anyone else have severe apnea?

[tk]

New to this forum, using a Remstar c-flex machine but prob. going to an auto due to the intolerance I have for the pressure. I start out at 13 and ramp up to 20. Anyone else using a pressure this high? My tech said in thirty years he has never had anyone use that setting. From reading the postings I am convinced that I have a very good dr.--met with her the morning after the sleep labs and she explained quite a bit to me, advised me to rent a machine after providing names of 5 providers and letting me know which had a respirtory therapist working at them.
Thankful for this forum as I have already found lots of answers to questions and relate to a lot of what others say.
Hanging in there, and hoping to wake up refreshed someday...
tk

[WillSucceed]

I feel for you -20 is serious pressure. My Dr. wants me on a pressure of 15 and I am not tolerating it very well; I plan to get an auto machine as well.

Hang in there and don't let that number (20) get the better of you. You getting the treatment you need is much more important than a number. Don't give up on yourself.

[Paul B]

With as high a pressure as you are talking about, you might want to look at a bi-pap machine. At least your exhale pressure could be set lower and it may improve your comfort and compliance.

[53now]

I can't imagine ramping up to 20 with straight Cpap !!!!! That is some serious wind !!!! I started out at 18/14 using Bipap therpy. Seems odd to me that your Doctor would not prescribe a Bilevel machine.
Shooooo Weeeeeee That hurts my chest just thinking about it. Good Luck

Rich

[Bob O.]

tk: sounds like you have a good sleep doc. During your titration study, you were probably put on bipap for a time. However, cpap of 20 ended up being the most appropriate therapy for you. My guess was that you had minimal apneas/hypopneas, decent 02 levels, minimal central apneas, less arousals, and decent REM sleep on 20. Give this a solid month. Make it work for you. You've been so sleep deprived that it'll probably take a month for your brain to come around and respond to the therapy. Hang in there!

[wading thru the muck!]

My guess was that you had minimal apneas/hypopneas, decent 02 levels, minimal central apneas, less arousals, and decent REM sleep on 20

Based on this assumption wouldn't an autopap be benificial for tk? Keeping the pressure low until needed.

[rested gal]

I'd insist on another machine before I ever tried to get used to any straight cpap machine, even with C-flex, for a pressure like that. I'd first try the new Respironics REMstar Autopap with C-flex in hopes that during much of the night at home my pressure needs were not actually up in the stratosphere that was arrived at during the sleep study. (I'd also train myself to sleep on my side, if I were normally a back sleeper.)

The new REMstar autopap with C-flex - or a BiPap - either seems certainly worth trying rather than enduring a whole month up at 20cm H20 on a straight cpap machine even if it has C-flex. Geeze. I'm not surprised that you are not tolerating that well, tk. Good thing your doctor is advising you to rent other machines to try. She may be very good indeed, but I can't imagine why she didn't prescribe bipap for you to begin with, at a titrated pressure like that. Hope you find one soon that gives you better relief than what they set you up to start with!

[Irving]

Do you mean Severe as in pressure required for treatment or Severe as in # of events and difficulty in treatment or was that the diagnosis of the Dr.


"severe obstructive sleep disorder breathing with a AHI of 65 events per hour including both central and obstructive apneic events and associated sleep disruption and Hypoxia"

Is this bad? My titrated pressure is 11. The Dr did use "severe" in his diagnosis.
The pressur is much lower than I have seen posted here.

Please comment as have an appointment with Dr. soon.

This is all very confusing.

Irving

[sharonokc]

I had not realized 17 was a high pressure till I started looking for a new machine. When the range of most machines goes to 20, and one is at 17 you realize you have a high pressure. I also found out the it is supposed to be harder to use a full face mask. I am using one, but I definately feel the air flow more. (which I actually prefer.)

[tk]

Thanks for the response. I've done 2 studies and did try the b-pap. Didn't work so well. Using the respironics c-flex machine. I was having apnea events 55 times an hour during the study, with low oxygen levels. Can't remember the numbers. The oxygen did come up after using the cpap during the study (the first study was a split night study, record and watch everything and then wake up and put machine on). Since the results weren't the best a second study was done starting out with a bi-pap with the setting at 14 to begin with, didn't tolerate it well awake or alseep. So trying the cpap. I'm determined to do this, I am tired of being tired, and falling asleep in the afternoons. I'm 50, but feeling older because of no energy. My dr. says I'll probably do a third study and also do a consult with the ear nose and throat doc, partly to be sure that the insurance will cover the auto pap machine. Appt. is Thursday so we'll see what she says about all of this, including the leakage from the mask, all the swallowed air and it's problems, sore nose, sore chest, etc. Maybe I should look into getting into one of those studies, let them pay the bills!
tk

[exersize_freak]

I have severe apnea 62 events per hr. I was originally given a straight CPAP set at 10, however that only got my events down to 20 per hr. Doc than changed me to a Resmend S10 Autoset basically lets the machine totally auto adjust. Per the sleepy head data it spends most of the night at 10 or 11, but for about 15 min in the night it gets up to 16 or 17. This has brought my apneas down to almost nothing. I love the auto because it only gets to a high pressure for brief amounts of time while I am so deep in sleep I do not notice.

[Red70]

I had 103 events per hour. My pressure is 20 now I have 4-6 events per hour.

[Gryphon]

Not to tell you to change anything yet but... if you are at 20 all night more or less and for what ever reason you need to go higher you won't be able to. With cpap/Apap 4to20 is it. I'd ask to have an auto bipap setting it to something like 16 to 25. Of course this should be the choice of you and your doctor especially if you feel you have a good one who will listen to your concerns.

If your doing well right now then they should be good but 20 is a lot to have running constantly. I know I have problems personaly with any pressure that goes over 16 with air in my stomach so can't imagine having to run at 20 my self.

Though what ever works for you is fine. My self I would want the biPAP for the ability to go above 20 when needed as well as the fact that at 20 your running at the limit of the machine so if you have mask leaks that are manageable but more then the rating of the mask the machine wouldn't be able to compensate. There is nothing left to give. I may be wrong about that part others could weigh in on that.

Wish you the best no matter what you decide to do.

[Mudrock63]

I'm at APAP 18-20.0cm. Diagnosed with 37 AHI. Now down to 2.0 or less. Consistently. The pressure doesn't bother me one bit.