Question, Help

My significant other has been on APAP about a month and wears the nasal mask every night. She uses a PR S1 560 and she tells me that she feels like she is drowning sometime. Her pressure numbers are 6/12.5. She started off at 6/10 and i have increased it to 6/12 as she seemed to stay maxed out at 6/10 a fair amount at night. That problem seems to be resolved, but the drowning feeling is still there, do i increase the 6 to help her not feel like she is drowning?

Thanks for your help,
Rick

Curious about the drowning description. If that means the same thing as suffocation, she likely needs her pressure tweaked. Someone will come along to help with that. If she literally means water is present, then that would mean she needs to turn the humidifier down. Higher humidity may cause what is called rainout - water from condensation in the mask.

There is no water involved, she feels like she is suffocating.

Thanks for the reply,
Rick

Is she using the ramp feature at all? If she is then that likely explains it as it normally starts out at 4 cm and works up to the 6 and there's simply not enough air movement so people feel like they are suffocating. If this is the case...don't use it.

If she isn't using the ramp and is starting out the night at 6 cm she may be one of those people who feel that 6 cm isn't quite enough air movement for comfort. If this is the case maybe try 6.5 or 7.0 minimum.

Thanks so much for your help, I moved it to 6.5 and I may go to 7 after a couple of nights.

Rick

have you downloaded the sleepyhead software ... if not ... please do it .... and look at the results of the therapy.

I have downloaded SleepyHead and her results are very good. I look at it every day and she is usually around AHI 3. I upped the lower pressure to 7.5 and she says it is better and she said she only felt like she was drowning once last night. Should I up the pressure to 8.0?

Thanks,
Rick

Yes, and why not even try 9... there should be no consequences at all to raising it even to 10.

Rick, most of us try to set the minimum pressure to a level that stops MOST hypopneas and apneas, rather than below theraputic pressure. This ensures the machine is doing its job from the beginning. If a pressure below therapeutic efficacy is chosen, the machine must first detect snores and flow limitations to reach therapy pressure. Sometimes this lets a lot of events through until the machine catches up. That is where your review of the data details comes in. You can see where events slip through the cracks.

Also, be sure the minimum pressure of ramp is high enough, or ramp is cancelled or insufficient air will be delivered until the ramp period is over.

You guys (and gals) are wonderful. Thanks so much for the information.

Rick

Rick, you stated that you're using Sleepyhead to monitor the sleep results. What are the median and 95 percentile values being reported?