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My Bucket is not big enough - Printable Version

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My Bucket is not big enough - genes - 04-27-2013

I read on another thread that people wondered how much pressure the early cpap machines produced so I decided to find out. I took my Respironics Sleepeasy off the shelf and plugged it in. Respironics says it was the first commercial cpap model and is dated Feb 8, 1985. I hooked up one of the original hoses and stuck it in a bucket to the bottom (9 inches of water deep over 22 cm). It was still blowing water out of the bucket full blast and did not show any indications of slowing down. It is powered by AC and has only one speed (Tim Taylor Fast). I knew it had power because I have used it to inflate air mattrsses etc. It does that with ease.
I will either find a bigger bucket, use a swimming pool this summer or hook up a pressure gage and measure the pressure and post the result.

GeneS



RE: My Bucket is not big enough - Tez62 - 04-27-2013

Genes I love hearing about the history of CPAP even though I'm only a new user (2 years) was it the size of a vacuum?


RE: My Bucket is not big enough - Schnauzers 5 - 04-27-2013

I am just glad someone invented mine by the time I needed it. Think of all in history who needed one but never had one. All the lives that could have been spared. It is a very significant invention, yet many people still do not know they have OSA or need help. I don't know why doctors do not consider it as a regular test for patients who complain about being exhausted all the time.


RE: My Bucket is not big enough - PollCat - 04-28-2013

GeneS, doesn't that unit have dials under the housing for adjusting the pressure? I had a Respironics something or other, circa 1995, that looked like it was fully electronic until the screws shook loose and revealed the three dials on the back of the machine. I should have kept that unit, but one of my sleep docs wanted it for his collection/display.


RE: My Bucket is not big enough - SuperSleeper - 04-28-2013

(04-28-2013, 12:16 AM)PollCat Wrote: GeneS, doesn't that unit have dials under the housing for adjusting the pressure? I had a Respironics something or other, circa 1995, that looked like it was fully electronic until the screws shook loose and revealed the three dials on the back of the machine. I should have kept that unit, but one of my sleep docs wanted it for his collection/display.

I'd bet that it does have those dials. There's no "setting" to set pressure, you just turn the slotted dial with a screwdriver up or down and test the pressure using a Manometer.

You can build a manometer yourself, cheaply. See here:

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-Home-made-Manometer-for-few-dollars

Coffee




RE: My Bucket is not big enough - Bompa - 04-28-2013

(04-28-2013, 08:13 AM)SuperSleeper Wrote: You can build a manometer yourself, cheaply. See here:

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-Home-made-Manometer-for-few-dollars

Coffee

Any idea as to how to build a womanometer??

Oh-jeezLaugh-a-lotCoffee


RE: My Bucket is not big enough - I'mTired - 04-28-2013

(04-27-2013, 09:01 PM)Schnauzers 5 Wrote: I am just glad someone invented mine by the time I needed it. Think of all in history who needed one but never had one. All the lives that could have been spared. It is a very significant invention, yet many people still do not know they have OSA or need help. I don't know why doctors do not consider it as a regular test for patients who complain about being exhausted all the time.

I have to agree Schnauzer. I've been complaining of fatigue for almost five years. I'm being worked up for an autoimmune disorder so everyone thought that was the cause of me being so tired.

I never, ever thought about sleep apnea. I don't fit the 'mold'. I've been pretty thin my whole life.

But, guess what, my sleep apnea has been designated as severe because my AHI is 38 and it reached 57 when in REM. Who would have guessed?

Now, I have to figure out what all this means, how it figures into my health, and, of course, what to purchase and how to use it.

Aint it fun?


RE: My Bucket is not big enough - genes - 04-28-2013

My Respironics Sleepeasy is dated 2/8/85 with hand written S/N 3959. It operated on 115 volt AC 60 Hz and uses an AC motor. The newer machines convert the AC to DC power and use variable speed DC [/align]motors. The Sleepeasy flow generator weight is 16 Lbs. It measures W=9 1/4 in, D=7 1/4, and H=15 3/4". Later on I got a stand alone humidifier to go with it. I hooked up the unit to an old Respironics Gel Mask today with an oxygen port and a pressure manometer that read in cm of H20. It read 23 cm. I then hooked the hose direct to the pressure gage and it read 24 cm. I cannot find any adjustment screws or valves on the generator and never could when I used it. The documentation never mentioned any. I have had the top off many times in the past. It was not as quiet as the modern machines but I know that when I used it that it was quieter than a Jet Plane flying low overhead. My wife never threw me out because of the noise. She calls the cpap's white noise.

The pressure was originally customized to your prescription by buying a mask labeled to your prescription. The mask had a balloon hooked to it to I assume assure a uniform air supply when you breathed. The mask had an 1 1/4" vent with a circular insert hooked to a spring. I figure that the stronger the spring the higher the pressure. The masks came in 2 1/2 cm increments. I had 2 or 3 different ones in my parts box.

Later they upgraded the unit to use a Sanders Circuit. It consisted of an adjustable valve hooked to the generator and a swivel vent that hooked to a mask without a large vent more like today's masks. The Sanders Circuit literature mentioned pressures from 2 1/2 to 17 1/2 cm.

The fan blade was on a separate shaft from the motor and they controlled the fan to the speed they wanted by using different size pulllies on the motor shaft than on the fan shaft. The biggest problem was that the fan belts would wear and come off or break when you least expected. The bearings would wear and squeal etc. The pullies needed replacing often. I could always call Respironics and they would send me what ever parts I needed. I did my own maintaince so I usually kept spare parts on hand. I think that I could build a cpap but I plan to use the store bought ones as long as they are available. They have come a long way.

I guess it was still in the development stage at that time in 1985 but I was very thankful to have it. I also wish we could find a way to get treatment to everyone who needs it. It shouldn't be this difficult.

GeneS



RE: My Bucket is not big enough--the story of Colin Sullivan, founder of Resmed - grumpycat - 04-28-2013

You got me interested in the history of the cpap machine and I found the following from the Lancet April 2011.


(Wow----Resmed founder---started with dogs!)


Colin Sullivan: inventive pioneer of sleep medicine

Almost exactly 30 years after the publication of his pioneering paper on positive airway pressure for sleep apnoea (PAP) in The Lancet, Colin Sullivan continues to extend the boundaries of sleep medicine. In those three decades, PAP has gone from an obscure treatment available to few to an effective, portable treatment that has improved the sleep, and thus lifestyles, of millions worldwide.
From a family of tradesmen, Sullivan and his two brothers were constantly inventing and building new things. It was a theme that would resonate throughout his life. After completing medical studies at the University of Sydney, Sullivan went on to specialise in respiratory medicine at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he met mentor David Read, an expert on sudden infant death syndrome. They postulated that this syndrome might be caused by a breathing defect and this work piqued Sullivan's interest in sleep science. During his research Sullivan and long-time friend and colleague Michael Hensley dug up papers that referred to the condition sleep apnoea; they realised that one of their adult patients had the condition, and set about working out what caused it and how to treat it.
Read recommended that Sullivan join University of Toronto Professor Eliot Phillipson to do postdoctoral work, including research on the sleeping pattern of specially trained dogs. “3 years of intensive study followed, looking at how breathing affected sleep, dreams, and responses. Leading to the important conclusion that failure of arousal during sleep was a key response lost during some patients with breathing problems”, Sullivan told The Lancet. Then, in 1979, Sullivan returned to the University of Sydney as a senior lecturer in respiratory medicine, where he remains today, and physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. By then, his focus was on sleep medicine, a specialism that had only a handful of specialist centres around globally. To investigate patients with suspected sleep apnoea, he borrowed a portable trolley with an array of biological amplifiers and other technology that Read was using to study babies. Those early studies involved much work through the night with Sullivan monitoring patients himself. But momentum built, more equipment was procured, and space was found in his university complex to properly study patients. Among the indicators studied were breathing rate, chest expansion, air pressure, and vital signs. “A key moment was the advent of the pulse oximeter to measure oxygen levels”, says Sullivan.
While initially only a few patients with sleep apnoea were discovered, an article on the subject in The Sydney Morning Herald prompted hundreds of phone calls to Sullivan's team from people who thought they had the condition. Today, an estimated 9% of men and 5% of women have some form of sleep apnoea. Patients can appear well, but in sleep, they are choking, in some cases up to 500 times per night. Sufferers can end up falling asleep during daytime, including at the wheels of cars, and are at higher risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. “There will have been many cases of death recorded as arrhythmia or cardiovascular diseases that were actually sleep apnoea”, says Sullivan.
Sullivan and his team undertook experiments with dogs on airway obstruction, and created a mask for use on human patients. Air pressure was controlled with a circuit that raised pressure until passive obstruction of the airway was cleared. His first test patient was a 43-year-old construction worker who did not want a tracheostomy—back then the only treatment. At very low pressures, PAP cleared the man's airway and allowed him to sink into a deeper sleep, as well as being sleep-free the next day. An elated Sullivan tried the technique on four other patients, and these findings formed the basis for his 1981 Lancet paper.
Yet even then, he considered PAP as a rescue therapy to delay or avoid tracheostomy, rather than a cure in itself. It was only when a patient requested a PAP device for self-treatment at home that Sullivan realised the potential of a mass-produced portable device. He patented his device, and joint-founded the company ResMed in Australia. By 1989, some 1000 patients in Australia alone were using home-based devices. Soon after the first early successful treatment of sleep apnoea, Sullivan extended the method to provide positive pressure ventilation during sleep in patients with severe respiratory failure in diseases such as emphysema, work that led to the now widespread use of this method. Much early work on the efficacy of PAP was done by Professor Sir Neil Douglas of Edinburgh University. Douglas, who is Chair of the UK's Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, says that Sullivan “is the towering figure internationally in his field. Colin's intellect is the most impressive that I have encountered in my career and his contributions to respiratory science and patient care have been immense”.
Another key area of Sullivan's current research is using PAP to reduce sleep apnoea and resultant hypertension in sleeping pregnant women, with the theory that this will improve fetal wellbeing, and thus improve maternal and child morbidity and mortality outcomes. Hensley, a sleep medicine specialist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Newcastle, Australia, says: “Colin is a giant without equal in the field of sleep and breathing. In the 35 years that I have been a respiratory and sleep physician there has hardly been a day when I have not been influenced in my diagnosis or treatment by his work.”