New to APAP & Need Advice

[APAP4ME]

The second night at the new pressure range wasn't as good as the first night. I had a lot of CA's. I also shut off the ramp function and was a little uncomfortable at first but was able to fall asleep. Does the Auto ramp function do anything during the night?

I have attached last nights OSCAR report. Any suggestions?

[Dormeo]

You certainly had a bunch of CAs toward the end of the night there. But I'd stick with the current settings if I were you. CAs are notorious for varying a lot from one night to the next, so you need some time to see whether there's a trend one way or another.

I *think* auto ramp doesn't do anything unless the machine has been turned off and then on again.

[APAP4ME]

Kept the same settings and day 3 was even worse. Any suggestions or just stick with it?

[Dormeo]

Ugh. The series tend to start when your pressure goes up. So try setting max = min = 7 and see how that goes.

I'm curious, did you feel you were pretty much asleep during this CA clusters?

[APAP4ME]

Yes, I think that I was sleeping well during the cluster.  I'm starting to think that my starting pressure is too high and maybe I should drop it back down.  Maybe not down to the original setting of 5 but maybe trying 6.  I wear an O2Ring and the app showed zero drops over 4% and an average O2 of 96% for the entire night.  it kind of seems like I'm really well oxygenated and don't have the drive to breathe.

[Dormeo]

You could try max = min = 6 if you prefer. This will have the effect of reducing your EPR to 2, which might itself have some benefit.

Your O2 numbers sound very good.

[APAP4ME]

Whats the significance of keeping the two numbers the same?  My 95% pressure from last night is 8.68cm therefore it seems like 9cm at the upper end is appropriate.  Why lower it?

[APAP4ME]

Another nights worth of data and not much change. Had to turn the ramp back to Auto setting? And advice?

[Sleeprider]

The idea of reducing EPR is to maintain a little more CO2. CA events are often related to some over-ventilation which is encouraged by the pressure support (difference between inhale and exhale pressure). When Dormeo suggested setting the minimum and maximum pressure to 6.0, that would effectively make your machine a fixed pressure CPAP with lower maximum pressure and less EPR. I think that was a good idea. Nothing in your results suggests an obstructive problem and the lower pressure and PS should work to reduce CA events and will probably be very comfortable. We can always restore more pressure if your feedback indicates the need.

[APAP4ME]

Last night I changed to max=min=6 with EPR=3 and found that it very comfortable to sleep with these settings. Unfortunately, I was awake for a couple of hours around 3:00AM and took the mask off. I'm interested to see how these settings work for a couple more nights.

I have attached the OSCAR data for any comments or advice.