(05-18-2015, 11:42 AM)sleepyandsore Wrote: thanks for the quick replies!
so are you saying to go into the machine and adjust the ramp from 4 to 6 or 7? all of my events seem to be Clear airways apneas - that makes me nervous because sometimes when I start to doze off I get the feeling that I just stop breathing for no reason at all. I don't sense any obstruction or change position - I just get a funny feeling that the nervous system stops sending a signal to breath. Is that possible?...
It is entirely possible; that is exactly what the definition of a CA event is. But if the doc thought that you had a preponderance of CA events, he probably would not have prescribed an APAP, and would have prescribed something else along the lines of a ventilator/ASV. Good question for them to answer for you on your next visit.
I do not want to speak for the others, but I do not think your question interprets what they are saying properly. I agree with RG, but it is difficult to really see the entire pressure graph in the attachment (which seems to be the same attachment three times).
Also, you do not want to make changes based on one night. Get a couple of weeks of data first.
You may notice that, while wide open, you never went above 10. So you may not ever need pressure above 10-12. But it is the min pressure we are probably concerned about here.
I do not think these suggestions have much to do with the ramp; I think they are saying that maybe the min pressure is too low. I would dispense with the ramp, unless you think not having the ramp is interfering with falling asleep. Ramp means the therapy is sneaking up on you so that you won't notice until you are mostly asleep (and then may not be fully asleep)
You do have more CA events, but that may be normal, and they may be false positives. I had less than 2% CAs reported in my unaided home study, but have twice the CAs that I do everything else ever since, while on xPAP. But I average 1.4, so it probably does not matter.
At a minimum, you should have a PSG and consultation. Often the docs will start you at wide open on a APAP to see what the machine does regarding where it thinks your pressure should be. But wide open is not optimal therapy; you need a min pressure that makes sense, and a max pressure that makes sense. A tuned APAP can be like a laser-sighted rifle once dialed in, but until it is, its like a sawed-off shotgun without sights.