.

[Pugsy]

Regarding EPR
FWIW...which isn't much because there's no reason to believe that what helps me will help anyone else but I found that when I went to a bilevel machine (on a lark and a long story that I won't go into here) that I felt somewhat better during the day.
Couldn't figure out why when nothing else had seemed to change in terms of therapy numbers.
Then one day I got to looking at things long term instead of short term and I discovered that on bilevel machine I was averaging about 45 minutes to an hour more of sleep. For me that extra sleep helped considerably in how I felt during the day.
Now why I slept longer ....never could figure that out.
I was using Pressure Support of 4...which would be the equivalent of EPR at 4 if your machine would do EPR of 4 but it won't.
But it will do EPR of 3 which is like Pressure support of 3 on a bilevel machine.

I really wasn't having a problem that I knew of with exhaling against the pressure but once I tried Pressure Support I learned really quickly how much better it felt in terms of just matching my own respiration.

On your list of things to try....EPR at 3 at some point. There's no rush though.
In the search for "feeling better" I think that anything and everything is fair game to try.

[tan]

Regarding EPR
FWIW...which isn't much because there's no reason to believe that what helps me will help anyone else but I found that when I went to a bilevel machine (on a lark and a long story that I won't go into here) that I felt somewhat better during the day.
Couldn't figure out why when nothing else had seemed to change in terms of therapy numbers.
Then one day I got to looking at things long term instead of short term and I discovered that on bilevel machine I was averaging about 45 minutes to an hour more of sleep. For me that extra sleep helped considerably in how I felt during the day.
Now why I slept longer ....never could figure that out.
I was using Pressure Support of 4...which would be the equivalent of EPR at 4 if your machine would do EPR of 4 but it won't.
But it will do EPR of 3 which is like Pressure support of 3 on a bilevel machine.

VPAP also has trigger/cycle settings, therefore a PS of 3 could be different (better) than an EPR of 3. When using APAP, I felt as if the machine couldn't detect an attempt to inhale sometimes.

[Pugsy]

VPAP also has trigger/cycle settings, therefore a PS of 3 could be different (better) than an EPR of 3. When using APAP, I felt as if the machine couldn't detect an attempt to inhale sometimes.

Very minor potential tweaking point. For all practical purposes EPR and PS is going to function the same and using EPR is the best that a person can do without having the luxury of a real bilevel machine.
You work with what you have first.

PR and I have done some experiments comparing actual flow rates up close... EPR to bilevel at EPR of 3 and PS of 3 with EasyBreathe and rise time (I don't have EasyBreathe on my AirCurve...and playing with the trigger/cycle settings didn't make any difference at all to me. The changes in the flow rate were very minimal and most people wouldn't know or feel the difference. You like to play with the trigger setting...so does PR...but for me I could tell zero difference...so that's going to be another one of those YMMV sticker things.

When someone only has EPR available...then EPR is their best option to mimic Pressure Support. It's close enough for government work and the difference is very, very tiny.

[jds2001]

FWIW, my machine scores FL (Dreamstation). I did a little awake experiment (the OA scored at the end was me holding my breath to see if I could feel the pressure increase that it uses to distinguish between OA and CA - and I could. Somewhat strange that it didn't call it a CA since technically that's what it was.....)

[Pugsy]

Somewhat strange that it didn't call it a CA since technically that's what it was.....)

This is why we tell people that awake breathing can confuse the machine and to ignore what the machine flags when awake.

[palerider]

FWIW, my machine scores FL (Dreamstation). I did a little awake experiment (the OA scored at the end was me holding my breath to see if I could feel the pressure increase that it uses to distinguish between OA and CA - and I could. Somewhat strange that it didn't call it a CA since technically that's what it was.....)

Sometimes the airway gets blocked while consciously holding ones breath, and then that would be an OA...