11-17-2021, 07:42 PM
Bipap starting to lose pressure
I’m looking for any possible troubleshooting tips and/or what to discuss when I call back my DME’s RT tomorrow. DME has said they’ll help and try to get my bipap running better if possible. I’ve run through the machine myself systematically. My hose was fine but I replaced it anyhow. New filters too. Opened the machine and checked for foam (some crumbs but no chunks). The motor has been making a faint high pitch for a few months at least. I made sure every little gasket was seated well and though one seems a bit tacky like it’s aging they seem fine. 16,000 hours runtime :/
It seems absolutely fine until occasionally (and now every few days) when I put on the mask it just barely lets me inhale. I take off the mask and the air blows full force. Sometimes it does this in the middle of sleeping. The machine listed an AHI of 26 after just trying to breathe with it on for a couple minutes the other night. I’m new to OSCAR and my data looks awful in coincidence with this problem, I can’t even imagine it correlates with my actual breathing. The only way I get it to work again is to unplug it for awhile, try again, and then change the settings in the provider menu wildly and set them again. Sometimes that gets it going again.
I have myasthenia gravis and at first I attributed this to breathing weakness, but realized in short order that turning up the pressure had no effect. I just had to go 2 nights without, and barely slept and slept poorly. I get more and more symptomatic the less I can rest my breathing muscles. It worked last night thank goodness, but have no idea if it will tonight. I wonder if it’s been doing this to some degree for the past year as I’ve been sleeping worse and having to up the dose of medication I take to make my muscles work.
I just changed to a new sleep doctor after not having had one for a couple years. She’s expediting the new Rx even though she doesn’t know me yet (I’m the troublemaker, haha!). She agreed we may need to switch me to the ResMed ST-A but she wants her own data before doing that. And I’m wondering if my bipap has been failing a long time and just replacing it might be the answer.
My DME says the waitlist at this point for ye olde standard bipap is “a couple months” and have zero rentals. I’m tempted to beg borrow and steal to just buy an ST-A without the insurance if my new doctor would write the Rx but can’t even locate one online.
With the recall I got things moving as fast as I could, alas I’m too slow to catch up with the early birds on this. My 5 years was up last month so I’d have had to jump through hoops to get a machine faster. So I’m just going to have to try and eke out a bit more from my bipap.
It seems absolutely fine until occasionally (and now every few days) when I put on the mask it just barely lets me inhale. I take off the mask and the air blows full force. Sometimes it does this in the middle of sleeping. The machine listed an AHI of 26 after just trying to breathe with it on for a couple minutes the other night. I’m new to OSCAR and my data looks awful in coincidence with this problem, I can’t even imagine it correlates with my actual breathing. The only way I get it to work again is to unplug it for awhile, try again, and then change the settings in the provider menu wildly and set them again. Sometimes that gets it going again.
I have myasthenia gravis and at first I attributed this to breathing weakness, but realized in short order that turning up the pressure had no effect. I just had to go 2 nights without, and barely slept and slept poorly. I get more and more symptomatic the less I can rest my breathing muscles. It worked last night thank goodness, but have no idea if it will tonight. I wonder if it’s been doing this to some degree for the past year as I’ve been sleeping worse and having to up the dose of medication I take to make my muscles work.
I just changed to a new sleep doctor after not having had one for a couple years. She’s expediting the new Rx even though she doesn’t know me yet (I’m the troublemaker, haha!). She agreed we may need to switch me to the ResMed ST-A but she wants her own data before doing that. And I’m wondering if my bipap has been failing a long time and just replacing it might be the answer.
My DME says the waitlist at this point for ye olde standard bipap is “a couple months” and have zero rentals. I’m tempted to beg borrow and steal to just buy an ST-A without the insurance if my new doctor would write the Rx but can’t even locate one online.
With the recall I got things moving as fast as I could, alas I’m too slow to catch up with the early birds on this. My 5 years was up last month so I’d have had to jump through hoops to get a machine faster. So I’m just going to have to try and eke out a bit more from my bipap.
