ASV users: the everything ASV thread.

[Kody]

Before you go, ask how experienced the techs are with ASVs.

I second that piece of advice. The sleep dept. of the Hospitial where I have to go to bring my Smart Card into, told me I can only see 2 out of the 10 people they have that work there because only 2 of them know anything about the ASV machine I use. (That didn't give me a great vote of confidence, but oh well).. The Sleep Lab where they actually sent me for the overnight studies however seemed to know what they were doing.

Good luck with your study.

[Bons]

Before you go, ask how experienced the techs are with ASVs.

I second that piece of advice. The sleep dept. of the Hospitial where I have to go to bring my Smart Card into, told me I can only see 2 out of the 10 people they have that work there because only 2 of them know anything about the ASV machine I use. (That didn't give me a great vote of confidence, but oh well).. The Sleep Lab where they actually sent me for the overnight studies however seemed to know what they were doing.

Good luck with your study.

Kody,
Their telling you to go to those two people only would make me give them a high vote of confidence because the staff is making sure you have the appropriate tech and proper care. That's a heck of a lot better than having them pretend that they know what they are doing.

I see the head of the department of a major teaching hospital. After I finally, thanks to this board, suggested some changes to my settings my AHI dropped from over 5 to hovering below 2. He admitted then that the hospital only has a handful of us on ASVs and so they aren't familiar with them. My RT at the DME has gotten to the point that if I have questions she calls Respironics to get the answers for me because she also has very few patients on this machine. If you don't see a lot of patients, you don't learn a lot about the machine.

I'd be very grateful for your 2 people that know something, and the ones who are humble enough to admit that they do not.

[ameriken]

The sleep dept. of the Hospitial where I have to go to bring my Smart Card into, told me I can only see 2 out of the 10 people they have that work there because only 2 of them know anything about the ASV machine I use. (That didn't give me a great vote of confidence, but oh well)..

Kody, I'm with Bons on this. If they told me that, I would give a high vote of confidence. This means they are aware of what the machine is, aware that it requires a little more specialization and care, and that they have specialists to do it. The majority of people are going to need CPAP/BiPAP so you'll need a lot of techs for that. But since far fewer need ASV, I'd rather a couple of people working on allthe ASV cases than to have everyone doing an occasional ASV case.

Better a couple of them knowing a lot about the ASV and handling all the ASV cases, than to have all of them doing an occasional rare case and never really getting the experience needed to know the patients and the machine.

[Kody]

Thanks Bons and ameriken for pointing that side of it out to me. I never really thought of it that way your right actually, I am glad she did tell me that. I think I was getting frustrated at the process of how long all this was taking. It wasn't until 6 months after they first diagnosed me with Sleep Apnea to actually get a machine. They told me they diagnose at least 50 people a week with it, and get most on a machine with in a couple weeks. Guess I figured with 200 people a month, there would be tons of people with the same machine I have so why would only 2 of them know anything about it.

It wasn't until I landed on this forum and started reading a lot that it doesn't seem to be the case. A much smaller portion of all the people Sleep Apnea actually have CSA and an ASV apparently. Don't know what the exact percentage is, but that would be interesting to know. They are all very busy, so of course all this is not explained to you. Some of the things they did mention went right over my head, so that is another reason I am here to learn more and I have, and am still picking things up. That is whats also cool about a forum like this, is you can get different perspectives on the same issue from different people and I thank you guys for that.

[sickwithapnea17]

I am so happy to have a bipap st. But I keep on taking the mask off from the 18/14 pressure.
isn't it better to set it to 14/10 if I can get more therapy hours that way?
I also have been using 35 minute ramp and starting on 4.0 or 5.0

[Mr Bill]

Thanks Bons and ameriken for pointing that side of it out to me. I never really thought of it that way your right actually, I am glad she did tell me that. I think I was getting frustrated at the process of how long all this was taking. It wasn't until 6 months after they first diagnosed me with Sleep Apnea to actually get a machine.

I was diagnosed as needing a second sleep study two months before I got the sleep study. They had to get in an ASV and also schedule me.

It wasn't until I landed on this forum and started reading a lot that it doesn't seem to be the case. A much smaller portion of all the people Sleep Apnea actually have CSA and an ASV apparently. Don't know what the exact percentage is, but that would be interesting to know.

My sleep tech said its 1 in 500 that are primarily central apnea rather than OSA or Complex SA.

[Bons]

It wasn't until I landed on this forum and started reading a lot that it doesn't seem to be the case. A much smaller portion of all the people Sleep Apnea actually have CSA and an ASV apparently. Don't know what the exact percentage is, but that would be interesting to know.

My sleep tech said its 1 in 500 that are primarily central apnea rather than OSA or Complex SA.[/quote]

Yeah, but there are those of us who are on ASV because of complex apnea caused by cpap, so there might be 2 in 500 of us using ASV.....

[ameriken]

I am so happy to have a bipap st. But I keep on taking the mask off from the 18/14 pressure.
isn't it better to set it to 14/10 if I can get more therapy hours that way?
I also have been using 35 minute ramp and starting on 4.0 or 5.0

Anyone have an answer for this post?

[sickwithapnea17]

so my setting of 18/14 is really good? like do I really need a 14 for the EPAP for the centrals?

my pulmonologist who was studying sleep apnea said that maybe I should change to a pressure like 12/10 but then when I got the bipap st the pressure was 18/14 like on my study in the lab.
it seems too high. I keep waking up and can't get any therapy and then I wake up feeling hot, with chest pains, and my heart pounding and still have memory problems. it's really destroying my career the concentration problems and memory problems- I even get lost in conversations

[pharm30]

still having leak problems with my mask....last night I don't remember taking it off, but only slept 3.5 hrs with it.
a resp tech that I work with gave me a new ff mask to try (unsolicited). not sure if I should use it, my DME doesn't offer that brand anyways.
I thought I read some masks are not compatible with some machines?

[ameriken]

so my setting of 18/14 is really good? like do I really need a 14 for the EPAP for the centrals?

my pulmonologist who was studying sleep apnea said that maybe I should change to a pressure like 12/10 but then when I got the bipap st the pressure was 18/14 like on my study in the lab.
it seems too high. I keep waking up and can't get any therapy and then I wake up feeling hot, with chest pains, and my heart pounding and still have memory problems. it's really destroying my career the concentration problems and memory problems- I even get lost in conversations

I'm not an expert in this stuff but, since no one else has chimed in, I thought I might.

I don't know if there is a difference between our machines, but if I'm reading this correctly, I'm thinking you're settings are too high. I have mostly centrals as well, and my min PS is 5, min EPAP is 7. If it were me and I were having such trouble like you are, for sure I'd be trying to lower my settings like you suggested, try it a few nights and see how it does.

[Kody]

Yeah, but there are those of us who are on ASV because of complex apnea caused by cpap, so there might be 2 in 500 of us using ASV.....

Wow I had no idea the ratio thanks for the info. So this explains why the lady in the Sleep Dept. looks like she wants to run away when she see's me, were trouble makers with a capital T!

[JohnBFisher]

so my setting of 18/14 is really good? like do I really need a 14 for the EPAP for the centrals?

my pulmonologist who was studying sleep apnea said that maybe I should change to a pressure like 12/10 but then when I got the bipap st the pressure was 18/14 like on my study in the lab.
it seems too high. I keep waking up and can't get any therapy and then I wake up feeling hot, with chest pains, and my heart pounding and still have memory problems. it's really destroying my career the concentration problems and memory problems- I even get lost in conversations

You should definitely go back and talk with your doctor. That is NOT normal. You may need a different therapy. If you only need a BiPap unit, then you may need an Auto BiPap unit. If you have the S/T unit due to central apneas, then an ASV unit might be a better choice.

Either way you should insist that your doctor address the symptoms. If not, find one that will.

[JohnBFisher]

still having leak problems with my mask....last night I don't remember taking it off, but only slept 3.5 hrs with it.
a resp tech that I work with gave me a new ff mask to try (unsolicited). not sure if I should use it, my DME doesn't offer that brand anyways.
I thought I read some masks are not compatible with some machines?

The mas comparability thing is only with the older Resmed ASV units. You can certainly try to see if it helps. I find that with the high pressures of the ASV units, a full face mask helps, as does a mask liner.

[ameriken]

My machine has a couple of settings and it seems like you can do one or the other, but not both. Rise time and Flex.

Can someone explain what they are and what they are supposed to do, what is the difference between rise time and flex, and what is the difference between a rise time of 1 and a rise time of 6, and the difference between a 1 and 3 in flex?

Can these settings impact therapy and AHI?

Thanks in advance.