Did my machine malfunction?

Country4ever · Post by **Country4ever** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 7:16 am

Hi,
I used to be on pressures of 4/8 and recently changed them to 4.8/9.
Last night, just as I was falling asleep, I began coughing. I think I inhaled some spit or something. It really woke me up. It felt a little hard to exhale, so I checked the pressure and it was 8.9. I laid there, very calm, but totally awake for at least 10-15 minutes and the pressure stayed nearly that high. It just wouldn't come down.
It was bothering me, so I reset the pressures to 4/8. I still couldn't fall asleep for awhile, but the pressure stayed at 4.4. Why did the pressure stay so high, even though I was awake and breathing normally?? Thanks.

Country4ever · Post by **Country4ever** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:47 pm

I'm bumping this up since it was going to the bottom of the barrel quickly. Anyone have any ideas about why the pressure stayed so high while I was awake? I will "own" this machine in a couple months. I want to make sure its not a lemon. And to be honest, I'd rather try to figure this out with you guys than with the DME respiratory therapist who will blow a gasket when I tell her I was trying a different pressure. (Yes, I know the drill......but I still would rather avoid the confrontation).

DreamStalker · Post by **DreamStalker** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:52 pm

Reason APAP goes up in pressure is because it thinks it has sensed snores and/or an event and it raises pressure to prevent or eliminate the event.

No need to reset pressure to get it back down. Just turn off you machine then turn it back on.

Country4ever · Post by **Country4ever** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:07 pm

Hi Dreamstalker,
But its supposed to be sensitive to each breath, right? If I was breathing easy and normally for 10-15 minutes after that cough......why didn't it go down on its own?

Perchancetodream · Post by **Perchancetodream** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:23 pm

I had a similar problem with my BiPAP machine, I called it speeding. The easiest "fix" is just to hit the ramp button on your machine. This should reset your machine to its lowest pressure, but the downside is that, depending on the length of your ramp time (mine is 5 minutes), you will be at the lowest pressure. The other easy fix is to just turn it off and on again.

Your machine probably interpreted your cough as a snore and was trying to prevent it from recurring. It probably would have lowered the pressure as the night went on and you did not repeat the cough or snore or have an event. Mine once remained elevated for an hour, but it did eventually go back down.

Susan

DreamStalker · Post by **DreamStalker** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:35 pm

Country4ever wrote:Hi Dreamstalker,
But its supposed to be sensitive to each breath, right? If I was breathing easy and normally for 10-15 minutes after that cough......why didn't it go down on its own?

I don't know if it is sensitive to each breath. Maybe BillBolten or someone else can answer that.

How quickly the pressure drops back down depends on several factors but usually 10 to 30 minutes is not unusual ... you probably just did not wait long enough. In any case, Susan gave good points on how to deal with it.

Country4ever · Post by **Country4ever** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:02 pm

Thanks Susan and Dreamstalker. That info helps alot.

billbolton · Post by **billbolton** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:49 pm

Country4ever wrote:But its supposed to be sensitive to each breath, right? If I was breathing easy and normally for 10-15 minutes after that cough......why didn't it go down on its own?

All the auto flow generators are desgined to respond to autonomous breathing, that is breathing while you are asleep. What happens when you are not asleep is pretty much an undefined, as you may think you are brearthing easy and normal but that can be quite different to autonomous breathing behaviour!

The data acquired and the resulting auto machine behaviour while wakeful basically doesn't mean anything in terms of what should/would/will happen while asleep.

Cheers,

Bill

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