Pressure Advice

[olmate]

Hello All

I have been on the machine a couple of weeks now and not feeling any better

My main concern is that I'm having events that last over 20 seconds.Id be lucky to hold my breathe that long
I thought the machine would have pumped air in me hard to get me going again
Any help would be appreciated and any abuse is welcome I'm use to it

Thank You

[justMongo]

No need to abuse you...
I still have a few 20-30 second OSA events per night as reported by software.
Give it a little more time. People with severe OSA often have a diminished central ventilation drive that will reset with xPAP therapy.
Plus, OSA is often associated with other conditions that may be dragging you down.
Such as Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and the medications that treat such conditions....

[olmate]

No need to abuse you...
I still have a few 20-30 second OSA events per night as reported by software.
Give it a little more time. People with severe OSA often have a diminished central ventilation drive that will reset with xPAP therapy.
Plus, OSA is often associated with other conditions that may be dragging you down.
Such as Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and the medications that treat such conditions....

Thanks Mongo

I just cant see any improvement happening if I'm not going to get those times down

Thanks
olmate

[zonk]

Hi olmate, welcome aboard
Feeling better is not something happen instantaneous for most people, it can take some time and a lots of probing to figure whats going on
Not much info given ... AHI or breakdown of events, leaks and pressure stats, hours using the machine or times getting during the night, dry mouth, etc ...

The machine does not increase pressure during an apnea but rather prevent an apnea (most, not all the times) by increase pressure in response to snoring and flow limitation which are early sign of an obstructive apnea (not central apnea). So important to have the minimum pressure somewhere close to prescribed pressure, too low and the machine cannot respond in time to do its job

Pressure setting in user profile "CPAP Pressure: 6-20" did you had sleep study determine treatment pressure?

[APAAW]

First of all, hang in there! As justMongo says, give your body some time to adjust - some folks adapt amazingly fast, and are great in a couple of weeks, or even days so I'm told.

But most of us with OSA can't adapt so fast, but can and do eventually. (FWIW, my machine reports events lasting lots longer than that - and I don't doubt it - not withstanding a couple of machine upgrades along the way.)

But the key thing is, are you already getting fewer of those intervals than you used to? You probably are. And will you feel distinctly better off in 3 to 6 months? It's very likely, though nothing is guaranteed. It took me a lot more time and patience than I'd been told by some of the medical establishment - until I found the people on this board and other boards.

Keep your questions coming, and keep it up!

[olmate]

Hi olmate, welcome aboard
Feeling better is not something happen instantaneous for most people, it can take some time and a lots of probing to figure whats going on
Not much info given ... AHI or breakdown of events, leaks and pressure stats, hours using the machine or times getting during the night, dry mouth, etc ...

The machine does not increase pressure during an apnea but rather prevent an apnea (most, not all the times) by increase pressure in response to snoring and flow limitation which are early sign of an obstructive apnea (not central apnea). So important to have the minimum pressure somewhere close to prescribed pressure, too low and the machine cannot respond in time to do its job

Pressure setting in user profile "CPAP Pressure: 6-20" did you had sleep study determine treatment pressure?

Yeah i did Zonk......the more i snored the harder the elbow pressure and sorer the ribs

No i didn't... i have my own barometer next to me

Im going to UP the low pressure rate tonight to see what happens

Im getting like my adult kids....I want everything NOW

[olmate]

First of all, hang in there! As justMongo says, give your body some time to adjust - some folks adapt amazingly fast, and are great in a couple of weeks, or even days so I'm told.

But most of us with OSA can't adapt so fast, but can and do eventually. (FWIW, my machine reports events lasting lots longer than that - and I don't doubt it - not withstanding a couple of machine upgrades along the way.)

But the key thing is, are you already getting fewer of those intervals than you used to? You probably are. And will you feel distinctly better off in 3 to 6 months? It's very likely, though nothing is guaranteed. It took me a lot more time and patience than I'd been told by some of the medical establishment - until I found the people on this board and other boards.

Keep your questions coming, and keep it up!



Thanks APAAW

I was a bit crook all last year,i just want to feel a bit more energetic

[DeepBreathing]

G'day Olmate. If you didn't have a sleep study, how do you know you have apnea? (Quite apart from the elbow test). Snoring is usually a good indicator, but it's not infallible. Snoring alone won't allow you to quantify the apnea (ie how many events per hour) so you won't have any baseline data to work with. It's like getting your blood pressure tested, or cholesterol or all those other medical things where you need some actual numbers as a basis for effective treatment. The other thing about a full in-hospital test is that they also do a whole battery of other tests (eg lung capacity, ECG and EEG) which may show up other conditions. It will also determine if you have non-obstructive apnea such as central apnea or related conditions like Cheyne-Stokes respiration. I'd urge you to have the test.

The other thing to be wary of is changing your parameters too quickly. If you change your pressure, don't touch it again for a couple of weeks. You're looking for trends not instantaneous results. If you change the pressure frequently and other things as well (eg a different mask) then you won't be able to unscramble the effects of those changes. So one change at a time, leave if for a few weeks, then review.

[olmate]

G'day Olmate. If you didn't have a sleep study, how do you know you have apnea? (Quite apart from the elbow test). Snoring is usually a good indicator, but it's not infallible. Snoring alone won't allow you to quantify the apnea (ie how many events per hour) so you won't have any baseline data to work with. It's like getting your blood pressure tested, or cholesterol or all those other medical things where you need some actual numbers as a basis for effective treatment. The other thing about a full in-hospital test is that they also do a whole battery of other tests (eg lung capacity, ECG and EEG) which may show up other conditions. It will also determine if you have non-obstructive apnea such as central apnea or related conditions like Cheyne-Stokes respiration. I'd urge you to have the test.

The other thing to be wary of is changing your parameters too quickly. If you change your pressure, don't touch it again for a couple of weeks. You're looking for trends not instantaneous results. If you change the pressure frequently and other things as well (eg a different mask) then you won't be able to unscramble the effects of those changes. So one change at a time, leave if for a few weeks, then review.

Thanks DeepBreathing
I can only learn more from input like yours

The first night I had 90 events. I am now averaging about 50 per night so thats a good start i suppose

[me50]

olmate, can you post your data from sleepyhead so we can help you more? if we can see that, we can make suggestions on your pressure settings. you pretty much have your machine wide open. Did you see a doc that told you that you had OSA? Who wrote the script for you to have a CPAP machine? have you been back to see that doc?

If you need help posting your graphs from sleepyhead, let us know. We can help you better by seeing that data.