Pressure settings causing chest pain

[Farmacist]

Hy all, New to forum. Thanks for being here. I use a pressure reading of 7 on my system one. Breathing in is easy and takes little effort but breathing out causes the center of my chest to burn. Would a lower pressure make it easier to exhale and stop the chest burning feeling?? Or is it just the opposite, do I need a higher pressure??? Probably a dumb question but to me I need help please. Thanks, farmacist

[PaytonA]

Sounds to me like you need some Exhalation Pressure Relief or as Philips calls it, Flex. Without knowing the exact model of your CPAP and assuming that it is a Philips Respironics CPAP, I would suggest that you turn the "flex" on and set it to "2". See if that helps.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

[chill]

Welcome! Can you describe the burning sensation more? It is like heartburn? Or like the tingle when you hit your funny bone? Is it in your throat? Closer to your heart? Higher up or lower down by your stomach? Does it start immediately when you start exhaling? Does it go away immediately when you stop exhaling?

[trish6hundred]

Hi Farmacist,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Much success to you with your CPAP therapy, hang in there for more answers to your question.

[Farmacist]

I will explain more the discomfort I have experienced for the last year. As soon as I start using my CPAP my chest burns on exhale like heartburn right down the center of my chest, between my nipples and 3" both above and below that point. I notice it right as I start using it, lasts all night in till I take it off but then leaves my chest area sore for most of next day. Doctors have said over and over it is not my heart, asthma, GERD, stomach or anything they can imagine. I know it is real and I know the CPAP is causing it. The CPAP helps my breathing greatly but this cheats pain is a real pain. Pressure set at 7 from sleep study and flex at 2. I need your advice please. Thanks, DADfarmacist

[cate1898]

Welcome to the forum Farmacist! How long have you been being treated for sleep apnea? I notice you say you are using pressure 7, but your member details under your username say 6. It would be helpful if you could update all your user details; exact model of machine, correct pressure-unless you've changed it, and assuming from your info you might be using the fixed CPAP mode, or are you using Auto CPAP (also referred to as APAP) ?

[green wings]

Hello, Farmacist. My first thought if someone says they have chest pain is to tell them to see a doctor about it. It sounds like you have already done this.

Do you think this pain is muscle pain? Is the area of your chest that you described sore to the touch in the mornings?

Some people do have pain in the muscles when they first start CPAP therapy, but it seems unusual for it for persist as long as yours has.

Have you tried taking an anti-inflammatory medication like Advil/motrin for the pain?

Do you notice any difference in the intensity of the pain when you're lying on your side vs. lying on your back?

Here is a link to download the free SleepyHead software that most of us on this site use to look at the data from our CPAP machines. If you could download that program and show us some information from your CPAP machine, it might give some information that would help to solve your problem.

Here is the Beginner's Guide to SleepyHead and a short guide explaining what charts/graphs from SleepyHead to post to this forum if you want advice from members.

You will need to upload the screenshots from SleepyHead to an image hosting site like imgur or Dropbox in order to show them in a post here.

I will explain more the discomfort I have experienced for the last year. As soon as I start using my CPAP my chest burns on exhale like heartburn right down the center of my chest, between my nipples and 3" both above and below that point. I notice it right as I start using it, lasts all night in till I take it off but then leaves my chest area sore for most of next day. Doctors have said over and over it is not my heart, asthma, GERD, stomach or anything they can imagine. I know it is real and I know the CPAP is causing it. The CPAP helps my breathing greatly but this cheats pain is a real pain. Pressure set at 7 from sleep study and flex at 2. I need your advice please. Thanks, DADfarmacist

[OpalRose]

Farmcist,

I can't imagine why Cpap would be causing the chest pain your describe, but if I were you I would get another doctors opinion. Your pressure of 7 is fairly low and should not cause you discomfort.

We can't easily recommend pressure changes until we can see some data, like your AHI readings and breakdown of such. Start using software, and then you can post us a screenshot of your data.

This is the latest version of our free SleepyHead software.
http://[b]OSCAR Official Download Page ----> CLICK HERE ./[/b]

Also a link to obtaining the clinicians manual for your machine.
http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-pr...tup-manual

[green wings]

I agree with OpalRose about getting a second opinion from a doctor. Or a third or fourth.

I can do a web search and find examples of other people saying they have the type of pain that you're describing when they first started using CPAP, but all the cases I saw said that the pain went away after a short adjustment period.

I suggested using an NSAID in my post above, but really, my experience with inflammation from something repeated like CPAP use, is that the pain will get gradually worse each day if you keep doing the activity.

We can't see you, and we don't have a complete health history for you, so that makes it very hard to answer this sort of question.

[chill]

Your doctor's seem to have covered everything that I had in mind. GERD would not go down below your nipples. The only other thing I can think of is some sort of nerve pain, but I don't think any major nerves run in that area and direction, nor would that leave your chest sore the next day.