Necessary to wean off of EPR?

[kteague]

Nice new avatar, Kathy. You are looking great!

Thank you!

[palerider]

Nice new avatar, Kathy. You are looking great!

Thank you!

She's right, you are.

[TheLankyLefty]

Response to this topic: :^)

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"Blow me up" in you YouTube comment section if you want to call me an ass but don't know where to reach me. LOL!!! Hopefully the disjointed mumbling clarifies it.

[Muse-Inc]

Response to this topic: :^)

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Jason, add to your general knowledge: started on Escape CPAP@11 with OptiLife pillow mask, after 20 months developed pain in lower rib area, very painful on deep breath and yawns were excruciating. Joined this forum looking for education and help, someone shared it could be I (well, lung intercostals) had become intolerant of constant pressure and suggested an APAP with EPR might be more comfortable. Okay, talked to my sleep doc who concurred and loaned me an APAP for 4 days with recording oximeter. Wow, slept much, much better. I bought an S8 APAP, worked with doc to set pressure range and later, when the pain not fully eliminated, the EPR level 2 afterwhich the pain disappeared. My chronic nasal congestion that periodically closed off nasal passages during daytime was becoming worse and worse and I was showing increased leak -- I was now a mouth breather ugh ugh ugh. Being claustrophobic with a pronounced fear of suffocating, I freaked even seeing a FFM. Several forum members suggested the RespCare Hybrid mask. Took to it easily...pillows--hooray! This in 2009. With help here (and doc's concurrence) increased my low range 1.5 points closer to median pressure (9.6-16) and AHIs dropped. I have since graduated to S9s (primary & backup). Average annual AHI is 0.1 with few if no CAIs and that's been steady for years. Before its LED died, my recording oximeter showed my SpO2s stayed in the 90s. So, for this hosehead, I need all the exhalation pressure relief I could get (APAP and EPR) to get rid of that lower lung pain. I am sure I am not the only who has experienced this. Just a tidbit for you for future reference.

[ChicagoGranny]

Several forum members suggested the RespCare Hybrid mask. Took to it easily...pillows--hooray!

Glad to hear this. I use this mask almost exclusively. It does a great job of treating my difficult case of OSA.

BTW, the RespCare product was sold. It is now Innomed.

[nicholasjh1]

I know I get better sleep and energy without EPR. that being said... I no longer feel like I have to struggle to breath out... my body has "gotten good" at it. so I wouldn't worry to much about the difficulty of breathing out unless it just doesn't go away after a couple weeks. (for reference I got to be "perfectly comfortable" breathing out at a 16.9 pressure... and in fact getting used to that made my current pressure of 14 easy peasy.

[nicholasjh1]

dang it! i responded to this yesterday but it didn't stick.

anywho, i seem to react to EPR in an opposite fashion. it's like it makes it harder for me to breathe. it's like it "shortens" my span of breath. like, as soon as i exhale, i MUST inhale immediately. and that's not how i normally breath at all.

so i've turned it off on my airsense and lowered pressure and slept MUCH better last night.

This is the same thing that happens to me... I feel like the end of my breath is rather shallow and the EPR kicks in before I'm actually done breathing in, but the change in pressure somehow signals my brain to "breath out". who knows... maybe my semiconcious way of dealing with apneas was to start breathing out and the EPR activates that instinct.

Edit: oops, it actually sounds like I have the opposite problem than the one you had... as my inhales feel shortened with EPR.