Newbie with questions about Respironics BiPAP Auto M

Nodzy · Post by **Nodzy** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:49 pm

Really, Jules???? I'm certainly glad I didn't do that... and never put an off-topic comment in a post. Well, almost never.... if we consider the age of the universe.

Though, if we're going to get really strict on threads we'd have to flag about 98% of the posts, and demand rewrites. And that would destroy the spirit and free-flow of the board.

Cheers and best wishes to all the newbies and seekers... may they find answers, knowledge, great therapy, good health and friendship. Or at least an interesting place to drop-in now and then.

I'm gonna go have another sweet, juicy orange.

Nodzy

jules · Post by **jules** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:58 pm

Well, I personally, would never dream of hijacking a thread or even post anything that wasn't to the heart of the OP's issue.

BTW - a perfect example of my responsible and on topic postings can be found here -

viewtopic/t28984/Selling-My-CPAP-Machin ... t-Out.html

dsm · Post by **dsm** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:50 pm

[quote="DRONE"]

<snip>

But, hey, here's another question. Does Resmed or one of the other outfits make a machine that'll do what I want it to do?

ozij · Post by **ozij** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:20 pm

DRONE wrote:Hi, fellas! You too, Rested Gal! Things are kinda slow here in the office this afternoon so I'm back online and just finished reading your comments. Thank you one and all.

Well surprise, surprise, the folks at Respironics actually got back to me with an "800" number that put me through to one of their staff Respiratory Therapists. Had a nice chat. He confirmed that the initial IPAP/EPAP settings of the BiPAP Auto M cannot be greater than 2cm apart, unless you disable the "Auto" mode and instead run it as a simple BiPAP machine. I asked him why the engineers at Respironics designed it this way and he admitted that the RT's at Respironics don't know. They don't think 2cm is a magic number and expect that the next generation of machines will have a little more flexibility.

For forum members who don't quite see why this is such a concern, imagine it this way--pretend you're under water and have to breathe through a straw. If you have a jumbo straw - say an inch in diameter - you can breathe easily in AND out with little effort. You could even sleep with that jumbo straw. But then they take away your jumbo straw and give you instead one of those itty-bitty straws. If you suck real hard, then also breathe out real hard, you'll be OK for a while but eventually your gonna need some air. What you need is a machine that will attach to the other end of the straw and push air through it to your lungs, then turn around and suck it back out again. I'm not talking about sleep apnea here, I'm talking about regular breathing while awake. You're gonna need a "push-pull" air pump.

So when I put on my mask, 10 cm of pressure is powerful enough to drive the air through my itty-bitty nose to fill my lungs. But then I need to exhale! For me to try to breathe out through my nose is hard enough with no mask on, so it's really hard if my CPAP machine is fighting me with 8 cm of back pressure. I've learned to tolerate 6 cm of EPAP but what I could really use is an EPAP setting of 0 cm! I hope this helps you to visualize the problem.

Drone,
Isn't the machine smart enough to raise you IPAP to more than the initial 8 fast enough?

O.

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:46 pm

jules wrote:Well, I personally, would never dream of hijacking a thread or even post anything that wasn't to the heart of the OP's issue.

BTW - a perfect example of my responsible and on topic postings can be found here -

viewtopic/t28984/Selling-My-CPAP-Machin ... t-Out.html

omg, Jules...funny. Especially the offhand reference to the lifeguards.

ozij · Post by **ozij** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:19 am

Right on, jules. A proper example of responsible posting to one and all!

O.