Nicholas' progress thread

[Nicholas]

EPR is fine, and does not harm your therapy as long as EPAP minimum remains 9.0.

Ok, so to achieve an EPAP min of 9 (and assuming that if I *do* use EPR, it's set to 2), my options are:

a) set CPAP to 9 and turn off epr
b) set CPAP to 11 and turn on epr 2
c) set APAP min to 11 turn on epr 2

Do I have that right?

[Gideon]

a) set CPAP to 9 and turn off epr
b) set CPAP to 11 and turn on epr 2
c) set APAP min to 11 APAP max to 11 turn on epr 2
d) set APAP min to 9 APAP max to 9 turn epr off


A minor change, and option c or d would be slightly preferred because they would enable the "Flow Limit" chart 

[Sleeprider]

a) set CPAP to 9 and turn off epr
b) set CPAP to 11 and turn on epr 2
c) set APAP min to 11 APAP max to 11 turn on epr 2
d) set APAP min to 9 APAP max to 9 turn epr off


A minor change, and option c or d would be slightly preferred because they would enable the "Flow Limit" chart 

I'm not positive, but I think Resmed Autoset will record flow limitation in CPAP mode.  Philips definitely does not do FL flags in CPAP mode.

[Crimson Nape]

I'm not positive, but I think Resmed Autoset will record flow limitation in CPAP mode.

The S9 Autoset DOES record flow limits in CPAP.

[Nicholas]

The S9 Autoset DOES record flow limits in CPAP.

Then it seems reasonably safe to assume the S10 does, too.

[Nicholas]

d) set APAP min to 9 APAP max to 9 turn epr off

A minor change, and option c or d would be slightly preferred because they would enable the "Flow Limit" chart 

This is the option I'll likely go with tonight.

[Nicholas]

So last night I set it to CPAP mode at a pressure of 9 with EPR off @bonjour - it *did* flow limit). My AHI was 1.31 for a total time of 7:34. At first glance, those numbers looks good. The interesting thing is that the 7:34 was broken up into 7 small sessions, with the longest two being 1:54 and 2:04; I was up and down quite a bit during the night. This is somewhat consistent with the previous night where my APAP range was set to 10-16 with EPR off; my AHI was 0.87 for a total sleep time of 5:34 broken into 7 shorter sessions.


This is in contrast with two nights ago where APAP was set to 10-16 with EPR of 2. My AHI was up at 2.56, but I had only 4 sessions that averaged longer.

So, when EPR is off and EPAP stays constant at 9 or 10, my AHI may be lower, but I seem to get up and down all night.

However, with EPR on, my AHI may be slightly higher, but I get up and down less, and each of my sleep sessions last longer.

The question is: why? Why do I get up more when my EPAP is fixed at 9? Is it due to comfort? If so, then EPAP pressure must be disturbing me more than I realize - because I don't consciously notice much discomfort when EPR is off.

I'm not sure which scenario is better. If I had to choose, I'd be inclined towards the higher AHI with less getting up and down at night. Waking up to pee has been a major complaint throughout most of my life - so the less I do that, the better I seem to feel.

The next frontier is to try and get my AHI down *with* longer sleep sessions. Any feedback is appreciated.

[Sleeprider]

Go for comfort and less sleep disruption. The rest will take care of itself in time.

[kwhenrykerr]

Less getting up to pee is better sleep.

[Nicholas]

Go for comfort and less sleep disruption.  The rest will take care of itself in time.

Thanks, I agree. When you get a minute, as a favor, would you have a peek at the above data and see if it takes you to the same conclusion?