of my CPAP in the first post to the thread I started today (9/24/13)called "switches going bad on Resmed Elite II".

(At least, in this time zone it was started on 9/24/13. Not sure what zone this list dates from.)