My Pressure stays around 9...What should my range be?

I have a Remstar Auto CPAP with Cflex. My pressure is currently set from 7-14. 7 lowest and 14 highest.
I have been watching my LCD screen when I wake up or get up at night or in the morning. My pressure is hovering right around 9.

My question is should I narrow my range. I think seven is too low. I understand that if it is set too low the response time can be too long.
Any opinions.

Please don't tell me to get Encore Pro and the Card Reader. I already have them and have been struggling to get them installed for days with no success. Unfortunately, I am networked to another computer and that may be the problem. I'm still hoping to resolve it and get it up and running.

In the meantime, I'd like to narrow the range maybe from 8-10 or 9-11.

Any opinions appreciated.

Depends on how you are feeling. I'm not sure I would change the pressure until I got my first Encore report -- just to simplify everything.

However, if you are feeling badly, then go ahead and narrow the pressure now. It won't screw up the reports too much - and you can still view the before and after reports for comparison.

Good luck on getting your Encore Pro up and running. We have our computers networked and had no problems because of that. Keep trying.

Hi vdol,

I looked back at your first post (May 2006) on the message board to get an idea of what your original prescribed pressure was from a sleep study:

"I had a sleep study done in the early 1990's and was disgnosed with Sleep Apnea where I stopped breathing once for 30 seconds. Apparently that is a long time. I remember the Doctor telling my my pressure setting was 7 at the time."

With your autopap, given that you're usually seeing a pressure of 9 when you wake up, it sounds like your pressure needs haven't changed drastically over the years. If it were me, I'd just leave the range the way you have it now ( 7 - 14 ).

Actually, there isn't much point in fiddling with the pressure range until you're able to see what the data results are. Hope you're able to get the software going soon. I know you're hoping that, too. I've read your posts about your difficulties with that. Has to be frustrating. Sorry I don't have any ideas.

In the meantime, if I wanted to try a change in anything about the settings, simply for the sake of tweaking to see how I felt, I'd raise the bottom pressure up some, for a range of 8 - 14 or 9 - 14. Not that there's anything magic about your current "14" for the top pressure. You could probably set it 7 - 20 and be fine, too.

Another "how does it make me feel" experiment would be to try a straight pressure of, say, 9 for a week, and a straight pressure of 10 for a week. Would give you something to do while working on the software/card reader issue.

I'm not a doctor. I'm simply betting that your prescribed pressure nowadays would probably be 9 or 10. That would be a pretty safe bet, since that seems to be about what it takes to keep most people's airway open.

Sounds to me like you already have a good range going for you, and good autopap treatment happening. If you feel tired or sleepy in the daytime (not that you said you did) despite your treatment, I'd be looking into other possibilities for any worn out feelings. Other underlying illnesses, meds that might cause drowsiness, perhaps needing a good vitamin/mineral supplement, better sleep hygiene in general, etc.

Even if cpap treatment is doing what it's supposed to do, there can always be other physical reasons for not feeling great. Doesn't mean that "cpap" isn't taking care of the OSA part like a champ.

Rested Gal,
You summed that up wonderfully, covered all the bases. Lots of good information there.
Ed

I am still working on the Encore Pre and not giving up. I've installed alot of software but this one's a real pill.

I recently went to a naturopathic MD, who ran bloodwork. The results were that my cortisol levels were very high. I also have an abnormal heart rhythm. I'm having a nuclear stress test.

I'm concerned that these things have happened over time because of the untreated sleep apnea.

I am taking CALM (magnesium), L-Theanine (amino acid for relaxation),
Taurine for relaxation. All prescribed by the MD.

That's just what I take before bed. I take alot more during the day.

I'll try raising the pressure to 8. It was at 5 and I think that was way too low.

Thanks Everyone.