Are these settings OK?

[Gideon]

Welcome to the forum.

Your numbers are good, your volumes, tidal volume and minute vent, are ok as you are a small woman, thanks for that info, but you are indicating a shortness of breath, the first zoomed image supports that impression during sleep, showing that you are breathing shallowly at times during the night. You also mention some shortness of breath during the day. Both of these may be related to your surgery and the reduced lung volume post surgery.

A BiLevel machine with its capability for providing pressure support is capable of improving your tidal volume and minute vent which should improve your shortness of breath at night. I would discuss this with your doctor. Note that your current machine is not designed to do this.

[BobbieM]

Thank you. Really appreciate your help.

[BobbieM]

I thought my Dreamstation was a BIPAP machine. I checked after your post. In the settings there is a Flex feature allowing me to adjust inhale and exhale features. Or is a Bilevel machine different from a Bipap? Oh and you are right. The shortness of breath as opposed to the apnea was post surgery. I’ve been to doctors about it and had X-rays and scans, the advice is to exercise more and do not skip CPAP. When asked how I could adjust CPAP to maximise treatment, the ENT doctor referred me back to the Philips sleep tech/salesman who has been no help. The doctor said there’s really not much difference between machines so I never even thought of looking at other manufacturers.  The flex feature on my Dreamstation is on auto.

[BobbieM]

Further to my latest post that Dreamstation has flex function, I would like to share my experience with the professional community. I asked my sleep tech to adjust the pressure of my machine to a higher maximum than 10 to give me a better range. He said it was not necessary as my average pressure, as he put it, hovers around 9. But he could sell me a humidifier to help with any discomfort. At that point I decided to be my own sleep tech, teach myself about CPAP treatment and bought what I thought was a machine (with humidifier) based on the latest in CPAP research. Also，I’m sure you are all aware of internet blogs warning of the dangers of adjusting or “hacking” your machine, that only a licensed person has the expertise to do so.

[BobbieM]

Sorry, I meant experience OF not with the so-called professional community.

[Sleeprider]

You have a CPAP that auto-adjusts pressure, but it does not provide bilevel pressure. Take a look at the A-Flex wiki to get an idea of what it does to round-off the start of inspiration and expiration. It never provides more than 2-cm pressure drop, and it is flow-based depending on how assertive your spontaneous breathing is. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/A-Flex You also have some variable breathing as shown in the pink shaded areas. This is a part of the Philips algorithm that is truly dysfunctional. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php..._Breathing

[BobbieM]

I cannot thank everyone enough for their help. I will now do some research on the Resmed Autoset and perhaps give myself a birthday present.