CPAP, burbs, farts & drymouth

Are these all related? Seems like since my surgery - rny, In the middle of the night, my mouth is so dry, I have to get up because everything is stuck together. I'm farting huge...litterly I'm thinkin because so much air is going into me, it has to go somewhere else...same with the burping which I never did before surgery. My pressure I think is at 12 right now...do I need to get that cranked down?...I hate to pay for another "sleep study" because I'm still paying for the byPass surgery - which insurance did not pay for. Is this "dry mouth" a normal thing...will it go away? or is the machine drying me out? My Dr. said he had not heard of dry mouth being a side effect. The farts don't bother me too much as I'm happy anything is coming out that end!...I tell the kids that a balloon needs to loose a lot of air to deflate!

Same issues here pal.  But I wouldn't attribute the dry mouth to the CPAP.  Is it not humidified?  In any event, unless you are leaving your mouth open I don't think it is contributiing to the problem.  More likely fluids are not at the level they were before RNY.   As for the other issue, I attribute mine to the turkey chili I have been eating since I'm still on pureed stage.  Try gas x if it gets too bad.  BTW, congrats on the 66 pounds down, great work. Guy

The humidifier on my CPAP broke about 3 years ago and I've never gotten it replaced. Mainly because my resp. therapist is a goofy ***** and the less I deal with her the better chance I have of not going to jail. My  tongue is a piece of shoe leather every morning when I wake up. It takes some work to rehydrate it. And yeah, my gas level seems to increase while I sleep. I hadn't thought about whether it was due to swallowing air or not. I wake up about 3:30 or 4:00 am to take a leak and then have to walk around the house and work farts out for the next 10 - 15 minutes.

Sigsigman, Thinking about the whole sleep study thing, it seems if you tried sleeping without the CPAP and you didn't snore you could alleviate the machine or see if you can't have it turned down by 1/2.  The weight is a direct correlation to th sleep apnia. I was told there are two different ways  sleep apnia effects people.  First most common is from weight the second is though a brain sensor which is uncommon and would have been noted on your sleep study it's evidently obvious.  Personally I notice if I'm exceptionally gassy the machine aggravates the condition. I regularly wake up with dry mouth and my mouth feels like yuk.  After seeing you, your neck is really thinned out. The Dr. at the Men's Support Group last month discussed this and described those of us with a heavy neck or no neck as the wife reefers to it are the ones still needing the CPAP and everyone who's neck was thin had got off the machine. My PCP wrote the script for pressure adjustment without repeating the sleep study. You looked MARVELOUS ! You really do. I'm really impressed and inspired! C' Ya Bob

Thanks guys for all your support and insight...sounds like I'm travelin the same path...at least I'm "normal", Bob, thanks for your kind words...hope all works well with your journey. Jfish, I laughed out loud when you mentioned your therapist by her title "goofy *****" thanks! David

 You may not even need the CPAP anymore, given that you have lost 66 lbs. (in only 10 weeks?  WOW  ^5)  and are half way to goal ..   I know mine is still ramped to 11 and it blows me awake now at night when it gets up that high (I probably don't even need CPAP anymore either, but just use it out of old habit!)  Even if you do still need it, be sure to keep water in your humidifier at all times, or else the dry winter air will really dry you out on it .. !

I had the same problem with dry mouth several months after surgery.  I was opening my mouth while I was asleep and the airflow from my CPAP was drying out my mouth.  I had never been a mouth breather before so I tried a chinstrap but it was just too uncomfortable.  Once I had lost 200 pounds my doctor wanted me to have another sleep study.  I still had sleep apnea, in fact all of my readings were almost identical to my first test two years before.  However, what they found was that with the weight loss I no longer needed as much pressure.  They cut my pressure from 12 to 7.  Once this was done my mouth stayed shut and did not dry out.  So it could be that you just need a reduced pressure.

Duct tape your mouth shut. Don't laugh, it works. Over 10K hours on my CPAP before it was retired. (One of the best days of my life) Might need to turn the pressure down, as you lose weight. I know what you mean about the sleep studies. Major PITA. However, Sleep Apnea kills, and is not to be taken lightly. Good luck. JP

hell, my wife has probably wanted me to duct tape my mouth shut for years! thanks!