Upgraded to Airsense 10 from System One. Couple questions though.

[jaswilliams]

Thanks Sleeprider.  Got it.  Since my med pressure was 14.2 would you suggest a minimum pressure of 14 or since the 95% was 19.1 a minimum pressure a couple steps below that to 17, while leaving the EPR set to 3?  I know the recommendations are usually a couple steps below the 95% number, but don't want to assume anything and would rather go off of what you recommend.  I would prefer not to depend on the cervical to fix things tonight, although I did wash it, and hopefully it will have more support while using it tonight.  I can't take another day like I had today with the extreme fatigue.  Amazing that a night without the machine or with a bad night with it, how much it affects me.  Thank you again.  


                                                                             Brian

With a Resmed machine there is less need to raise the minimum pressure as the Resmed responds much faster than a philips machine.

[Bweekzzz]

Good afternoon Sleeprider.  From what I think I had a pretty darn good night with my machine last night.  Most importantly, I feel much better today than I did yesterday.  But then again, every time I think I have things dialed in, I get thrown a curve ball I don't understand.  LOL
                                               I'll post the chart below and hopefully you can tell me what you think.  My AHI was nearly half (1.98) of what it was the night before (3.57).  I did increase my minimum pressure to 14.2, which was the median pressure from the night before and left EPR at 3.   My Flow Limit also only increased by .1 for the minimum and .2 for the median.  Max stayed the same at .35.  I know it's an increase from the night before, but only a very slight one.  I hope that's not too much of an increase.  
                                               I didn't have any clusters of Obstructives like the night before, except for one small one in the beginning of the night, so collar was doing it's job.  Also the events at about 4:30 are from me taking the mask off, so i can probably throw those out of my AHI.  The ones at 5:00 are also from a large leak, which i think was pulling my mask away to pull out the homemade mask liner because it was getting on my nerves.  I know the AHI is lower than what was shown, but I don't know how to recalculate it without the events that are thrown out. 
                                               Any thoughts or further recommendations would be greatly appreciated.  Other than that I'm gonna run with the settings I have now, unless you think I should change anything.  As always, thank you very much for you help!!



                                                                                                       Brian

[Sleeprider]

This looks very good, and it seems you were comfortable in spite of the pressure rising to 20 cm. In my opinion you are about as dialed in as possible with the Airsense 10, and the only avenue to further reduce flow limitations and provide therapeutic pressure that prevents obstructive events, would be to move up the the Aircurve 10 Vauto. It's something you can talk to your doctor about, mainly because you are experiencing median pressure near 16, and maximum pressure at 20. While your results are good, the bilevel machine is generally approved for patients that need these higher pressures. You may have to complain about comfort and tolerance of the CPAP at these pressures to make a case for bilevel, but I can just imaging that with pressure support in the 4 to 6 cm range, you are going to eliminate the flow limitations and probably be more comfortable. It's an appropriate application of the bilevel technology if you can persuade your doctor to prescribe and get insurance approval. Meanwhile, these results are very acceptable, you just don't have any room to use more pressure or pressure support.

[Bweekzzz]

Thanks Jas.  That's why I bought the Airsense 10.  I was previously using a System One APAP, and always read the the Airsense 10 was much better at treating events than the System One.  
                                                                  I posted last nights chart in a reply to Sleeprider below.  I recalculated my AHI after throwing out the events at 4:30 and at 5:00, because they were due to taking the mask off, and came up with an AHI of .99.  I'm going to ride with those settings I changed last night with min pressure 14.2 and EPR at 3, unless you or Sleeprider have any suggestions.  Thank you for all you guys do for this forum.  

                                                                                 Brian

[Bweekzzz]

I can't thank you enough Sleeprider!!  I'm going to ride with these settings.  I recalculated my AHI throwing out the events at 4:30 an 5:00, and came up with .99.  How much better could I ask for?  LOL.  
                                                     As far as a bilevel machine, I've pretty much thought that that's what I should do, but that's probably not gonna happen until tax refund time.  LOL.  My insurance doesn't cover CPAP devices of supplies.  I have found a great site/app for used ones though.  Don't know if I can say it here, but I found my Airsense 10 on there for 200 bucks and it only had 1800 hours on it and the machine works great.  Please let me know if I can say the name on here of the site/app and I most definitely will make a post about it, so that others who pay out of pocket can hopefully benefit from it.  I'll give you a hint though.  I just saw a commercial for the app on TV.  It's kind of like a LETGO, but better in how you do the purchasing, and how the buyer gets paid.  And I've seen a lot of machines on the site/app too.
                                                     Have a great weekend!!!


                                                                       Brian

[OpalRose]

Bweekzzz,
You can say the name, just don’t post a link or url. Don’t post anything clickable that takes you to that site.