Hurricane in my mask

[GrandmaC]

I just got my new cpap yesterday. I loved it when I first started using it. I like the exhale feature. During the night, I woke up to a hurricane in my mask. The exhale feature seemed to not be working. My husband fled to the other bedroom because it was making a horrible noise. I turned the machine off and back on and it worked right again. I'm wondering what I can do to avoid this happening again.

[Pugsy]

Are you using APAP mode? Perhaps the pressure went up significantly and caused leaks.
When you turned it off and then back on again the pressure will start out again at the lower minimum pressure or the ramp feature if you are using ramp. If you are in APAP mode it's possible that the pressure simply increased a lot to try to prevent the collapse of the airway. The S9 machine isn't known to go chasing leaks like the older models did and cause runaway pressures.

What are your pressure settings?

How about a image of the detailed report showing the pressure graph line?
Don't know how to do images of reports? Explained here in this thread
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81072&p=737779#p737779
Don't have the software yet? I have links in my signature for Sleepyhead which works great but in the tutorial on understand your software reports I have some ResScan examples..if you want ResScan send me a private message.
Pugsy's Pointers...software install tips viewtopic/t88972/Pugsys-PointersSoftwar ... hints.html
Pugsy's Pointers... understanding your data viewtopic/t88983/Pugsys-PointersSleepyH ... nding.html

[robysue]

It's also worth checking out how the clinician who set the machine up decided to set up EPR. It is possible to set up EPR work only during the RAMP period instead of working FULL TIME. And if the RAMP feature was set up in the clinician's menu, when you turned the machine off and back on, that reset the machine back to the starting RAMP pressure and enabled EPR.

[GrandmaC]

The ramp was set for 20 minutes. I was able to figure out how to turn the ramp off.

It might be that there's no APAP after the ramp. I don't like the ramp. With my old machine, I felt like I was suffocating. With this one, it's not as bad, but I'd rather just start out where it's supposed to be. My old machine was on pressure 9. When I ordered this one, they told me it is self regulating.

Thanks to both of you.

[robysue]

My old machine was on pressure 9. When I ordered this one, they told me it is self regulating.

While it's self-regulating, you will feel better if the min and max settings are manually set to something that more closely approximates your actual needs rather than leaving the machine running wide open.

The min pressure needs to be set high enough to allow the machine to quickly respond by bringing the pressure up to what's needed when you first start having events.

The max pressure may need to be set low enough to prevent it from unnecessarily running off to levels higher than you actually need due to leaks, a bit of falsely detected snoring, or flow limitations that are not clinically significant in your particular case.

What range is the machine currently set to??

A common recommended starting range for an APAP is to set the min pressure about 2 cm below your titrated pressure and the max pressure about 2 cm above your titrated pressure. You may feel more comfortable if you set your pressure range to be 7-11 since your old machine was set to 9cm.

[chunkyfrog]

"Self regulating" says to me that the machine was left on "wide open" (4-20),
which can work for some people, but will have the exact same result as you (and I) get.
If the DME sold it, they probably need a range so they can set it.
(or they were lazy, not "allowed", or just being turkeys because your APAP left them with less profit)
Set as Robysue advises.
Monitoring your data will help you adjust further for your best results (numbers AND comfort)