New BiPAP user! (UARS). Need serious help please! Data included, much appreciated

[SarcasticDave94]

Yes rainout can lead to congestion. Do you have the heated hose or hose cover? No then you'll need them. If yes, hose heat needs to go up or humidity down.

[CentralApneaUser909]

Yes rainout can lead to congestion. Do you have the heated hose or hose cover? No then you'll need them. If yes, hose heat needs to go up or humidity down.

Thanks for your response! I ordered the heated hose and p30i pillow, they should arrive tomorow. If not then then within the next few days. Didn't order the cover. 

Do I need the cover if I'm getting the heated hose?

Also I wonder what the scientific explanation is for why rainout causes congestion.

[SarcasticDave94]

To combo hose cover and heated? Some do this. I'd say try the heated hose and see how a trial and error setup for the heat goes. If you crank it to max heat and it's either not controlling rainout or air gets too warm for your comfort, then that's probably a good indicator the cover is needed.

As is I'd try the heated hose at about 80 degrees and adjust up or down to get the right balance of rainout control and not being too warm for comfort.

[Sleeprider]

You don't need a tube cover with heated hose, however I use both and find the cover makes the tube much more comfortable when it brushes my face or skin.

[CentralApneaUser909]

Still not able to post last night's data as I need to update my laptop.

I slept 9ish hours but still woke up a lot to toss and turn. So usual. Had SOME agreopgia in my stomach but not a whole lot. Currently is epap 8 and ipap 12.

Is it safe if I increase to ipap 13?

[Sleeprider]

You are asking if it is safe to increase IPAP to 13 for a PS of 5 on your S9 VPAP ST. It's safe, however as pressure support increases we want to watch for an increase of central apnea. If you had aerophagia at PS 4, you might want to take smaller steps, for example increase IPAP to 12.4.

Please update your user profile so we can more quickly identity your machine, mask and other information http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/usercp.php

[CentralApneaUser909]

Ok so my heated hose arrived, but it only goes up to 30 degrees?

And I will update my profile details soon yes.

[Sleeprider]

Well, that is Celcius, and you can change the settings to Fahrenheit if you wish. I usually set to 80*F or 26-27 *C which is sufficient to stop condensation.

[CentralApneaUser909]

So I've got a few days worth data, seems like same old, until I increased my Pressure Support close to 5. My AHI has been low 0.4 - 2ish since starting BiPAP, but once I increased IPAP to 13 and EPAP to 8.2 (from 8), my AHI jumped close to 5-6ish, with most being ''unclassified'' apneas, aka centrals.

Now I have no doubt these are centrals, as when I am transitioning from wakefulness to sleep, I do sometimes feel as if I am 'forgetting' to breathe. But these centrals don't scare me, and neither does the higher AHI.

Even with the low AHI/low centrals, I was having flow limitations all night, never once having anything close to normal breathing (I manually scanned through each night's data).

However, I think I may have had something close to normal when I had IPAP 13. Now the night is split into 2 days again, because I turned the machine to try out my new p30i nasal pillows and heated hose.

I slept from around 5am-ish on the 19th and woke up 2:45pm ish. I slept mostly on my back rather than side, and I did wake up quite a few times (maybe 6 or 7) to pee). However, I was able to get myself back to sleep. So below, I've attached two pictures, one of the 18th and 19th, basically one night's worth of sleep from from 5am to 2:45pm.

The p30i pillows and hose did help unblock my nose more than ususal, however during the night, it sometimes gets very blocked and the air doesn't unblock it (but it is more unblocked than usual). 

Anyway, in the first screen-cap, I THINK this may be somewhat normal breathing? I know what night's worth of data shouldn't mean much, but I've manually scanned through a week's worth of data, and this is the first time my data is beginning to look like this. I can see that there's no flat topping of the waveforms, and there's some flatness in the waves but not that much. My breathing looked like this quite a bit. I'm curious whether anyone here thinks that this is a sign of FLs being treated? And if so, should I increase my IPAP even further? I'm currently on IPAP 13, I think if I increased EPAP to 9 and IPAP to 14, I could have even more benefit? I could keep my EPAP at 8.2 and increase IPAP to 14, giving me PS 6, but that might give me way more centrals.

I'm not entirely sure whether I should be worried about centrals. Can these centrals contribute to waking up throughout the night? I don't feel any more tired than usual. If anything, I'm more concerned about FLs than treatment emergent centrals.

Also ignore the IPAP 12, EPAP 6 on the second cap. That's just something I tested after I had woken up. IPAP was 13, EPAP was 8.2. Also, I took off my mask several times to drink water throughout the night (bedside bottle) so not many leaks either.

As for the screen caps, the THIRD screen cap is when sleep began, the second is part 2 of when it ended. The first is merely an example of what I think may be normal breathing in my sleep.

[CentralApneaUser909]

Here is one of those ''unclassified'' apneas, looks like a central to me. 

Also, another screen cap of what looks like some very weird waveforms.