I've been using a CPAP (Resmed Airsense 11 with Resmed Airfit N30i mask since early June of this year, so for almost 3 months. It's working great, I'm having on avg. less than one event per hour and I feel much better than I have in years in terms of energy, lack of tiredness during the day, etc.
An issue I've had since the beginning, though, is chest pain. It's not my heart or lungs, I've had those checked out, and it's actually more a bit behind my sternum, not radiating out to the sides at all. It only happens after about 6.5 - 7 hours of sleep. For example, if I go to bed at 11pm and wake up briefly at 2am or even at 5am - 6am, there's no pain. But when I wake up at 7, it hurts. The pain isn't severe, but it's bad enough that I can't go back to sleep. It goes away in 10 - 15 minutes.
My dr. isn't being at all helpful. She says that since it's an automatic CPAP with a range (mine is set at min 4, max 16, and on average is in the 10 - 12 range each night) that lowering the pressure as I've seen advised here wouldn't make a difference and she's offered no solution nor seemingly any interest in trying to figure out what's wrong. Yes- I'm looking for a new dr.
A doctor (internist) friend of mine speculated that perhaps the CPAP was aggravating acid reflux, though i've never had that before, but then said if it was acid reflux, it wouldn't go away in 10 - 15 minutes and so doesn't think it's that.
This is more annoying than anything as getting up at 7 is fine and the pain is tolerable for the short time I have it. But I do want to find the cause and eliminate it.
Has anyone heard of anything like this before? And if so, any thoughts on what it could be and/or how to resolve it?
Thanks!