Help me set my Remstar auto a-flex from 7 to 8

I had a phone consultation with a sleep doctor at Kaiser this afternoon. I gave him my encore numbers and my pulse ox numbers. It was a good discussion. He suggested that I might go from my current setting of 7 to 8. He would have shown me how to do this himself except that I was at a cafe when he called me (I'd left a message with kaiser and he called back.) So I'm hoping that someone here might help me--might as well start tonight if possible!

Thanks in advance.

http://www.apneaboard.com/manuals51/REM ... 0Guide.pdf

Above link is for the quick setup guide for your M series machine.

Respironics REMstar M Series (CPAP or BiPAP): Unplug the power cord from the back of the CPAP machine, then hold down both the left and right arrow keys while simultaneously plugging in the power supply. Once the device beeps twice, release the buttons. After you hear the two beeps, you'll see the word setup in the lower right corner of the LCD screen. When you select setup you'll be in the clinician's mode where you can adjust every feature of the CPAP machine, including the pressure setting.

Thanks Pugsy; that was easy. Umm, I haven't been in to look at these screens before. One feature says Auto, set to off. I'm not sure what this means. Do I want it off? Sorry for this...uninformed question.

EDIT: wait, I just looked more carefully at your link and it looks like I want the auto off.

But the c flex setting...how much difference does this make? Leave it at 2?

I'll stop asking dumb questions after this last, promise!

Thanks again.

Are you referring to Auto On or Auto Off being set to "off"?

Auto On setting...if set to "ON" when you take a few breaths the machine will start automatically. When set to "off" you have to manually turn the machine off.

Auto Off setting...when set to "on" then the machine turns itself off after about a minute or so when large leaks or no breathing is detected...when set to "Off" then the machine won't turn itself off and you have to manually turn it off when you remove the mask.

Auto off is...off. Which is what I want. And auto on is on. Everything's good.

I thought that perhaps the Auto on or off had to do with my therapy...an auto adjustment to apnea events; providing more pressure. So thinking that this function might be off alarmed me. I didn't realize that it was something so trivial.

I've been hesitant to get into the settings on my machine precisely because I'm afraid of inadvertently changing something important. But now I see that the settings are pretty straight forward--if you understand them! It's just that I don't have an instruction manual for my machine and so these things are sort of intimidating.

Anyway, mission accomplished! New minimum setting is 8. I'll see.

(In my Encore report my average pressure is 7.5, with the minimum set at 7. So actually 7 seems like a pretty good minimum. But the doc suggested giving 8 a try because of some 02 drops. I'll try this for a week and see.)

http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p ... tup-manual

If you go to the above link and scroll down towards the bottom of the page you will see how to request a full provider/clinical manual for your machine. In that full manual is a brief description of what the menu choices mean and do. The previous link I offered was for the quick start menu which doesn't explain in much detail..not that the pdf goes into a huge amount of detail. but it is a little better than the quick setup guide.

hegel wrote: I thought that perhaps the Auto on or off had to do with my therapy...an auto adjustment to apnea events; providing more pressure. So thinking that this function might be off alarmed me. I didn't realize that it was something so trivial.

I thought maybe that was what you were thinking but the pressure auto adjusting is a function of Auto (APAP) mode and there's only the CPAP or Auto (APAP) mode available.
The only thing I could think of is the Auto on and Auto off selection on/off choices in the menu but it has been a long time since I have used a M series machine.

Thanks for the pdf; you're right, it's not real detailed but much better than nothing! with luck I won't have to mess around with these functions anyway.

Everything went great last night; I could feel the difference in pressure but I got used to it pretty quickly. My numbers this morning are great! I had a good night's sleep as well. No leaks worth mentioning! Now for the longer term analysis.