I am on a bipap (18 over 5) and in the first few days of using it, I am still experiencing air being pumped into my stomach, as well as cessation in breathing.

Any ideas about what might be the problem?

Hi SW,

I am a little bit surprised that your pressure spread is 5cm EPAP and 18cm IPAP. Mine is 13cm EPAP and 19cm IPAP.

The bottom number is when you exhale and that number is the pressure needed to keep your throat open at the end of exhale. That is normally when apnea occurs. IPAP is the inhale pressure that clears snore, hypopnea, and any flow limitation.

I have not heard of anyone with an EPAP of 5cm with an IPAP of 18cm.

Did you get a copy of your sleep report? Also, was the sleep lab you went to accredited? Where you titrated with a bipap, or did they switch you to a bipap after using a cpap? I am not trying to diagnose you from the keyboard, i am just curious.

You may need less IPAP and more EPAP. Swollowing air is not something that is usually done with a bipap machine. Aerophagia can occur when you are over titrated.

If you don't have a copy of the sleep study you can request a full copy of the notes and all.

Regards,

Titrator

Sucking Wind,

I am also from the DC metro area. I'm curious where you had your sleep test done and what type of doctor you had. My test was at a Sleep testing facility next to Doctor's Hospital in Lanham. They seemed pretty professional and their test reports were helpful.

Mine too is a bipap, and likewise, I think the pressure spread you have seems off base. Good luck with your bipap.

Linda

Thanks for the responses.

I had my sleep study done at the Greater Washington Sleep Disorders Center. I haven't actually seen the results...my pulmonologist is the one who saw them. She has just recently switched me from a cpap at a pressure of 20 to a bipap because I couldn't handle the cpap. I think she is just "guessing" about the EPAP pressure (I have not had a bipap study done).

I think I will ask her to increase the EPAP to about 13 or so. Do you think that will help?

SW,

The way I was trained is to have at least 4cm between the I and the E. I have 5cm between and I have never had a huge differnce while titrating.

I bet that things get better as you comunicate with your Pulmo.

Regards,
Ted