Please help me dial in my settings!

Hi All,

I'm trying to dial in my settings. I've been slowly raising my pressure because I'm fairly tiny (100lbs, 4'11) and sleep horribly for many years already and just started on CPAP. I'm on gabapentin for Restless Leg/PLMD as well and that's helping me move from 3 hours a night to 5-6 on a good night of sleep so that's huge!

I'm wondering what you think of the Flow Limitation graph. It seems like very high all night but I am not sure what that means, maybe just more pressure? I'm already at 12->13 and its just riding all night at 13 anyway and not much better sleep than before.

I think I've correlated the blocks of central events to waking up so I dont really think they are actual central events. Just waking up junk, but I'm hoping if I can get the pressure set, I won't have the constant wake ups at 3am. (My machine is off by an hour due to time change, but looks like I woke up around 3:30 per usual)

I'm thinking the next step is raising pressure and adding some EPR but I'll wait until experts chime in!

Any help would be appreciated!

Change your max pressure to 20. 13 is not high enough for the machine to react.

KnightSleeper wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:15 pm

LSAT wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:06 pm

Change your max pressure to 20. 13 is not high enough for the machine to react.

Probably should also move the minimum up to at least 10 or 11 based on the charts...

Minimum is already at 12

mommycpap wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:30 pm

I'm wondering what you think of the Flow Limitation graph. It seems like very high all night but I am not sure what that means,

It means you're struggling to breathe most all night long. that FL graph is baaaaad.

mommycpap wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:30 pm

maybe just more pressure? I'm already at 12->13 and its just riding all night at 13 anyway and not much better sleep than before.

Bingo. Why do you have the max at 13? whack that max up to 20 and let the machine go where it needs to go to get you breathing.

mommycpap wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:30 pm

I think I've correlated the blocks of central events to waking up so I dont really think they are actual central events. Just waking up junk, but I'm hoping if I can get the pressure set, I won't have the constant wake ups at 3am.

Quite probably.

mommycpap wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:30 pm

I'm thinking the next step is raising pressure and adding some EPR but I'll wait until experts chime in!

Be aware that EPR has the effect of dropping your effective pressure, so to keep things flowing, you generally need to *increase* your pressure by the same amount of EPR that you add in.

Hi, I'm daughter of the op. I've been helping her get set up. We initially had it much higher but she already feels blown up in the morning at it riding at 13 most of the night. I assume it's aerophagia.

Oddly at her titration study they said she only needed 10cm, yet we've gone all the way up to 14 or 15 and still can't clear all of the mess!

Would it make sense to crank up the pressure and add epr so she doesn't get the awful aerophagia or will she need the stronger ePAP as well to clear the events?

Sometimes just adding in EPR is enough to allow people to use the higher pressures they need without causing the ugly aerophagia issues.
That's what I would do if it were me...increase the maximum but also add in EPR.
Maybe try EPR at 2 and see if it helps or not...the most we can get with this machine is a 3 cm drop at the setting of 3...and if that doesn't help then yes...likely a bilevel machine where the difference between inhale and exhale can be greater.

Another day with a higher Max:

Weef23 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:11 pm

Oddly at her titration study they said she only needed 10cm, yet we've gone all the way up to 14 or 15 and still can't clear all of the mess!

They're very often wrong.

Something very similar going on in this thread:

viewtopic/t175103/Need-Feedback-on-my-C ... l#p1294441

Needs more pressure, but aerophagia... added EPR, things looking better.

palerider wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:26 pm

Something very similar going on in this thread:

viewtopic/t175103/Need-Feedback-on-my-C ... l#p1294441

Needs more pressure, but aerophagia... added EPR, things looking better.

Thank you for pointing me to that thread. It does sound very similar! I will keep an eye on it and proceed the Dave way.