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Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 7:53 am
by ajack
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 3:20 am
ajack wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 3:10 am
I'd try min 7 for one night and see is pressure helps.
Is the idea of raising pressure to bring down the flow limitations? Would my amount of flow limitations be considered a lot? Just curious, because 7 seems to be pretty close to my 95%
You found out my secret

Yes it is close to your 95% and why I chose it. It is a common marker for fixed cpap. You actually might find 8 better, but see how it goes. 7 is a very low number and a walk in the park for most. It still may take a few weeks though.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 7:58 am
by Pugsy
Want to see a horrible FL graph??? Yours is far from horrible.

Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 8:51 am
by ajack
I welcome you to try it for a week and come back and tell me I'm an idiot, if it's not better. I'd prefer 8 as the marker though.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 12:27 pm
by palerider
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 2:56 am
palerider wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 2:43 am
I'd raise the min pressure to 6.
Great, thanks for the advice! Can I humbly ask why the min pressure should be raised? Someone else also suggested that. Just would like to learn a bit and understand the logic. Thanks.
You're spending the night with the pressure bouncing up and down... every time it goes up, there's some disturbance in your breathing that's causing that.
Raising the pressure will hopefully alleviate that.
Also, best to just ignore/foe ajack, he isn't always wrong, but frequently doesn't bother to understand issues and thus just ends up confusing things.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 12:28 pm
by palerider
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 3:20 am
ajack wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 3:10 am
I'd try min 7 for one night and see is pressure helps.
Is the idea of raising pressure to bring down the flow limitations? Would my amount of flow limitations be considered a lot? Just curious, because 7 seems to be pretty close to my 95%
the 95% number is a meaningless statistic, it's basically "the max pressure with any brief spikes discarded".
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 6:44 pm
by yearning4zs
palerider wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:27 pm
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 2:56 am
palerider wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 2:43 am
I'd raise the min pressure to 6.
Great, thanks for the advice! Can I humbly ask why the min pressure should be raised? Someone else also suggested that. Just would like to learn a bit and understand the logic. Thanks.
You're spending the night with the pressure bouncing up and down... every time it goes up, there's some disturbance in your breathing that's causing that.
Raising the pressure will hopefully alleviate that.
Also, best to just ignore/foe ajack, he isn't always wrong, but frequently doesn't bother to understand issues and thus just ends up confusing things.
OK, seemed to help a little bit. Unfortunately, I forgot to replace my sd card, so we'll have to wait another day for results. I also for some reason took my mask off in the middle of the night last night. Don't know if it's trouble adjusting to the minimum pressure or what.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 10:55 pm
by yearning4zs
Here is another data point. Awoke feeling hypoxic, but couldn't detect where there might be a leak.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Sat May 18, 2019 12:39 am
by yearning4zs
the waveforms look crazy. It says there is a big leak, but it seems like the issue is on the exhale. I was wondering if the exhalation hole gets blocked if it might look like this. Here is the waveform .
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Sat May 18, 2019 9:50 am
by palerider
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 12:39 am
the waveforms look crazy. It says there is a big leak, but it seems like the issue is on the exhale. I was wondering if the exhalation hole gets blocked if it might look like this. Here is the waveform .
Unfortunately, when the leaks are that bad, things are really hazy.. the further you get over 24lpm leak, the harder it is for the machine to figure out what's going on.
It can clearly detect inhalations and exhalations, but abnormalities in the waveform don't mean a lot.
If the vent were blocked your leak would be *lower* not higher.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Sat May 18, 2019 12:19 pm
by djams
If it's any consolation, I've seen the same sort of thing. Eventually discovered that for me, it was related directly to EPR. If I used EPR ON/3, I'd see these odd breath shapes. EPR/OFF - they go away. YMMV on this I'm sure. Even though I was told repeatedly here that it's harmless, it continued to bug me. So I learned to get by with EPR off.
Here's an example of mine.

- 20181121_irregular_breathing.PNG (19.19 KiB) Viewed 2263 times
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 7:10 pm
by yearning4zs
djams wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 12:19 pm
If it's any consolation, I've seen the same sort of thing. Eventually discovered that for me, it was related directly to EPR. If I used EPR ON/3, I'd see these odd breath shapes. EPR/OFF - they go away. YMMV on this I'm sure. Even though I was told repeatedly here that it's harmless, it continued to bug me. So I learned to get by with EPR off.
Here's an example of mine.
20181121_irregular_breathing.PNG
That's really interesting. Did you find any change in your sleep and overall therapy after making that change?
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 9:49 pm
by yearning4zs
djams wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 12:19 pm
If it's any consolation, I've seen the same sort of thing. Eventually discovered that for me, it was related directly to EPR. If I used EPR ON/3, I'd see these odd breath shapes. EPR/OFF - they go away. YMMV on this I'm sure. Even though I was told repeatedly here that it's harmless, it continued to bug me. So I learned to get by with EPR off.
Here's an example of mine.
20181121_irregular_breathing.PNG
Did you go cold turkey on the epr or ease your way down?
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 10:10 pm
by yearning4zs
palerider wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 1:16 am
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:48 am
looked more like this. I would say overall I feel worse on the new machine.
edit: I had a resmed 10 for her before as well, but it was a rental. Perhaps had been used longer?
I see the same artifacts in that trace..
I think as you scroll through the night, you'll see variations... what you don't have is a nice smooth exhalation... you're seeing the cardiac effects in that, and it just depends on *when* you inhale in or out of time with your heartbeat determines what kind of strange shape the top of your inhalation curve looks like.
Are the settings on the new machine the same as the old one?
I raised my pressure to 8.6 high - 6 low for a few nights with no great benefits. I'm wondering if, like another user suggested, turning off the epr or putting it down lower might help with stenting on exhalations? Seeing as it appears my exhalations are uneven.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 10:17 pm
by palerider
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 10:10 pm
palerider wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 1:16 am
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:48 am
looked more like this. I would say overall I feel worse on the new machine.
edit: I had a resmed 10 for her before as well, but it was a rental. Perhaps had been used longer?
I see the same artifacts in that trace..
I think as you scroll through the night, you'll see variations... what you don't have is a nice smooth exhalation... you're seeing the cardiac effects in that, and it just depends on *when* you inhale in or out of time with your heartbeat determines what kind of strange shape the top of your inhalation curve looks like.
Are the settings on the new machine the same as the old one?
I raised my pressure to 8.6 high - 6 low for a few nights with no great benefits. I'm wondering if, like another user suggested, turning off the epr or putting it down lower might help with stenting on exhalations? Seeing as it appears my exhalations are uneven.
What do things look like when you're NOT having huge leaks?
EPAP (the exhale pressure) is what keeps your airway open... so, if the pressure drops too there, you'll have problems.
Re: strange flow rate waveform question
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 11:11 pm
by yearning4zs
palerider wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 10:17 pm
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 10:10 pm
palerider wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 1:16 am
yearning4zs wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:48 am
looked more like this. I would say overall I feel worse on the new machine.
edit: I had a resmed 10 for her before as well, but it was a rental. Perhaps had been used longer?
I see the same artifacts in that trace..
I think as you scroll through the night, you'll see variations... what you don't have is a nice smooth exhalation... you're seeing the cardiac effects in that, and it just depends on *when* you inhale in or out of time with your heartbeat determines what kind of strange shape the top of your inhalation curve looks like.
Are the settings on the new machine the same as the old one?
I raised my pressure to 8.6 high - 6 low for a few nights with no great benefits. I'm wondering if, like another user suggested, turning off the epr or putting it down lower might help with stenting on exhalations? Seeing as it appears my exhalations are uneven.
What do things look like when you're NOT having huge leaks?
EPAP (the exhale pressure) is what keeps your airway open... so, if the pressure drops too there, you'll have problems.
Here is a fairly representative snippet from the same night when there was relatively little leakage. Is this what you're looking for or should I provide more data?