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Thank you all for this website! I have learned so much just from reading through some posts! I have been using my cpap for over 10 days now. Attached are my results from the last three nights. I don't think my numbers are horrible, but they could be better. I have noticed waking up when the pressure gets really high at night. I don't know if I should adjust my range of pressure or if my body will naturally get used to the rise in pressure at night. What do you all think? Any tips or advice to improve my numbers would be great. Thank you so much!
Your data looks like your events are mainly positional, and the arousals me be caused by the large pressure envelope.
My recommendations are:
If you have the Ramp option, please turn it off.
Stay off your back and avoid chin tucking. Chin tucking can have 2 main causes. One is your pillow. A soft cervical collar (SCC) can help with this. The second, is having the mask harness too low on the back of the head. If it is riding on the back of your neck, as you tilt your head upward, the mask will tighten on your face. Likewise, if you tilt your head down, the tension will relax. As you sleep, your body will try to compensate for mask tension by tilting your head down. This can cause the OAs (obstructed airway).
Change your pressure settings. Most adults find a starting (minimum) pressure of 7cm to be more desirable. This also eliminates the air starvation feeling caused by lower pressures. I also would suggest that when you set your minimum pressure to 7cm, set the maximum pressure to 10cm. This will allow for only a 3cm pressure change, and should reduce the pressure induced arousals.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
Attached is my sleep from the last three night. Minimum is set at 7 and Max is set at 11. Should I decrease or increase either of those, especially since my machine seems to be hitting 11? Would increasing my minimum to 8 be bad? Also, what about EPR? Do i need to adjust anything there or is most of my stuff positional apnea? Basically, I want to do everything possible before I try the cervical collar route as I am still new to all this and don't know what adjustments to make with the machine. Thank you!
Raidersrose, you do not have EPR on because inhale pressure is the same as exhale pressure. If EPR is on, be sure it is set to full-time and not just "ramp". The Resmed machine is very responsive to flow limitations, and that is why your pressure rises to the maximum setting. EPR does treat flow limitations by supporting inspiration. You can see how pressure increases correlate to flow limitation in your chart. With EPR this wild swing in pressure should be resolved.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
Thank you all for the help! Attached are my recent results with the EPR set at full time and at 3. Do those results look better? I'm not sure how to judge them compared to my other results. Are there any other settings you suggest I tweak that could possibly improve my results before I go the cervical collar route? Thank you!
