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A little background. I'm sure that I needed a bipap for years before this. I had a health crises a couple of years ago and spent 4 months in a coma with a total of 6 months in the ICU and 6 months in a rehab facility. I went to a specialty hospital afterwords to get weened off the respirator/dialysis/IVs/feeding tubes and such. That is where I got my first machine. I had issues from the start with people who had no clue how to operate one and have struggled for two years. I recently had to buy a new machine because of issues with getting it repaired and insurance. I found this site right after I got it about a week ago. I tried to set it up with the original settings from my sleep study and first machine. It was horrible and I cant get a new study for months. I'm trying to get it dialed in on my own and I'm now in information overload. I don't think I'm doing too bad but I'm just throwing numbers now. I don't know what is right or wrong. Please let me know if I'm headed in the right driection.
On the 15th you had a lot of positional apnea. This shows up in your event flags and flow rate as Hypopnea and Obstructive events that are clustered together. It means you are tipping your head towards your chest which works like a kink in a hose and hinders airflow into your nose. Most folks here solve this by wearing a soft cervical collar to bed, as it holds your chin up.
On the 19th the problem did not appear. On the 20th there was a little. Was this coincidental, or did you start correcting this after the 15th? If it was coincidental you'll need to correct it.
With Oscar, it helps us much more to see the following in your chart, in the order listed; Event Flags, Flow Rate, Pressure, Leak Rate, and Flow limits. Best of luck with improving your comfort and therapy!
05-21-2024, 06:19 PM (This post was last modified: 05-21-2024, 06:23 PM by ischua.)
RE: New to group
On the 15th I used the original settings from my bad machine. I started at IPAP 23 and EPAP 19 and in half an hour dropped it to 20/13. I dropped it again on the 16th to 18/13 . I changed the settings on the Ti Max to 2.24 because it felt like it was cutting out before I was done inhaling. I tend to move around alot because of pain and it wakes me up. I'm adding updated graphs
So you are not wearing a soft cervical collar? I think you really need to buy and use one. Otherwise, you will often have high AHIs and won't be getting good therapy on those nights. When I needed one I liked the Caldera Releaf Collar (available from Amazon) as it was more comfortable than the others I tried and worked just as well.
There is a place in your chart for Flow Limits but it is empty. Maybe you are a rare, lucky person who does not get them. But, I do see that you are using the Bilevel S setting. I think flow limits don't show up unless you use the VAuto setting. I know that's what most people here use and that it has more options than the S setting. Try VAuto.
I am really new to getting into the settings (1 week) what is the difference between S and Vauto? I'm starting to realize just how little help I actually got in 2+ years.
