14 too much?

I been at 13 for awhile with no problem but now I bumped it up to 14 and I wake up the morning after with a dry sore throat. I was prescribed a pressure of 14 but could not handle it so went down to 12, then I found that the mask I was using was causing the problem so I found a mask that works and bumped it up to 13, then 13.5 and so on but when I got to 14 the problems started. Why do you think this might be?

Sleepyhead...I am not sure, but I can tell you I tried to go from 13 to 14 and the difference was HUGE. My stomach was so filled with air the next day and I felt so crappy that I decided to leave it on 13 and just sleep exclusively on my stomach and side. Sorry...probably this did not answer your question, but I did have a hard time taking mine up.

sleepyhead63,
My bet is that you are mouth leaking. I suggest you do some searches on that topic.

TerryB

you should be on a Bipap Auto if you are having difficulty tolerating therapy.

Bipap would give you the exhale relief you need to tolerate therapy yet high enough to address your OSA events.

If it were me and I was not past the first 90 days of therapy, I would go back to the doctor and pretty much demand a Bipap machine.

It does no good to be stubborn if it means you don't use the machine. Machine is only going to work if you use it. While you can use the machine at a lower than desired pressure and still obtain some benefit from the machine, you will only get run down in the form of fatigue over time if ideal pressure is not used.

If you are past the 90 day mark, you can still try your doctor/dme route or you can bite the bullet and get a machine outright. Then sell your S8 as a door stop or keep it as a back-up unit.

Its all about using the machine, do everything you can to use it.

Wow I'm on CPAP, not auto or anything, but set at a pressure of 16 for the whole time I"m on it. I'm starting to think I may be set higher than most folks on here. But one good thing is I've gotten used to it, don't even ramp up anymore.

So its basically all or nothing kind of thing, if I am supposed to be set at 14 and I keep it set at 13 it won't do me any good? Thats depressing.

Anonymous wrote:So its basically all or nothing kind of thing, if I am supposed to be set at 14 and I keep it set at 13 it won't do me any good? Thats depressing.

I don't think it's an "all or nothing" proposition at all. I'm not a doctor, but I firmly believe that some pressure -- especially a pressure that's very close to your prescribed pressure anyway -- is much, much better than no treatment at all.

The pressures you've been using, Sleepyhead...those pressures of 12, 13, and 13.5 are sooooooo close to your prescribed "14", I'd just about bet that 13 has been giving you as effective treatment as 14 would.

I've never thought there was just one magic number that is "the one and only effective pressure." I'd bet that if a person received a sleep study titration 6 nights in a row, you might find that on Monday night 14 was what it took, for example. Tuesday 13, Wednesday 15, Thursday 15, Friday 12, Saturday 14. Same ballpark, but not necessarily coming up with the EXACT same pressure every night.

If you can use 13 ok, I wouldn't worry particularly about not being able to use 14. I'd figure I was getting very effective treatment pressure at 13. But, as I said, I'm no doctor.

Anonymous wrote:So its basically all or nothing kind of thing, if I am supposed to be set at 14 and I keep it set at 13 it won't do me any good? Thats depressing.

well think about it, if pressure isn't high enough it will allow apnea to get by, those may arouse you from sleep where it leads to daytime fatigue.

but if that same pressure causes aerophagia and/or wakes you up, you are left with the same.

A bipap will allow you to set the pressure where you can tolerate it much better, offer exhale relief which in turn would allow you to use the machine longer. Longer you can use the machine the better you will feel.

Bipap costs twice as much as a Autopap, a A-Flex machine would be much better than what you have but if the same conditions persist and that is not enough relief, you are stuck with another machine that doesn't work for you. With the Bipap, you not only have the Flex features to offer you relief, you have two separate pressures you can adjust to aid in that relief. Just the relief offered from IPAP to EPAP may be enough to allow you to better tolerate therapy.

I've been at this more than 6 years, I've used a half dozen different machines, C-Flex is better than CPAP, A-Flex is better than C-Flex, B-Flex is similar to A-Flex, but it also has two separate pressures for adjustment which makes it even better.

I just changed mine last night from 13 to 14 and today I feel so much better. I have been on cpap for 9 months now and for some reason I started getting back the old feelings i.e. waking up anxious, waking up a couple of times during the night, waking up exhausted and sleepy all day. Just on a hunch i bumped it up and today I feel rested. might just be coincidence but time will tell.