Doing a trial with APAP

Been on CPAP for about 6 weeks. Study said 70+ apneas and an oxygen level of 76%. Start CPAP was still having 15 to 19 apneas an hour at 13.5 pressure. I have been on APAP for about three days apneas are down to 4 to 7 but the pressure is jumping up to 17.5 and blowing the mask off my face. This wakes me up and I try to adjust the mask so it does not leak but can't. Can't adjust the mask at low pressure so that it does not blow at the higher pressure. The trail is for four weeks to determine my new pressure however don't think the Fulllife mask I use now will be able to handle that higher pressure.
The apneas are down but now I wake up all night trying to adjust the mask.

Does anyone have any experience at a presurre of 17 ??

The APAP is a Remstar pro 1 APAP.





































5

I was using cpap at 17 cm for several years, then bought a Apap machine and tried that. It would run at whatever the upper limit was set to every night and I had anywhere from 5-10 hypopneas, but no apneas I did not sleep as well as I did with cpap. I thought I may end up going to a bipap for pressure over 20 cm but read a post from a fellow that tried lowering his pressure. I did not feel any better so I set my apap machine with a minimum and maximum of 17 cm and the number of hypopneas remained similar but it seemed a little nicer, much more like I was used to. I then lowered it by 1 cm and tried it that way for a week or two, after a couple months I am down to 14 cm, still get the same amount of hypopneas but because I am at a lower pressure it seems to be a little better - or it's just my imagination. The apap machine is nice in some ways but keeping the pressure at a constant level seems to work better for me. I do not use any ramp so I know what pressure is going to do with my mask as soon as I start it up. I do like the record keeping of the apap system, my previous cpap machines did not have that function.

I'm having a very similar experience, although I'm doing the APAP experiment on my own (not prescribed).

I started off at 15 with FullLife mask, but I had to abandon it because in order to keep it on at high pressures I had to tighten it, which caused the skin on the bridge of my nose to begin to deteriorate and abscess. I was then given a nasal mask (ComfortGel) which worked much better. I began my experiment and my machine was spending much of its time around 17 as well. This is not difficult for me to tolerate, but it does cause even worse leaking.

Unfortunately, I can't give much advice, as I'm new to this also. I can tell you this: The FullLife mask is not designed for high pressure. You're going to have to be refit for a better high-pressure mask.

Hope that helps!

seeker01 wrote:
The APAP is a Remstar pro 1 APAP.

That is not an APAP if it has Pro on the box

May not be a pro I did not see the box? I assume it is one of the newer Remstar APAP machines because it has the SD card and all the stickers on it. It looks just like the one I have, which I still have since this one is a loner...


Thanks for the feedback I'm going to the Swift LT they gave me at the sleep study. Hate the way it feels but may be I can get use to it....

seeker01 wrote:Been on CPAP for about 6 weeks. Study said 70+ apneas and an oxygen level of 76%. Start CPAP was still having 15 to 19 apneas an hour at 13.5 pressure. I have been on APAP for about three days apneas are down to 4 to 7 but the pressure is jumping up to 17.5 and blowing the mask off my face. This wakes me up and I try to adjust the mask so it does not leak but can't. Can't adjust the mask at low pressure so that it does not blow at the higher pressure. The trail is for four weeks to determine my new pressure however don't think the Fulllife mask I use now will be able to handle that higher pressure.
The apneas are down but now I wake up all night trying to adjust the mask.

Does anyone have any experience at a presurre of 17 ??

The APAP is a Remstar pro 1 APAP.

5

I agree with "jules", if it says "Pro" on it, it's not an APAP.

Exactly, what does it say on the top of the machine and what is the setup configuration? A single pressure or a range of pressures? What pressure range is it set to if it's an APAP?
If the Ramp is enabled and it's beginning at a lower pressure and working up to 17.5 cm., and it DOES say "Pro" on the top, then that's also a clue that it's not an APAP........just a CPAP using Ramp.

Also, in what position do you sleep?


Den

seeker01 wrote:May not be a pro I did not see the box? I assume it is one of the newer Remstar APAP machines because it has the SD card and all the stickers on it. It looks just like the one I have, which I still have since this one is a loner...


Thanks for the feedback I'm going to the Swift LT they gave me at the sleep study. Hate the way it feels but may be I can get use to it....

The model should be printed on top of the machine.......that's what she was referring to by "the box".


Den

I was wrong it is not a Pro....The start-up screen says APAP for the trail the pressure is set from 5 to 20.

I sleep on my back or side...Side mostly....

The challenge with an APAP is that it will often 'chase leaks' meaning that it increases pressure to compensate for leaks. You wake up, tighten mask often inadvertently creating more leak which then makes the APAP increase pressure and so on and so on until the pressure is waaay higher than needed to eliminate apnea events. If I were you, I would try to eliminate leaks as a priority to get the most outta your trial.

Doing a trial with APAP? Judges hate it. You have to pull the mask off to object, and then the airflow blows the exhibits around.

Sorry, that was out of order. I was prescribed a constant pressure of 17 on CPAP when I started. I had a lot of trouble with leaks using my Mirage Quattro full face mask. Things got much better for me when my pressure was reduced to 15. (I had to promise to sleep on my side.) Mask fit is very individual, but full face masks have a worse reputation for leaks than nasal masks. You might want to experiment with different mask types if your DME will cooperate.