Excessive CA Events

[gainerfull]

Hi gainerfull, tonight, 24 hours after I increased the minimum pressure to 7cm, I am experiencing very painful wind in the bowel regions. I forgot to mention I am 80 years old.
Should I persist with increased pressure at my age?

Hi Joe,

This is called aerophagia and it sounds like you're sensitive to moderate inspiratory pressures. I get it myself and it's very uncomfortable!

I think trying to strike a balance between APAP and EPR may prove too difficult in the near term considering the discomfort. Are you willing to try constant pressure mode at 7cmH20 with EPR off?

[JoeS01]

thanks eok361, will do that over the next few days. I  am currently trying to get consistent results over 2 days, without much luck.

[JoeS01]

Bad night last night, had the mask on for only 2 hours before taking it off. Not sure why, whether it was too hard to breathe, or whether I  thought it was about 6am. Have been to the local shops twice looking for glow in the dark small bedside clocks, but despite the ads, none of them actually glow.
Last night because of the wind problem, I  dialled the minimum pressure back to 6 cm before using the mask.

[Gideon]

Set you min pressure to 6 and your max to 7

Leave your EPR on 3

And turn your ramp off or to 5 min.

We just cut off your higher pressures. That should help with your wind/aerophagia.

[JoeS01]

Thanks Gideon, will give that a go tonight

[JoeS01]

Hi all, last night set the pressure range to (6,10) and dropped the ramp time from 45 min to 10 min, based on the time I  think I  take to get to sleep.
Had a comfortable night's sleep, but from the chart, lots of OAs, relatively speaking, lots more than recent results. They lasted from 10-16 seconds each..
The gaps where I stopped the device were for a toilet break about 1.20am,  and a very itchy nose on two occasions. There was a bit of manipulation to get the mask right in the very early stages.
Did not feel alert and refreshed on waking.

[Sleeprider]

When we see OA event is clusters of 2 or more events, we know the cause. https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...onal_Apnea This can be resolved without increasing pressure.

[JoeS01]

Thanks Sleeprider. But I sleep on my back with a flat pillow, and I wear a cervical collar that prevents my chin dropping down.

[Sleeprider]

Already on top of the game. Looked positional.

[gainerfull]

Hey Joe,

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place. The rock is, the amount of pressure needed to keep your airway open and the hard place is your comfort so you'll need to decide which you're willing to give up in order to find your optimal settings. Based upon your latest data you still need more pressure because EPR is subtractive, not additive and using EPR 3 full-time is not enough pressure to keep your airway open. So now, we're back where we started a couple pages ago.

Your cpap cannot keep your airway open with your current settings and you need more pressure but are sensitive to increased pressure.

The simplest path forward is to keep everything the same but turn off EPR. There are more complex paths that are potentially rewarding but it seems like you're going in a circle here.