APAP or CPAP? Very confused

I just received a phone call from my sleep clinician who downloaded the Escape card. And as I found on here, it is a limited data card. She did say, however, that my cm of air went up to 12 cm with awakenings. She is going to ask the doctor if he can write the script now from 8-20 instead of 4-20. You are right, very limited data on this card. But at least we now know that I was up to 12. Does 8-20 sound reasonable? She is afraid that if it is set at 9 that may be too high for me. Does this sound acceptable?

Yes, it sounds reasonable and acceptable. The 20 max won't matter so much if the machine doesn't want to go there anyway and with the 8 cm minimum if the machine needs to go to 12 it can get there faster and do a much better job..
It's a really good starting point.

Some will say that leaving the higher number on 20 is best, but a few of us need that number set closer to
our reported pressures, to avoid super high pressures from waking us up.

Thank you so much, Pugsy and Chunkyfrog. Like I said if it wasn't for the two of you and others on this site, I never EVER would hae known about the
S9 Autoset. I thought all machines were the same and just to focus on the masks. Well I sure learned from all of you!

I am going to pick up the brand new Autoset today after work. I am going to print the clinician pages as well at lunch time today at work, but all I really want to do is see how to read the information on it on the INfo button.
I am glad to hear that starting at 8 cm of pressure when I reached a high of 12, is a good range 8-20. It makes me feel more confident. I was almost going to ask her ask the doctor to set it at 9 but she said that is too much of a push from my usual pressure of 4. I am fairly confident that I can tolerate the 8 cm of pressure, but I will know when I try it I guess. That is why my sleep clinician was too reluctant to ask the doctor to write the script from 9-12. Thank you so much. I will keep all posted. We will really don't know if that what was waking me up every hour for no reasons that she can tell. But with the newer Autoset that I will get today, I think we will have a better picture. Thank you again.

My sleep clinician just called me again. I know you guys understand this. She spoke with the physician and he wants her to set the machine at
8cm with a ramping up to 12 cm within 20 minutes time. She asked me how long I wanted it set to ramp up, and I told her 20 minutes. She is doing an EPR of 3 exhale level. This is based on her taking my Escape machine and seeing that I went up to 12 cm on 3 nights that I used it continuously. She gave me her cell number (nope she is not a friend of mine) and told me to call her over the weekend if I have any problems at it and she can walk me through lowering it if need be. But these were the doctor's orders to use a ramping to 12 cm from 8 within 20 minutes. Does all this sound logical? Thank you so much.

Wait…he's setting your minimum pressure to 12, not 8? That seems high based on your previous posts.

Hello Latinist; No, he is setting it at 8 cm with a ramping up to 12 cm after 20 minutes, since the data card says I was using 12 cm.
Does this sound reasonable? 8 cm to start and 20 minutes of ramping up to 12?

Luthie2006 wrote:Hello Latinist; No, he is setting it at 8 cm with a ramping up to 12 cm after 20 minutes, since the data card says I was using 12 cm.
Does this sound reasonable? 8 cm to start and 20 minutes of ramping up to 12?

I don't really care about the ramp. What I want to know are what your minimum and maximum pressures are. You did just get a brand new APAP, right? What you're describing sounds like straight CPAP.

Is this your new Autoset?
When you say Escape, I get confused; that is the "brick" you were returning.
I hope the new machine does not say escape on top.
That would be so wrong!

Luthie2006 wrote:Hello Latinist; No, he is setting it at 8 cm with a ramping up to 12 cm after 20 minutes, since the data card says I was using 12 cm.
Does this sound reasonable? 8 cm to start and 20 minutes of ramping up to 12?

Hi Luthie......This does not make sense if you are talking about your new Autoset. If your new pressure settings are 8 to 20, those are your settings. If they want you to have ramp for 15 or 20 minutes...that will start at a pressure of 4 and go up to what ever is needed for 15 to 20 minutes.....then it will revert to your auto settings of 8 to 20 for the rest of the night. The ramp is simply a setting that can be turned on or off and is designed to get you to sleep at a lower pressure before the auto settings kick in.

Hope that makes sense...I know it can be confusing when there is so much to take in.

Janice

Thanks for the replies. New Autoset. Forget the 4 They are setting it at 8 and ramping to 12 within 20 minutes. 12 will be my number from ramping. It will have a max of 20.
So 8 to start for 20 minutes, ramping slowly up to 12 for comfort supposedly. Does this make sense?

Luthie2006 wrote:Thanks for the replies. New Autoset. Forget the 4 They are setting it at 8 and ramping to 12 within 20 minutes. 12 will be my number from ramping. It will have a max of 20.
So 8 to start for 20 minutes, ramping slowly up to 12 for comfort supposedly. Does this make sense?

An easier way of saying it is 12-20 with ramp starting at 8.

zoocrewphoto wrote:

Luthie2006 wrote:Thanks for the replies. New Autoset. Forget the 4 They are setting it at 8 and ramping to 12 within 20 minutes. 12 will be my number from ramping. It will have a max of 20.
So 8 to start for 20 minutes, ramping slowly up to 12 for comfort supposedly. Does this make sense?

An easier way of saying it is 12-20 with ramp starting at 8.

Yes, your minimum pressure is 12-20. Ignore the ramp; that's just a comfort setting. Use it if it helps you adjust, but that's really got nothing to do with your therapeutic pressure.

12 seems a little high to me, especially since that seems to be either your max or 95% with the Escape Auto. Usually you want a range of about 2 cm above and below that number as a good starting place. I would expect a range of 8-12 or 10-14 (this was my doctor's prescription, after I was titrated to 12 in my split-night sleep study).

Pugsy may have some insight into why they would start you at 12, but it seems a bit high to me.

The ramp just helps you get to sleep on a lower pressure - like a warm up.

The APAP function varies the pressure after you're asleep according to how much it thinks you need to minimize apneas.
12-20 is a big range, but you said your sleep clinician says you only need 12 according to your recent data... that's what's confusing.
Are you sure 8-12 isn't the recommended APAP range and 20 might be just the maximum your machine can do?

Thanks again to the confused. Yes 12-20 with a ramp of starting at 8. It felt like a tornado last night all over my face. Surprisingly I slept a little but not well. Up with the tornado a lot and had trouble falling back to sleep. They got the 12 cm from my old Escape when they kept seeing that number pop up.

Now another question, please.... just a simplification. I am trying to see a few numbers from last night's sleep on the Autoset. I pressed the Info button and saw usage, 8.9 hours. All I want to see are a few numbers. And although Pugsy was so nice to send me the manual, I did print it, I I can only see the usage, sleep quality says nothing. Is there a way that I can see the AHI or leaks. Thank you so much....