RE: newbie question
Thanks again. I feel much better reading all your input! Didn't have much luck last night. Got a few hours on machine. One of my biggest problems has always been falling asleep. It takes hours no matter how tired I am. So it's not really the machine, but it doesn't help me in falling asleep. The night I did get 7 hours, I was still tired though. I will keep trying. I am desperate to get a decent nights sleep, and not be tired everyday of my life.
RE: newbie question
Sleep apnea is a serious, life threatening condition. If you try to do it yourself, and don't get it right, you could still suffer the serious health effects of sleep apnea.
CPAP of any kind may cause or increase your central apneas. The VPAP Auto is what's referred to as "bilevel." Bilevel is a little less likely to increase your central apneas than CPAP.
However, sometimes, a CPAP or bilevel may work OK even if you have some central apnea. Tinkering with the settings, such as the difference between inhale and exhale may affect central apnea.
If you really have significant central apnea, and you can't solve it with your CPAP/bilevel machine, you may need an ASV machine such as a VPAP Adapt or one of the other ASV machines. However, ASV machines can be a REAL pain to adapt to.
That's why it's important to look at the data and see what happens.
Everyone gets panicked about central apnea. That's simply wrong. What matters is having apneas. Your body doesn't care whether it's central or obstructive. Your body cares that you've stopped breathing x times for y seconds. Centrals are harder to treat, not necessarily more harmful.
However, central apnea will harm or kill you just like obstructive apnea will.
You need to look at the level of apnea you have. Look at the AHI, and also look at the airflow waveforms and see if you completely stop breathing and for how long. You may find that the things your machine calls an apnea isn't really that serious. Or you may find you have a low AHI, but you stop breathing so long that even a small number of apneas is a problem.
You may find your central apnea level will go away or get worse with different adjustments to your current bilevel machine. Lower pressure may give you better results. Reducing or increasing the difference between inhale and exhale pressure may also change your results.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software
here.
Useful links.
Click
here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.