Thank you!!!

I wanted to take a quick second to thank all of you that offered me support while ive been going through the sleep study process, along with the waiting period to get my equipment. I had my consultation today with the Dr., he said I had 145 episodes in a 5 hour sleep period. He also said I spent 5% of my night in REM sleep. My Dr's office is one of the biggest in my town and they had all the machines/masks that all of you have. I left the office today with the M Series Auto CPAP with A-flex (with humidifier) and the
Ultra Mirage II Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear. The Dr.'s assistant had me try on about 3 different masks, all nasal only because my studies showed no open mouth breathing. I chose the Ultra Mirage because that was what I wore in my sleep study and seemed pretty comfortable today. My setting for the M Series was recommended at a "10" or I could used the Auto feature which starts at 4 and adjusts up as needed. I as sooooo excited to finally have my cpap and finally start my road to recovery. To all of you newly diagnosed, I feel your pain in the waiting period, its been a long journey but you WILL get there.....

Thank you all again...and of course I will be reporting how my sleep goes !!!

PS...what do ya'll think about just setting the machine at a 10 and go...or should I used the auto feature??

Mike

Did your MD have nothing to say about your pressure settings? Seems odd!

I set mine at auto ranged 8-12. I think that's a nice safe setting for auto range and was pleasantly surprised that it seems to be settling into my titration indeed being pretty much 10...

But yeah, I had to set it at auto for the first few nights just for the fun of it all. I think tonight I'm gonna go straight cpap 10 and see how that does...

If you can tolerate 10cm right off, yea go for it. I can tell what I would NOT do - that's start at 4; many cannot even breath at 4, plus it will allow for many events before it gets up to where it will help you.

If you can't tolerate 10 right off - setting it at 8min and 12 max would be ideal. You will need to software to make sure you aren't leaking out your therapy.

Mike081376 wrote:PS...what do ya'll think about just setting the machine at a 10 and go...or should I used the auto feature??Mike

Congrats on your new machine.

Setting the autopap at the one prescribed pressure is always a good thing to try -- and might be what you'll want to use from now on.

If you decide to try Auto titrating, I wouldn't set the minimum pressure down at 4. There's no good reason to let events (apneas/hypopneas) happen before the machine can work its way up slowly to a pressure that would prevent them in the first place. I'd set the minimum pressure in the range up pretty close to (or even "at") the prescribed pressure, and set the max at 20.

For example, I'd use one of these ranges:

8 - 20
9 - 20
10 - 20

I'd set A-flex wherever it feels comfortable breathing out, or "off" if you don't like it. I like A-flex at 3.

Some discussions about how to set an autopap:

September 2008 New Guy - Need Help w/Settings (topic started by alanhj13)
viewtopic.php?p=294319#p294319

October 2008 Turning off Aflex and Cflex (topic started by DoriC)
viewtopic.php?p=307265#p307265

November 2008 Just got an APAP (topic started by turbosnore)
viewtopic.php?p=319619#p319619

December 2008 Why adjust APAP. Isn't it auto? (topic started by oxygenium65)
viewtopic.php?p=323218#p323218

March 2007 APAP Discussion (topic started by CollegeGirl)
viewtopic/t18054/viewtopic.php?p=154016#p154016

Mike081376 wrote:my studies showed no open mouth breathing.

You're a lucky fellow!!

Hey Rested Gal!

Yeah the A Flex was definitely different, the first LT Pillow mask was VERY hard to have even the A Flex turned off, the feeling of almost having tubes in my nose wasn't going to happen. So I put on the Ultra Mirage Nasal and turned the A Flex on 2 and I had NO problems at all!! So yes, I think that i will set it at "10" constant all night with A Flex on "2"...now to figure out the humidity setting...im thinking 3 based on what the tech said, but she also said I will have to see how I feel in the morning...either nose pouring or too dry!!!! A question about the memory card, the DR told me not to worry about that until I come back in 1 month, they will read that and see how the setting/data looks....does this sound right?? I think I should be monitoring the leakage rate in the morning???? I did feel like on the way home I might have left without getting all questions answered I guess!!! I will play around with it tonight before I hit the sack!!!

Mike081376 wrote:A question about the memory card, the DR told me not to worry about that until I come back in 1 month, they will read that and see how the setting/data looks....does this sound right?? I think I should be monitoring the leakage rate in the morning????

I think leak data is one of the main things that should be monitored right from the get-go. So, yes, I'd keep track of that, if I were you.

If the leak rate looks ok for several nights in a row, then you can relax and not worry about "leak." But it would be a sad thing if the leak rate looked awful, unbeknownst to you or the doctor for a whole month. Could skew the pressure results badly. All that "used it religiously" and not getting good treatment due to bad leaks. Doctors and DMEs don't seem to be a bit concerned about checking "leak" early on (if ever)...guess they are too busy.

If you don't have the Encore Viewer software to download the Smart Card yourself, you can reset the machine AHI/Leak data to zero before each night's sesson, for several nights to check the leak rate next morning in the LCD. Doing that (resetting the therapy data to zero) won't affect the data being recorded on the Smart Card. All the Smart Card data will remain intact for the doctor to see later. Using Encore Viewer to download it wouldn't affect the Smart Card data either.

How to reset the M series machine "weekly"/"monthly" details back to zero, in order to view just last night's results the next day:

viewtopic.php?p=239127#239127

viewtopic/t29141/Resetting-the-data-on-Respironics.html

Mike......

You're off to a good start. The machine you have is a 5-in-1.....
Straight CPAP
CPAP with CFLEX
CPAP with AFLEX
Auto CPAP with CFLEX
Auto CPAP with AFLEX
Through experimentation, you'll find the mode that's most comfortable for you.

You might want to re-think the humidity setting at "3".......You might be visited with a few big drops of water....up your nose....in the middle of the night.
"Rainout" is a profanity causing event. I run mine on a setting of (1).....and I still have to take steps to prevent breath-condensation rainout.

Finally....I agree with those who suggest that a low-end pressure of "4" is unworkable. I'd put big money on a bet that the "doctor" who suggested that setting....has never tried the exact same setting for himself.

Welcome to this unruly band of Hoseheads....you'll do well.

I have that machine, as you see in my profile. You can't use the A-Flex settings in cpap mode on that machine so guess that makes it a 4 in 1!

Hey! that's still great options!!

I have the same machine. I started out with humidity of 2. It felt fine but then it got cold and started raining in the mask. Now I have it on 1 with a hose huggie on the hose and the hose under the cover. The coolness of your room will impact the amount of humidity you need. When it is cold in your room, more humidity means more condensation which means rainout. If you sleep in a warm room, more humidity might be ok.

Hawthorne....

Your post made me curious......I have an AFLEX machine.......used as a backup/travel unit.....and not as my daily use machine.
I checked my owner's manual for the AFLEX unit......and confirmed that I was wrong when I listed all the different modes for Mike.

The manual says that the AFLEX machine can be set up to operate in the following (5) ways:

Straight CPAP
CPAP with CFLEX
Auto CPAP
Auto CPAP with CFLEX
Auto CPAP with AFLEX

Someday, I'll get thru my "training period".....

Thanks for catching my error.

Gerald - and I forgot about straight auto setup with no Flex! Between the 2 of us we got it right!

That's how this forum works though!