[Pressure] Centrals increasing; new to BiPap

[cdbeardie]

I am posting an update, which is a lot of improvement, thanks to some great advice.  I met a couple weeks ago with the sleep doctor, and things have improved since then.  In fact, last night my AHI was .7, which is a big difference from what it was when I first posted here looking for advice to reduce the centrals.  I finally got to see my original sleep study, which included mixed apnea, central apnea, obstructive apnea, but mostly hypopneas.  

I had a heart attack in August, and it turns out that while sleep apnea can cause an heart attack, the reverse is also true, and as I've been losing weight and more time has elapsed since the heart attack, the apnea has improved, as well.  If I hadn't heeded your advice and turned down the pressure support, EPAP and IPAP, I would not have made that progress.  

Many thanks for the support!

[Sleeprider]

cdbeardie, great to hear how well you are doing. It really proves that complex apnea can be addressed with CPAP/BPAP. Where did you end up in settings?

[cdbeardie]

Right now I'm at 12 for IPAP and 8 for EPAP with the pressure support at 1.  It was set at 6 for EPAP for a while, but every time the machine tried to go up to 12, the centrals flared like crazy, so I kept the two settings as close as I could, and that seemed to go better.  I read that it takes some people up to 3 months to get the centrals to calm down, and they've gradually done that.  

Right now, I'd like to reduce the IPAP to 11, because it goes past that so rarely.  Every time I'm thinking about it, I have a night where it jumps to 12 a couple of times, and then I reconsider.  

I have to say this whole thing has been a lesson in patience along with trial and error.  

The sleep doctor's tech assistant says that this kind of response is unusual, (improvement in the centrals and apneas in general),  but I think it's because I had a heart attack, and at least some of the centrals and hypopneas were due to my heart being damaged and gradually getting back to normal.  But, who knows?  For some of us, it's definitely more art than science