[Pressure] New member seeking advice

[BrendaGFNY]

Hi, my original auto bipap machine recently died and my md ordered a Dreamstation bipap auto for me. The DME set the machine at 5.0/15.0 PS min/max 7.0.
I used it for two nights and didn't like the pressures (my AHI was 2.34). I changed the therapy settings to 7.0/18.0 PS min 4.0 PS max 5.5. The pressures 
felt more comfortable and my AHI dropped to 0.43 but I would like more pressure on inhale (exhale feels ok). Should I increase PS or epap ? I have been a
lurker on this board for many years and finally got up the nerve to post. I installed Sleepyhead and read the reports but posting them is way over my skill
level. Thanks for any advice.

[Gideon]

Posting is easy enough, just follow the 5 easy steps in my signature.
Your Rx had a PS of 7.  I would reset to that value.

[BrendaGFNY]

aaaaaargh!!! Everything went smoothly following your instructions until I tried to post the image. I have to post 4 times (if this counts as the second post).
If I revert to the 7.0 PS, I'll be back where I was the first night with the pressures I didn't like.

[Walla Walla]

To increase your inhale pressure increase your min PS.

[Sleeprider]

On your BiPAP Auto, the PS is variable, with a minimum and maximum. If exhale pressure feels okay, but you want more pressure support then you should increase PS min. Your PS max is limited to 5.5 and you might want to give that a bit more room. I'm pretty sure your initial high AHI would have been central events from excessive PS. Your results with the PS min at 4 and PS max at 5.5 was very good, and you may want to increase PS min by a small amount like 4.5.

[trish6hundred]

Hi BrendaGFNY,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck as you continue CPAP therapy and also with getting used to the new machine.
You have come to the right place for guidance, hang in there for more responses to your post.

[BrendaGFNY]

On your BiPAP Auto, the PS is variable, with a minimum and maximum.  If exhale pressure feels okay, but you want more pressure support then you should increase PS min. Your PS max is limited to 5.5 and you might want to give that a bit more room.  I'm pretty sure your initial high AHI would have been central events from excessive PS.  Your results with the PS min at 4 and PS max at 5.5 was very good, and you may want to increase PS min by a small amount like 4.5.

Thank you. I will try 4.5 and if I have enough posts, I will post a screenshot from SleepyHead.

[Gideon]

Post with a space until you show as a "Member" and not a "New Member"  (htt p://imgur.xxxxxx.png")
We will figure it out.

[BrendaGFNY]

On your BiPAP Auto, the PS is variable, with a minimum and maximum.  If exhale pressure feels okay, but you want more pressure support then you should increase PS min. Your PS max is limited to 5.5 and you might want to give that a bit more room.  I'm pretty sure your initial high AHI would have been central events from excessive PS.  Your results with the PS min at 4 and PS max at 5.5 was very good, and you may want to increase PS min by a small amount like 4.5.

Increasing PS min by 0.5 was an improvement. I will try increasing it by another 0.5 tonight. Hopefully, thanks to all your help, I will be able to breathe normally with my machine soon. I saw in another thread that someone said it's dangerous to go above 5.0 on PS due to excessive carbon dioxide but they probably had other issues. If you're wondering about the breaks in sleep time, I have diabetic neuropathy and often wake up due to foot pain.

[BrendaGFNY]

Oooops...forgot the url    h ttp://i.imgur.com/pHJ0R0i.png