info and guidance needed after 3 years of cpap

purple wrote:If you have a bunch of health problems, and are going to have to pay the deductible this year anyway, and can afford it. Then ask them to give you whatever break in price they will. If you want, negotiate a month to month payment. Go in, play with their masks. I wonder if the problem is that the sticker shock of a titration is what caused you to cancel. Yes, it is really expensive to do a titration test. I think a complete blood panel, you know chemistry, and lipid levels costs like $1200.00. then maybe I was not paying close enough attention the last time I saw that number for basic blood tests. Medical costs are like several zip codes from where I live.

I'm an otherwise perfectly healthy 40 year old - paying too much for insurance I can't use

kaiasgram wrote:

plasma800 wrote:ill look

says AUTOSTART and EPR

Autostart is not a ResMed model name. Did you mean Autoset? The name is right by the Start/Stop button. .

probably misread autoset... or got autoincorrected.

You might try a mask liner for the slippage and drool. Such as http://www.padacheek.com/

OkyDoky wrote:You might try a mask liner for the slippage and drool. Such as http://www.padacheek.com/

I have the drool problem sometimes myself. I can usually use a kleenex under the seal to clear it up and regain my seal. If it gets bad enough, I take it off, wipe it out, add in a bathroom trip, and then back to bed with the now clean and dry mask.

All great suggestions, I will keep you posted on the subject.

plasma800 wrote:Spot on - AUTOSET

I didn't even realize there were different models of the S9. Is there any place you could point me towards that just educated me a little on the differences between models?

Let's be sure it's an S9. Does it look like this?



Please fill in your equipment on your profile. There's a link in my signature line at the bottom of this post.

That's for sure it.

Check your machine and see what mode it is in, CPAP or APAP. APAP mode will allow the machine to,adjust pressure for you as you sleep, within the upper and lower limits you set. CPAP mode will require you to increase the pressure yourself over a period of time.

Both are perfectly viable approaches, but APAP will get you there faster and will rarely have any drawbacks.

To change settings, hold the setup button and press down on the dial at the same time for about three seconds, it will beep when you are in.

k I'll give it a check! thanks for the info.

I have a link in my signature box below to a brief video tutorial on the S9 Autoset -- shows how to access the clinical menu (where the pressure settings are).

Watched some of those videos, I had no idea all of that was in this machine!

Here's my current settings, to which I have some questions about.

I'm curious about :

Leak?
What AHI, Total AI and Central AI mean?
And What EPR means.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/132455101@N05/R1164t

I tried to post the photos directly here, but they didn't take, hopefully this link to the album will work.

Ok, great, can see your images on Flickr.

You are on CPAP mode, fixed pressure at 8 cm, with a ramp of 45 minutes starting at 5.

What are your questions, maybe we can answer some?

There's of course some abbreviations that I'm unsure of what they mean and why they are there.

So you have

Leak
AHI, Total AI and Central AI
And EPR

I also finally got a card in the machine today, so info recording will start tonight.

Leak - Air leaking from mask beyond what is built into mask design (vent rate). For your machine a problematic leak rate would be if you're spending time around or above 24L/min. Your leak number is great!

AHI - Per hour index of apnea events, including obstructive apneas, hypopneas and central (aka "clear airway") apneas. Effective treatment is considered to be AHI below 5.

Total AI - Apnea events (excludes hypopneas). Since your AHI was 2.2 and Total AI was only .2, it looks like most of your AHI is made up of hypopneas.

Central AI - Those are the 'clear airway' events -- the airway is open but there's no breathing. A few are common and normal. No problem there for you.

EPR - Exhale Pressure Relief. Can be set to drop the pressure by 1, 2 or 3 cms from whatever your set pressure is. Considered a comfort feature.

I just looked back at your first posts in this thread where you mentioned snoring. This is where SleepyHead can be helpful because it will show you nightly Snore graphs that you can use to fine-tune your pressure settings over time.