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I must have missed where you talked about the pressures you actually use. If your basic pressure is 12 or higher, you might consider a Bi Level machine. Problem is that insurance companies have all kinds of rules, and hoops for you to jump through to qualify for getting the more expensive Bi Level machine, not a guarantee that it would help. Medicare says that one can NOT get a Bi Level machine for comfort reasons, which is what Aerophagia would be called by Medicare. There are reasons and then there are other reasons why one could qualify for getting a Bi Level machine.

The first visit to the doctor after a month on cpap I told the nurse practitioner I had experimented with changing pressures. She didn't seem to have a problem with that but warned me that if the Doc found out he wouldn't see me anymore. My response was "and the downside is?" She thought that was funny. She's the person have have dealt with since and I think she's great.

Tatooed Lady wrote:
If I can't sleep, I'm out of compliance, I'm out of a job, and have no one to blame but MYSELF for not making this as comfortable for myself as possible.

They just checked my data, so I'll double check, but I doubt they CARE what I have it on, so long as I'm using it.

I agree - compliance for CDL holders consists of hours of use, not pressure settings. If you meet compliance thru your appropriate hours of use, that's all they care about. My hubby was recently found 100% compliant & I was so proud of him for the effort he has put into this.

You are putting forth the effort by changing those setting to make the therapy more comfortable, hence making compliance easier to achieve. I'm happy to hear its working for you.

Your medical examiner will probably never look at those setting & if they did, wouldn't know what they meant anyway.

Jen

purple wrote:I must have missed where you talked about the pressures you actually use. If your basic pressure is 12 or higher, you might consider a Bi Level machine.

Sorry, I left that out. Original prescription was for a constant 9 (EPR 2). Lowered to 8, the air swallowing is still painful. Lowered to 7 and most of it is gone...I think its probably tolerable but I will have to see how it goes in the next few days.

AHI < 3. Not super low but I think its still as good.

jencat824 wrote:

Tatooed Lady wrote:Your medical examiner will probably never look at those setting & if they did, wouldn't know what they meant anyway.

I've always suspected that if the medical examiner sees a CPAP machine, they probably just put down "heart attack" on the form and don't bother to look for other causes. OK, some exaggeration, but they are public servants and probably have heavy case loads and limited resources, and look for the easy answer to fill out the paperwork.