Dreamstation 2 Conundrum

Hi Y'all
I'm brand new, so I'll apologize in advance for any and all missteps. I'm 63 and have been "therapized" using CPAP for 23 years after a diagnosis of mild sleep apnea and an initial prescribed CPAP pressure of 7. Over the years I have had several machines (all either ResMed or Philips) that were prescribed or recommended by my sleep therapist. In January 2018, I purchased a Dreamstation 1 and used it in APAP mode for virtually all of the last five years. As you might have guessed, I am one of a gazillion folks affected by the Philips recall. After a long wait, I was finally sent a Dreamstation 2 Auto Advanced with Humidifier. The whole situation (along with the reality of my current financial and insurance situations) has caused me to take a deeper dive into my apnea therapy plan and I decided to become more knowledgeable about my condition and how to manage it.

Part of my recent journey involved becoming more educated about what the machines record and how I could view and interpret the data (back to the financial and insurance topic... ). I am fortunate to have discovered OSCAR and have spent a lot of time over the past week learning all I can about what it records and how to understand it. I still have much to learn, but it is a fantastic resource and I'm glad to have access to it.

One of the primary resources I have used lately to learn more about my condition and ways to effectively manage it has been YouTube videos posted by sleep therapists. One I have watched extensively is Jason of TheLankyLefty27, who turned me on to OSCAR and whose videos have helped me a ton in understanding my condition.

After watching a video in which Jason questions Philips' ability to respond to "events" during sleep in a timely and effective manner, I decided to change to CPAP mode with my machine and to set it to what seems to be the 95% average throughout my therapy's history... 8cmH20. I woke up this morning after what felt like a relatively stable night only to discover that my machine produced 5cmH20 all night... period, even though the machine, OSCAR, and SleepHQ all confirm a static setting of 8 on my machine. Can someone help me unravel this mystery, please? A pressure of 5 is likely not enough for smooth, consistent breathing without episodes at night, and I don't understand why my machine did that. Another thing I don't understand (and I don't know that it affects anything) is that OSCAR showed a new "episode" each hour all night... it has never shown that before. Any ideas?

Go into the clinical menu and look to see if "opti start" or "e Z start" got enabled.
I forget which it is called on the DS2 machines.

Check your OSCAR report...it might show the setting mode.

I turned off the EZ Start feature after realizing how it worked. I'll double-check.

I did confirm that my setting is 8, but the actual pressure was 5. Unless EZ Start got started again it should be off. I'll double-check it. Here's the imgur of my left OSCAR panel... https://imgur.com/ajZkOOh

I have to apologize, I just looked at the image I posted and EZ Start IS enabled. I don't know how or why, but I'll go into the settings and change it... again. My bad.

Can anyone explain why I have so many "episodes" in my OSCAR histogram from last night? Could it be a vestige of me mistakenly having enabled EZ Start? I don't recall seeing that before... https://imgur.com/qt03Ysr

Yep....EZ Start....prime culprit when someone describes what you are experiencing.
Eventually it will end up starting at the 8 cm but it will take about a month. It's supposed to help new people get adjusted to the pressures.
Poor idea IMHO....that's what ramp is supposed to do..... not spend the entire night at the lower pressure with EZ Start.

I think you will find with EZ start disabled that the machine will deliver what you expect.

Thanks for catching that. I didn't even see that it was somehow re-enabled. I just assumed that since I turned it off before that it was still off... apparently not. I agree that it is a problematic feature, especially for those of us who have been using CPAP for many years. I still don't understand the session data displayed in one hour chunks in OSCAR though.... https://imgur.com/qt03Ysr

CharlieB wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 29, 2023 10:22 am

I still don't understand the session data displayed in one hour chunks in OSCAR

Please post the entire detailed report for this night in question. While I am fairly certain it won't show all those off and ons for the multiple sessions...I have to verify.

I have seen this multiple session thing happen on past Respironics machines. We never could figure out the cause or a fix.
I hadn't seen it on any DreamStation models until yours. My gut always told me it was a software issue but I couldn't ever prove it.
I have seen people's reports with 50 or 60 plus sessions and the person never turned the machine off.

I don't have any respect left for any Philips Respironics machine...sorry....I wouldn't have one in my house now.
Just too friggin buggy IMHO.

I appreciate your perspective. It seems the preponderance of opinion in the community of those in the know dislike Philips for a host of reasons. Since I am a person of limited financial means, is there any reason to think the DS2 I was sent won't work just fine as a fixed-pressure CPAP, or would you still make the effort to get something from ResMed (or another brand)? I want something reliable and safe, but a new machine would likely be an out of pocket expense and I don't have very deep pockets.

BTW, here is the full data from last night- https://imgur.com/w9tWDaF

Sorry, the previous image was clipped. Here is the full image- https://imgur.com/zDnRV83

As expected the detailed data doesn't support the multiple sessions. I would be surprised if it had.

I don't think that these multiple sessions actually harms therapy though. I think it is a software bug in the machine in terms of what it writes to the storage medium. It does seem to make a lot of people really uneasy though.

I do understand that sometimes people simply don't have the pocketbooks deep enough to just say "screw 'em" and go buy a ResMed.

If you are sleeping good and feeling good then I would try not to worry too much. Your body won't lie to you.