therearefourlights - Therapy Thread

[therearefourlights]

Hi,

As a follow up to my first post, I eventually got a ResMed Airsense 11 APAP and just completed my first week.

apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-Just-starting-out-Questions-before-I-accept-CPAP-machine

Full sleep study results are in that post, but here's the gist:

Total Apnea Index: 24.8
Central/Mixed Index: 13.4

Three OSCAR screenshots are attached.

As expected, the main issue is central. Love seeing all the detail in OSCAR but it's a little unsettling to see you stopped breathing for 45 seconds at one point.

As far as obstructive, either the sleep study was wrong and it was never an issue, or the Airsense has eliminated those events out of the box. Do the flow limitations and the resulting ramping of pressure indicate it's heading off OSA events?

Don't really have any other questions right now. If anything from the OSCAR data jumps out, please share.

The plan now is to get through the first 30 days which I think is what insurance wants to see. Then I'm guessing I'll have to ask my doctor if we can move on to something that treats CSA.

[Deborah K.]

Please raise your starting pressure to 7.  Four is intended for children.  Most adults need at least 7

Raise your ramp pressure to 5, and set the ramp time at 10 minutes.  I doubt that longer is necessary.

Your Oscar chart needs a little fix.  Press the F12 key to copy the chart (FN+F12 for Mac).  That usually gets it right.  We need to see the following, and only the following, in the order listed:

Event Flags
Flow Rate
Pressue
Leak Rate
Flow Limits

We need to be able to read to the bottom of the Flow Limits.

As to needing a different machine, I don't think you necessarily need to wait a month to request a machine to address your CAs. You probably need a ResMed AirCurve 10 ASV machine. I'm not sure if they make an 11 yet, but I'd get the 10 anyway. They have a better track record and fewer complaints.

Again, welcome, and best wishes for achieving great therapy and comfort!  

[therearefourlights]

Thanks, this might be a stupid question but are you supposed to change the pressure settings yourself? The DME provider that set me up didn't mention that. They implied it was something my doctor would determine and called the 4 setting my "script".

I did use F12. Maybe the problem is the charts were in auto-scale mode? Are you able to tell if the attached flow limit looks better? If so, I'll repost without auto-scaling.

[Deborah K.]

Most of us change the settings ourselves. There should be two buttons on the front of the machine. Press one to wake the machine up, then press and hold both buttons together until your machine shows Settings. Press the button beside Settings, and you will find yourself in the Settings menu. Scroll down until you find Pressure, then turn it up to 7, and press the button to tell the machine to keep that setting. Then scroll to ramp and do the same thing. You can change any setting in this way.

[therearefourlights]

I'll try that thanks.

Here are the OSCAR charts with auto-scaling off. I didn't see how to remove charts but I think the top 5 are the ones you mentioned.

[therearefourlights]

Attaching last night's OSCAR. CA's are going in the wrong direction (80 events last night) but somehow I felt a little more rested than usual. Tried changing pressure to 5 and ramp time to 10 just to make sure I was doing it right. Was going to start pressure at 7 tonight but now I wonder if increasing pressure could make CA's worse? Obstructive events have been practically zero every night.

[Dormeo]

In addition to Deborah's suggestions, I'd like to see what happens if you turn your EPR off. Sometimes EPR can exacerbate problems with CAs. This may cause your flow limitations to increase, but it could be a useful experiment to try anyhow.

After we see how that goes (if you want to try it), you might want to consider capping your pressure. But one step at a time.

[therearefourlights]

Thanks for the suggestion. Just now reading up on EPR and its potential impact on CSA. I'll try turning it off tonight and see it CAs go down.