how does your doctor react when you change your pressure?

[sleepnasta]

i've been on cpap for just over a month at a pressure of 5. my numbers are good but sometimes i feel a little suffocated. so i decided to change my pressure to 6 tonight. i see my doctor for my first follow up in 2 weeks and am worried about how he'll react to this. should i have waited til after my follow up to start messing around with the settings? how did your doctor react to you adjusting things on your own?

[BlackSpinner]

The question to ask is "How does a doctor feel about diabetic adjusting their insulin dose depending on how their numbers look and how they feel" I could kill someone with mom's insulin. I doubt I could kill anyone with my cpap machine unless I hit them over the head.

Oh and I was told that as long as I kept my AHI well under 5 I could do what I wanted. Of course the doctor wasn't making big bucks off my visit.

[RogerSC]

It's most likely individual, but I explained why I changed the pressure that he specified, and my doctor was fine with it. On the other hand it was clear that no damage had been done as a result, and that i had been watching my sleep data carefully. You'll need to watch your data and see what happens, to make sure that things don't go off track. But he remarked that personal comfort is important when I told him that I had turned off the ramp and changed the initial pressure from 4 to 6 for comfort in breathing. All good.

So chances are that everything will be fine, as long as you're watching your sleep data.

[sleepnasta]

It's most likely individual, but I explained why I changed the pressure that he specified, and my doctor was fine with it. On the other hand it was clear that no damage had been done as a result, and that i had been watching my sleep data carefully. You'll need to watch your data and see what happens, to make sure that things don't go off track. But he remarked that personal comfort is important when I told him that I had turned off the ramp and changed the initial pressure from 4 to 6 for comfort in breathing. All good.

So chances are that everything will be fine, as long as you're watching your sleep data.

I watch my data very closely and will definitely do so even more now. Could a change from 5 to 6 drastically change things? Thanks for the reply

[máirtín]

The conversation went something like this:

Doc: I see you changed some of the settings. Why did you do that?
Me: I wanted to be more comfortable and I wanted to see if I could get more effective treatment.
Doc: I'm not sure the FDA would be too happy about that.
Me: The FDA is not in charge of my health and wellbeing - I am.
Doc: (Strained smile)

[ughwhatname]

My doctor was thrilled that I was so involved in my treatment. He was totally fine with my adjusting my minimum pressure (4 was much too low for my comfort- I was freaking out with it too low, thinking I was suffocating.) I also adjusted my EPR, and my AHI is nearly always under 1.0. He actually told me that I'm a Rockstar!

It's most likely individual, but I explained why I changed the pressure that he specified, and my doctor was fine with it. On the other hand it was clear that no damage had been done as a result, and that i had been watching my sleep data carefully. You'll need to watch your data and see what happens, to make sure that things don't go off track. But he remarked that personal comfort is important when I told him that I had turned off the ramp and changed the initial pressure from 4 to 6 for comfort in breathing. All good.

So chances are that everything will be fine, as long as you're watching your sleep data.

I watch my data very closely and will definitely do so even more now. Could a change from 5 to 6 drastically change things? Thanks for the reply

[gomer]

The question to ask is "How does a doctor feel about diabetic adjusting their insulin dose depending on how their numbers look and how they feel" I could kill someone with mom's insulin. I doubt I could kill anyone with my cpap machine unless I hit them over the head. .

I am diabetic, on type-1 MDI routine. I KNOW how to test my basal, C:R & CF and adjust on the fly as needed. Many type-1 diabetics NEED to be able to do this on their own w/o having to see the doc every time our system does a F/F. (we would drive them NUTS!)

My endo is perfectly comfortable with MY abilities to adjust my insulin on my own as needed. he does make suggestions from time to time on fine tuning my insulin doses and timing. Now if I screw up and land in ER or admitted to the horsepital...well that's another story.

Gomer

[kaiasgram]

Doc: I'm not sure the FDA would be too happy about that.

I can't stop laughing about this. The FDA? ("Just wait till your father gets home!")

Well anyway, don't worry. It is not illegal to change your pressure. No one is going to come and get you. If you bring along a printout of your data showing that you are getting effective therapy, there is not much reason for the doctor to protest. A few doctors are even beginning to appreciate that titration is an imperfect process and that some patients are able to stay on treatment only because they monitor and fine tune their therapy as needed. I would say that the two sleep docs I've seen so far have been pretty tolerant of me changing my pressure settings.

If your concern is about compliance checks, I believe that is based strictly on hours of use by the patient.

[RogerSC]

I watch my data very closely and will definitely do so even more now. Could a change from 5 to 6 drastically change things? Thanks for the reply

You could possibly cause yourself to have more central apneas, I suppose, but that seems unlikely with a change from 5 cmH2O to 6. As long as you're keeping an eye on things (which apparently you are), you'll be fine. Chances are the raising it will do no harm, and if it makes you more comfortable, just try it.

[49er]

My current sleep doctor was very impressed that I knew how to change the pressure.

49er

[Denial Dave]

Quite honestly, it's been 4 months since my sleep study and 90 days since I was there to be given my machine, etc......

Aside from whatever is in their records from the sleep study in Aug, I'm not sure that she even remembers me.

But, I'll let you know the reaction after next Tuesday's appointment.

[tetragon]

My first sleep doctor doesn't know, as for my second, it went as follows:

T: I know that report says 7, but I'm currently using 9.5 as that is what the 460 I'm using picked after three days
D: I didn't know that the machines do half centimetres. But that isn't an auto.
T: It mightn't say it on the tin, but that machine has a time-limited auto feature
D: You should have set it for two weeks, not three days.
T: I was only expecting to have that machine for two weeks, and the RT wanted a review of its other modes.

And when he decided later in that appointment to send me for an MSLT (too soon for a retitration without getting pre-approval), he wrote on the form that I was to be on CPAP of 9.5,

[ChicagoGranny]

how does your doctor react when you change your pressure?

From the noise coming from my doctor it seems he gets aerophagia if I raise the setting more than 2.5 cm.

[Julie]