DREAMST St 30 issue

I have a dsx1030t 11c (is that number off the back of the machine descriptive?) that I have barely been able to use. I started to try CPAP therapy a few years ago back when I first started posting on here with a regular CPAP that I could never get used to. I decided to give it another try this year when a TRT clinic gave me this bipap. The relief pressure feels much more comfortable and I do think I could get used to it and fall asleep on it except it is doing a very odd thing where it routinely tries to cut off my inhalation breath after only a half second or so of inhalation. it's like it's trying to guess when I'm going to breathe but gets it horribly wrong all the time. I might get a single long good breath or maybe two and on the next one it decides to only give a split second of inhalation and a pretty short exhalation. I have tried to explain this to the provider with the phone number they gave me but they don't seem to understand my problem and keep just trying to reset pressures. Is there an issue with my machine or something else I could adjust?

No thoughts? Can I add details?

Try adjusting the rise time

OK I adjusted the rise time to 6, which was the max. This seems to have helped, as it vastly lessened the "change" from inhale with air pressing against me to exhale where it feels like I fight for air. BUT.. it did not fix the issue of the machine seeming to "guess" that I should not be inhaling. Basically almost every other breath is cut waaay short. If I make a split second exhale it will then assume I want to inhale again, but obviously I cannot do that when trying to sleep. How do I make the machine quit doing that? I want it to give me normal inhale pressure until I try to exhale. Maybe its broken?

What is the BPM setting .....breaths per minute?

How do I see that info?

All the settings should be available in the clinical set up menu area.
I am not familiar with your model machine though but I would think it has a back up rate setting available so that it will breathe for you if you don't breathe. That's was the "T" is for...timed breaths and if you don't breathe within a set time limit (depending on the timed parameters set) then you get a push of air.....whether you are ready for it or want it or not.

So I don't know exactly what settings you have available.

If your BPM settings are higher than your normal breaths per minute then the machine will try to get you to breathe enough times (by helping you out) so that you breaths number the minimum breaths per minute.

Example if the BPM setting is 20 but you don't normally breathe that fast then it will seem like the machine is rushing you to breathe because it is...it wants you to breathe at least 20 times a minute but if you normally only breathe 15 times a minute then it will push you to breathe. It tries to force you to breathe more than you are doing by rushing the breaths in an effort to get those 20 breaths in.

After 5 yrs of using a Resperonics Series One model 60, I was switched to a DreamStation S 30, and it has had problems of switching the Settings of 16I/12E/10BPM to give 9.5I/10.5E/10 BPM at the mask. I have eliminated all variables except the Oscar Software. The only software anomaly is is says the machine is an AVAPS. I had the machine and tubing checked, and they were OK. The last thing I tried was removing the SoClean2 sterilizer from the machine for a night. The pressure issues were the same with the exception for slight variations in volume, but the pressures were still low and 'backwards'.

Any history of such problems with this model machine or this software???

rocket43 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:31 am

Any history of such problems with this model machine or this software???

There is a history of problems with some of the very high end and very special models and the SleepyHead/OSCAR software.
Some have been sorted out and some are in the process of being sorted out. The people working on OSCAR haven't had much experience with this model machine file structure on the SD card so that they can make it more compatible and less buggy.

I usually tell people using machine's like this one to just get Encore Pro because we know it is compatible.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 11, 2020 9:51 pm

All the settings should be available in the clinical set up menu area.
I am not familiar with your model machine though but I would think it has a back up rate setting available so that it will breathe for you if you don't breathe. That's was the "T" is for...timed breaths and if you don't breathe within a set time limit (depending on the timed parameters set) then you get a push of air.....whether you are ready for it or want it or not.

So I don't know exactly what settings you have available.

If your BPM settings are higher than your normal breaths per minute then the machine will try to get you to breathe enough times (by helping you out) so that you breaths number the minimum breaths per minute.

Example if the BPM setting is 20 but you don't normally breathe that fast then it will seem like the machine is rushing you to breathe because it is...it wants you to breathe at least 20 times a minute but if you normally only breathe 15 times a minute then it will push you to breathe. It tries to force you to breathe more than you are doing by rushing the breaths in an effort to get those 20 breaths in.

I think you have hit on exactly what the problem is.. although I cant see how anyone can be FORCED to comfortably breathe faster than they want to, but that is for another thread. So now that I found the BPM setting, I tried turning it off, and this mostly fixed the issue. It was only on 10 though, out of 30, so I would not have thought it would be forcing anything already, but it sure was. I am just adjusting this haphazardly, without any real plan behind it, so we will see what happens. Since I have never slept a single night successfully before, anything is a start...

The BPM setting is why you are on a ST though. To trigger breaths when you don’t breathe on your own. I didn’t much care for how the ST works and didn’t care much for 10 bpm. I lowered it to 8 and it was better, but I never felt like that machine was anywhere close to anything that felt like natural breathing.

The main issue is that with the Philips Respironics BiPAP S/T and AVAPS, the trigger and cycle settings cannot be adjusted by the user. On a ResMed bi-level you can alter the cycle sensitivity which can help prevent premature termination of the inhalation phase.

tsduke wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:56 pm

The BPM setting is why you are on a ST though. To trigger breaths when you don’t breathe on your own. I didn’t much care for how the ST works and didn’t care much for 10 bpm. I lowered it to 8 and it was better, but I never felt like that machine was anywhere close to anything that felt like natural breathing.

honestly im probably on an ST because its what the TRT clinic that knows very little about apnea could get prescribed for me, and I was happy enough for it because before I was on regular CPAP and the exhalation pressure was always too high for me to sleep. Should I try a different mode? I dont know what ST even means really...

We don't really have enough information about your apnea to offer anything more than a guess.

You really need to be using Encore Pro software (Windows only though) so you can see exactly what is going on.
Did you ever have a large number of central apneas or is the main reason you were put on this machine was to get the exhale relief offered with PS?

If you don't have a diagnosis of central sleep apnea you could try S mode and not the Timed mode.

Can you tell me ALL of the settings you see now in the mode your are using?

Do you have a Windows computer? You really need to be using software to monitor your therapy and OSCAR probably won't play nice with your model machine. You need Encore Pro.
You can go here and register and log in ...then you can see the private files where instructions for obtaining and using Encore Pro are.
https://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap- ... tup-manual
It's a bitch to install and use...but I can help you with it if you can get it installed. I am familiar with it.

So.....do you know if you ever have a central sleep apnea diagnosis?
Or was it Obstructive sleep apnea and you had problems with the exhaling and so they gave you this machine?

So yes I did have some central apnea's, but majority were obstructive and I was prescribed a CPAP and not bipap by the dr that did my real onsite sleep study a few years ago. Fast forward a few years of only using my mouthpiece that a dentist created and I end up having a discussion at the trt clinic. They get insurance to pay for this machine and here we are. I can definitely look into that software. I'll try to do that this weekend and report back. Does it provide valuable info to you even if I don't get to sleep on the machine?