Bad results to Good by changing settings

[myapneas]

Not a question, more a very heartfelt thank you to the people on this forum. Also, maybe this will help someone else.

I have severe apnea (~40 AHI untreated). I didn't get much better than 20 on APAP, until I changed several settings with help from this forum.

In short, my treatment wasn't working because (1) the settings on my APAP were too wide (4-20), and (2) this caused the APAP to run very high so I kept losing the seal and couldn't tolerate the exhalation pressure. EPR was set on 1. With the settings on 4-20, my 95% was around 18, which I couldn't tolerate.

Based on suggestions I read on this forum, I reduced the range (8-16) and set the EPR to 3. Now my AHI is under 5, and my 95% is around 12. For whatever reason, having the range set from 4-20 prevented the machine from working correctly at all, but it works fine on the narrow range, and I can exhale with the EPR setting raised.

Can't thank you all enough. It's been a long, tiring road.

[OpalRose]

A lot of doctors and therapists send the machine home set at 4-20, and leave you on your own. I think they either don't understand or are playing safe.

I was sent home with the same settings.

This is what happens. In your case, the APAP starts out at 4, but it takes too long for it to respond to apnea events. Eventually it gets there, but by the time it does, a lot of events will not have been averted, resulting in a higher AHI.

Also, the APAP responds to snores and flow limitations, and will raise the pressure in response. I know in my case, my APAP would sometimes go to my max setting with no apnea events. The change in pressure was very disruptive.

The best thing you can do now is watch your 95% numbers and your medium pressure number, from there the best starting point would be around the Medium number or 2 to 3cm below the 95% number. That gives you a pretty good idea where to start. Only raise your max pressure if you see your numbers staying up that high for a good part of the night.

[trish6hundred]

Hi myapneas,
It’s great to hear that you got your machine set so that it will work well for you, now onwerd to better sleep.

[JWR]

That's great to hear that you got it figured out your on your way to being an old Pro at cpap.