F&P Icon is great but problems with Ramp activation

G'day all,

I'm new to this forum although I have been reading some posts for a while.

I have a new Fisher and Paykel Icon machine and I am very happy with it, it the best machine I have experienced. I have previously used a ResMed and Respironics/Philips machines (I can't remember the model numbers off the top of my head).

What I love about the F&P machine is the automatic temperature and humidity tracking combined with the heated tube and altitude compensation. I have sinusitis complications and need humid air to tolerate CPAP therapy - but previous machines caused many problems as some nights I would be suffering dry air and the same humidification settings would result in excessive moisture waking me up on other more moist nights. Chasing the weather conditions with the variable humidification dial on the ResMed was hit and miss. The Icon seems to have this well sorted and I haven't needed to chase the current weather by altering the settings at all. We live at high altitude (>1,100m/3,500 ft - that's high for Australia) and the weather up here can be very variable.

Anyway enough of the waffle and introduction, on to my reason for posting:

I have downloaded and installed the F&P "InfoSmart" reporting software, obtained via torrent thanks to the info found on this forum. When I first viewed my data I somehow inadvertently changed my max pressure prescription from 20 to 18 cm. At the same time after putting the SmartStick back in my machine, I have lost the ability to initiate a pressure ramp.

I have since changed the max pressure back to 20 cm and sent this prescription back to the machine via the SmartStick, but I still can't seem to initiate a ramp by holding the button in. The only other thing I "fiddled" with was the Advanced Menu option (which seemed to change nothing and doesn't seem to restore my ramp).

Can anyone offer any help with restoring the ramp function?

Thanks,

Andrew.

welcome
try to find the clinical technical manual for your model on the net and download it, many mauuals are now on the net

some CPAPs have a ramp time that is only supposed to be set secretly by the technican, but the manual will tell you how

please note, I dont mean the patients handbook

a nettipot is best for long term sinus problems, IMO

Glad you like your new machine. The S9 autoset also has climate control with heated hose and automatic humidification. The Icon was my second choice when I was shopping for a machine. The difficulty getting software and the fact my DME prefered S9 line of machines was the deal sealer for me.

I've managed to answer my own question, eventually. I thought I should share my experiences as it may help someone else.

It seems the F&P InfoSmart software doesn't download the prescription that's already in the machine - so when I uploaded the prescription (thinking I was doing the right thing) I actually altered the prescription on the machine to 4-20 cm instead of my prescription of 6-20. So the ramp function didn't work because the prescription had it's start pressure at the system's minimum pressure so there was nothing for it to ramp up to.

I have since returned my loan machine and have purchased my own - and my first two nights on the new machine have been terrible - I have awoken both mornings completely exhausted and unable to go to work. This is after using the loan machine for 30 days and having a perfect experience,
I didn't miss a single day of work!

So I started looking deeper to see what might have changed, that's where I stumbled on to the above anomaly with the pressure range. I was running at 4-20 cm for all of last month and things were great, when I've picked up my new machine the girl in the shop has set it to my prescription of 6-20 cm and that's what's been stuffing my sleep up.

When I had my sleep study and pressure set study it was a bit of a farce, I hardly slept (particularly on the pressure set night) and the technician admitted he really couldn't set my pressure correctly. So I'm going out on a limb and I'm setting my pressure to the range I had last month because I know it worked for me, looking at my statistics it's a no-brainer.

Here's hoping I'm doing the right thing.

Andrew.