lower APAP pressure
Hello fellow pap'rs:
I've posted before about feeling bad upon awakening every morning. I try every day to make the best out of these times and believe they will improve. So here is what I am finding.
I have lowered my starting APAP pressure from 8cm down to 6cm.
I am feeling better in the mornings, and am relieved. My upper pressure remains the same (12) to reflect my 95th percentile of 11.8.
Although my median pressure according to the data is 8.5-9, it just seems to help to have this base pressure lower. Since my ResMed 9 autoset should continue to find the right pressure to keep my airway open, I am fairly confident that lowering is OK. My O2 is staying stable above 94 all night, and I know this is good. Just wanted to run this by my masked friends to be more assured. Whatcha think?
Thanks![/font]
RE: lower APAP pressure
There's really only a couple of things that are important: Is the therapy managing your apnea? (What is your ahi?). Are you sleeping well and are you comfortable?
It sounds like you're doing better on the feel good things, so if you're also doing well on the ahi things I'd say you're just fine.
RE: lower APAP pressure
If your AHI is below 1 and your median is 8, why are you lowering it? It most likely is not going to make any difference whatsoever one way or the other. It might cause the machine to work slightly harder to react to what your airway is doing but only a slight bit.
By making the change, when a change may not be necessary, you are upsetting the balance. The machine now has a wider range to play with an, like I said, it could take it longer to react. This could cause the AHI to increase although only slightly since your AHI is so wonderfully low. Which is my point. If my AHI was that low? I'd not touch a darn thing.
PaulaO
Take a deep breath and count to zen.
RE: lower APAP pressure
If it makes her feel better and her AHI does not go crazy then I think she has made a great improvement. She made the change because she got up every morning feeling lousy. Sounds like a good reason to me.
Keep on truckin' ppowers
Best Regards,
PaytonA
RE: lower APAP pressure
It seems odd that change would cause a person to feel better.
Except for some very small second order effects, the therapy is unchanged.
I have to wonder if there isn't something else going on.
RE: lower APAP pressure
Perhaps it is the getting to sleep that is getting to ppowers.
I'd think that instead of lowering the minimum pressure, ppowers, you might want to try the ramp feature instead. It'll do the same thing (lower pressure to start with so you can get to sleep), but get the pressure to where you seem to need it (without waiting for events to happen to boost you there).
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RE: lower APAP pressure
Can you post a plot of a typical pressure curve over a night?
Is it really retreating to baseline pressure?
A Resmed APAP raises pressure aggressively in response to flow limitation and snoring which are predictors of impeding OAs.
It retreats slowly. (Like ANZAC troops -- unafraid to attack, slow to retreat. That's for my brother's!)
Still doesn't seem logical that changing baseline from 8 to 6 would make a difference in how you feel.
