New To The Forum [help with CPAP settings]
New to the forum and really looking at dialing in my CPAP settings. I did as much research as I could on the forum links I saw before posting. I hope everything is in order for my screen shot.
I had received this machine back in October and was having some major issues adjusting. Around mid November my hose broke and my insurance company refused to replace it until three months was up. So I placed the order in January and they still haven't approved it, something to do with my doctor (who is worthless). Little did I know you could buy all the accessories on Amazon.
So now I'm stocked up on accessories and ready to learn as much as I can about my sleeping habits and how to optimize my nightly sleep.
RE: New To The Forum
Apparently I cant figure out how to edit a post and realized the pic was scaled wrong because of my laptop. Here is a full screenshot.
[attachment=10903]
RE: New To The Forum
G'day mountaingiant. Welcome to Apnea Board. I've taken the liberty of deleting your original attachment which had your full name on it.
It seems you've already found out that the sleep medicine industry is opaque and doesn't always have the patient's best interests at heart. You're sure to find some good advice from fellow hose-heads here on the forum.
Can I suggest you turn off the Vibratory Snore VS2 flag. It doesn't convey any meaningful information (at least nobody seems to know what it means) and it clutters up your chart and obscures more important things. Could I also suggest you post a copy of your sleep study summary report (ensure you delete your name, address etc) so we can see a baseline of your condition. I think we'll probably recommend you change from fixed pressure to automatic as a first step, but need to see the diagnostic information first.
Good luck and welcome.
RE: New To The Forum
I like to see a full copy of the sleep studies because frequently the summaries do not mention all the facts that are important.
Do you know how to change your settings? If not click on the CPAP setup link in the banner at the top of the page. Many require manual intervention so it may not be instant.
First some rules of thumb for treating obstructive events.
Apnea is treated with EPAP or exhale pressure. Yours is good.
Hypopnea air beast treated with Pressure Support a breath by breath increase in pressure over your EPAP or exhale pressure. Snores and flow limits to. This includes Reed's which are a series of flow limits ending in arousal. You have Hypopnea s Flow Limits and RERAs that need to be treated.
The above is speaking using the next level machine, a Bilevel.
If needed on CPAP machines we manage all obstructive events by increasing pressure.
You have a Auto CPAP machine currently in CPAP mode.
We prefer auto mode to let the machine help keep pressures down only increasing Pressure when needed.
Flex sends a variable pressure and not a fixed pressure for pressure support like a Bilevel.
I'm going to ask you to change a few settings.
First set auto mode with a min pressure of 8 (epap) and a max of 15. We will adjust later are your machine works better with a narrow range. We just need to see what that is for you.
Set Flex on 2. We see mixed results with flex on managing Hypopnea and flow limits as compared with PS on a Bilevel or EPR on a ResMed machine but we are working with your machine.
Technically flex is a comfort feature.
All that said it is very important that you relay how you feel. We frequently adjust our advice on that basis.
As always questions just ask.
RE: New To The Forum
I am going to go pick up my sleep study today. It's about an hour and a half drive from me and they won't email it.
Additionally I do know how to change the settings on my machine. I don't understand exactly what all the different settings mean, but I did watch a video the other night on how to get out of patient mode. That video is ultimately what lead me here.
As soon as I have the report, which should be tonight, I will post that with my most current Daily.
Thanks again for the help.
RE: New To The Forum
Here is the full results of my sleep study. I had to break it into 3 parts to meet the file size limit.
[attachment=10915][attachment=10916][attachment=10917]
RE: New To The Forum
So this was last nights report after changing to Auto CPAP with a Min. of 8, Max. of 15 and a Flex Setting of 2. Overall I think it's the best AHI I've ever had. I did toss and turn a lot because of other issue not having to do with breathing. I woke up feeling tired, but overall pretty descent. More descent than normal in regards to my muscles and joints not hurting.
You can see I had my mask on while I was up for the first two hours before falling asleep. Had no problems with the change in settings for the machine. I changed my nasal pillow to a large which seemed to be more comfortable than the medium. Definitely looking forward to slowly tuning this thing in as best as possible and getting used to it more.
[attachment=10928]
RE: New To The Forum
That looks pretty good. I'd like you to try another night or two with these settings, so you can let your body get used to the variable pressure and see if this one night is a 1 off or a trend. I think after a few days that I would have you raise your min to 8.5 or as close to that as you can but we should check in a few days. These nunbers are really good. Now all you need is a little tweaking.
Keep tellings us how you feel and how you think you are doing.
RE: New To The Forum
BTW your sleep study showed no surprises, just simple basic obstructive events.
RE: New To The Forum
I appreciate the help again. I will say that today I felt like I was in a fog for most of the day. It was a very odd feeling. I felt like I wanted to go back to sleep. Is that a normal response to getting started with CPAP?
I am going to raise the minimum to 8.5 but keep the rest of the settings the same. I am really looking forward to seeing how I feel tomorrow morning when I wake up.
