ejbpesca

I am a veteran of 17 CPAP use on my 5th machine. I am just now learning about the ResPlus machine. Interestingly, the ResPlus has clinical settings readily available. Many patients do not get their machines set properly nor get attention from Dr.s or DMEs as pressure settings need to be changed. I hope you found your pressure settings in the ResPlus menu. A dry nose can be helped by using the humidifier feature. Dry mouth won't be helped by the machine. Some people tape their mouths shut during sleep with Cover Roll or another brand of tape to prevent mouth breathing which is the cause of dry mouth using a full face mask. Bloating due to CPAP is called aerophagia. Reducing the Pressure will reduce aerophagia. Use your SD card to transfer your machine's data to an app called OSCAR and you will see a large amount of data that shows how your therapy is going in great detail. The goal is to use the least amount of pressure that is most comfortable with the lowest AHI. Some use APAP mode, others straight CPAP. I use APAP mode on a ResMed AirSense. Pressures Min. 10 Max 20.

Best of luck, ejbpesca

I give advice only as a fellow CPAP user, not a medical expert.

Sleep apps for monitoring efficacy of CPAP therapy I have used include: 1. MyAir a ResMed app with AHI. 2. ViHealth gives blood oxygen levels exported from an oximeter. 3. OSCAR is a detailed report of all functions of cpap therapy. Its data is transferred by SD card from the CPAP machine to a computer. 4. SleepHQ is an Australia based site with an app that uses SD card data for reports similar to OSCAR but in a not so busy format. I think OSCAR is what it is based upon, something like Windows being based upon MSDOS.

To see my AHI from my AirSense 10 CPAP machine I remove its SD card, insert it into my laptop, launch the OSCAR app, (found at sleepyhead.com) upload data from SD, and then look at Daily Report. Daily Report will have the AHI and all the data that produces it. AHI 5.00 and under is considered okay by some standards. Many want much better results shooting for 0.00.

Another way to see AHI is to use the MyAir app from ResMed. Other brands of machines may also have similar apps.

Yes, increasing pressure can affect AHI. It can increase or decrease it. For me, a pressure increase from 8cm to 10cm decreased my flow limitations but raised my Central Apneas (CAs) so AHI went up. After a time I adjusted to the increased pressure and AHI came back down. .5 is a good increment to try increases. Check LL large leak rate too. Losing weight will need a mask head gear adjustment and maybe a change of mask type if full face. Uploading an OSCAR report to a comment here will allow any more expert eyes than mine to see what is happening with your therapy.

I wish I could lose 20 pounds. I fast but it causes me to have a ravishing appetite afterwards.

I do the same snoozy suzie. It startles me sometimes to think my breathing is about to shut down. I begin to consciously breathe but very soon the bit of panic leaves. Conscious apnea (I made that up) has been happening to me as far back as I can remember. My cpap therapy goes back 17 years. I can't remember how far back I first noticed that I stopped breathing at times and took a startled breath to resume.

Just saw a post from an F40 user who also has auto-start fail with that hybrid mask set to Pillows. My Evora FF set to FF starts the AirSense with one breath, every time for six months. Set to pillows, no auto-start. I am very curious as to why.

Thank you for posting that OSCAR report.

I think it may be one from a nasal mask and I see single-pressure mode. I use APAP mode 9 to 19 cm. It is strange for me to see a straight pressure line, very little flow limitations, and even mask pressure. My reports are a varying mess of pressure changes, flow limitation spikes, and a range from 0.50 to 7.00 AHI. It has been suggested I record a video of my sleeping to see what goes on in my restless nights. My theory is that when I roll from side to back and then to the other side the mask loses its seal then regains it as I move again. When this happens all graphs spike and numerous apnea events are registered during the leak time.

Pain causes me to move a lot in my sleep. Once in a while, I realize I have slept in one position (left side) for about six hours. On these rare occasions, my OSCAR graphs are smooth with a low AHI, and I feel much better than usual. I have been doing better with the Evora FF to control leaks. Maybe my next mask, the F40 will be even better keeping a seal on my bearded, moving face. It has been a long 17 years of severe apnea with not very effective APAP therapy.

Some claim fixing large leaks will clear up AHI events. When large leaks occur everything goes up on my OSCAR report including mask pressure. Mask pressure does not drop off, it goes up but I don't think therapy is being delivered. I feel the whole system is compromised during large leakage including its ability to report events accurately. My leaks are out the sides of a full face mask. They wake me sometimes due to air rushing out of the periphery of the mask. This would be better described as a blow out.

Auto Start ceases to function with an Evora FF mask and AirSense 10 set to pillows. Return to the full face mask setting and Auto Start functions. I wonder if AutoStart not working with the pillows setting is trying to tell me something.

Your Flow Limitations graph is not visible on the posted OSCAR reports. It is below the visible graphs. The graphs can be moved up and down the report. I see the 199 Flow Limitation events which is something my APAP machine does not show in Events. My OSCAR has a graph and a number that is like a score to show the flow limitation level. Since I have chronic flow limitations my events would probably be a large number like yours, but I do not know what your APAP machine considers as an EVENT, that is, how limited must the airflow be before it registers it as an event. Your flow limitations graph may give you a better indication of your flow limitations than the events. My flow limitation graph is different each sleep session and is never flat which would be no limitations.

Flow limitations are a hot topic for CPAP users and those who give CPAP advice. If their AHI is decent, the next thing to improve is flow limitations. I have my EPR set to 2. I will take Sierra's advice and increase it to 3 which requires going into the Clinical Menu on my machine. You may have access to EPR settings on your machine but if not, do a net search for instructions on how to access pressure changes and EPR changes for your brand/model of CPAP machine. You will need to get into the Clinical Menu also to set pressure min. and max.

Your air pressure settings are surprisingly low. Do you have the report from your sleep study? It shows the pressure levels used to stop apneas. Did you DME (supplier of the machine) or a technician set the pressures or are those the default settings of a new machine? Your min. 4cm is as low as my machine goes. Ask whoever set your machine if that is the default or a prescribed setting for you. If no one sets the machine is has default pressures.

4 cm min. and 20 cm max. are the lowest and highest pressures of my machine. Your settings look very low and I see your pressure is maxing out to 8 cm, so at least increase the maximum level it can reach. The goal is to have it just high enough that the pressure graph does not show it maxing out. This is never perfect, maxing out may still happen at times. It is suggested pressure changes be done in small increments over several sleep sessions, eg .5 to 1 per adjustment.

Search Flow Limitations OSCAR for articles on how to interpret them on OSCAR. I have high flow limitations for reasons that I think I cannot change. Mine go up and down as does the effects on my airways due to my allergies. What I pay much attention to is the Leak Rate.

I have used an APAP machine for 17 years. I am not an expert in therapy but have been using and studying OSCAR for a few years. OSCAR can be overwhelming to me....so much data!