HappyandSad

I have complex sleep apnea and was prescribed a Philips Respironics Bi-PAP ST machine. My AHI numbers with this machine were very random, anywhere from 8 to 30 with no known reason why. I then had a titration sleep study done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to see if they could answer why my numbers were so random. The doctor there recommended a ResMed ASV, as I did well with that in the titration sleep study. When I submitted the doctor's prescription for that machine, I was told that I could not change machines because I hadn't had the Bi-PAP ST long enough per Medicare rules. Instead, I was given a different Philips Respironics machine, a BiPAP auto SV, which supposedly does the same thing as the ResMed ASV. I've had the BiPAP auto SV just over a week, and my AHI numbers are great--below 5 every night. However, it turns out I suffer from aerophagia (swallowing air), and I generally wake up after 2 to 3 hours with a very painful stomach and abdomen. It takes a few hours to go back to sleep because I'm in so much pain and need to wait until the gas escapes by the usual routes. Does anyone have experience with this issue? From what I've read, the auto machine is best for complex/central sleep apnea, and yet this option causes me pain from swallowing air, which is something I do not realize I am doing.

I started using an oral appliance 8 months ago under the direction of a dental specialist. We gradually advanced the appliance 1 millimeter at a time (to 3 millimeters) until I could tell that I felt rested the next morning. I had another overnight sleep study and had lowered my episodes from 24 to 7, so I was very pleased. The clinic requested that I have the appliance advanced another half millimeter to hopefully bring me down to a number less than 5, so I did. This is the "happy" part of my story, as I could not tolerate the cpap at all, and this was working fine. The "sad" part is that my jaw isn't returning to its original position in the morning. I had exercises to do each morning, and I will confess that I wasn't totally diligent about doing them, but I did not realize that this would be the result: My bite has changed significantly, and it has affected my speech somewhat. Friends say they wouldn't have known if I hadn't told them, but this really bothers me. The dental specialist sent me to a physical therapist specializing in the jaw, and I worked with her for a while, but nothing changed. My regular dentist suggested I move it back one millimeter to see if that helped, so my dental specialist did that. I've been doing my exercises regularly, but so far no change. The dental specialist told me that this happens to some people, and I might have to decide to just live with the change in bite or stop using the appliance and hope my jaw returns to its original position or perhaps get braces if I do stop using it. Has anyone else had this issue and, if so, had success correcting it?