Suddenly Swallowing Air

[SleepyInSeoul]

Been using CPAP for about 9 months now, quite satisfied so far. I had a little trouble in the very beginning swallowing air, but using a chin strap solved that.

Now suddenly, in the past week, I've started swallowing air even with the chin strap. I am sure it's not due to the chin strap slipping, because while I'm drifting asleep, strap still taught, I notice some very small burps. I might add that I wear an ileostomy bag, so the "evidence" of air swallowing is clear. At best, a bag swollen up to balloon size, or at worst an exploded bag!

This has startd fairly suddenly, over the past week. I can't relate this to any other issue in my life.

I will of course be checking with my sleep doctor about this, but in the meantime just wondered if the experienced folks might have some thoughts.

[Pugsy]

Sleeping position change? Mask style change? Often the air sneaks into stomach past a rather lax sphincter between distal esophagus and stomach. Any symptoms of GERD? Don't know if gas relief OTC med (like Beano) might help or not. I can understand the balloon thing so much more important to you than the usual "don't worry it will pass" comment. Wonder if sleeping on stomach as much as possible would help keep the air forced upward to stay out of stomach? Maybe elevate bed at little since air tends to rise when given a chance. Right side sleeping since the esophagus and stomach join more to the left side and thus maybe give air a chance to rise or left side to maybe stop air from sneaking in. Just tossing out ideas. Only time I ever had any bad aerophagia was with a full face mask. With nasal pillow mask never had a problem significant enough to warrant trying to decrease the volume of air.

[SleepyInSeoul]

I can't say I have GERD (from what I briefly read). I do have, from time to time, a little bit of acid refulx, usually when I eat a large "western" meal. For some reason, eating Korean food doesn't give me that feeling. But, nothing I could correlate with this past week.

I have a nasal mask, sleep in my side. Actually, "rotate" about every couple hours, because I generally have to wake up that often to empty my bag. Despite my disclaimer, I do suspect something might be afoot with the chin strap. I noticed the velcro appears to be getting weaker.

Not sure how a Beano-like med would work. Does that work by actually absorbing gas somehow? or by altering the gas-making process of your food?

I might be able to sleep on my stomach, haven't tried that in years. I have a bit of a messed up back (slight curvature of the spine) and I know for sure I couldnt' sleep on my back. I might try sleeping while sitting, not sure if that would be any better or not.

[miketech]

I have never tried Beano, but I read on wiki-pedia, that it does alter the the chemistry of the digestion of natural sugars.
My experience is that I get air pumped into my stomach which gives me a bloated uncomfortable feeling in my abdomen. I take a simethicone tablet, which is the the active ingredient in Gas-X. I find the generic 80-100mg tablets in the drug store chain Rite-Aid. The simethicone somehow absorbs the gas in the stomach. However, the next day, the gas does need to come out the "other end". So, you would still have to put up with that problem. So its benefit would only be to prevent the stomach discomfort.

[Pugsy]

Despite my disclaimer, I do suspect something might be afoot with the chin strap. I noticed the velcro appears to be getting weaker.

Might want to investigate this. Maybe, it is allowing you to inhale more air than normal. Might not make much of a leak but let enough air to enter mouth and slip down esophagus to cause problem. Doesn't take a lot to cause problems.

If western meals cause a bit of acid reflux but not every meal, might be a tiny, tiny case of GERD. I get same thing when I have my favorite barbecue sandwich but not with all meals. OTC Prilosec seems to help. A slightly irritated distal esophageal sphincter might also allow some air to sneak into stomach. If no medical contraindications, wouldn't hurt to try it if chin strap can't be blamed.

[SleepyInSeoul]

I'll try that. I believe I some Zantac, which I've used from time to time. Can't hurt to try. Yeah, I could believe I have a tiny, tinycase of GERD.