Posted by Zombie on September 10, 2004 at 06:15:28:

In Reply to: Anyone Wanna Talk Me Out of It? posted by dopey on September 07, 2004 at 14:27:27:

Hi Dopey.

I'm surprised. You've been using your CPAP for 2 years and not seen any improvement? Wow. If you're trying to be patient and give the prescribed machine a chance to work, you've certainly done that.

I'm curious. When you've seen your doctor during the past 2 years, has he or she ever said anything when you've reported no change in the symptoms (tiredness, etc.)? Individuals with sleep apnea very often experience some nice results the first night they use the equipment. No, it's not all rainbows from the get-go, but sleep apnea is one of *easy* sleep disorders to treat.

I agree with some of the other postings here that you gotta be careful when adjusting your CPAP machine. 'Course, I'm sure you already know that. But after waiting 2 years, I think you can fairly argue that you've given the present set-up a full trial.

(I still can't get over the fact that you've been waiting 2 YEARS for your CPAP to work.)

As for adjusting your own machine to see if a higher setting might help, I don't see why that's such a big deal. Obviously, you probably don't want to jack up the setting so high that you get a belly full of air or that you get chipmonk cheeks. (Party time is over, you know; we all miss it.)

There a lots of postings here in the Apnea Forum about individuals having their CPAP pressures raised repeatedly by the doctors in an attempt to help them breathe normally at night and so sleep the night through. It sounds as if some of them are getting repeated sleep tests while others are not.

Even then the techs do the apnea titration studies, they're just watching to see what pressure is needed to keep your airway open while you're sleeping. I'd guess that, as a general rule, the techs pick the lowest pressure that they think will reasonably work for a patient, perhaps allowing a bit more for a margin of error.

And why don't they just start everybody off with a really high pressure? Well, those high pressures are pretty darn uncomfortable, and you really have to respect the folks who learn to live with them. And high pressures can complicate other things--like when the air blows into your belly.

It's also theoretically possible that, if you got the pressure so phenomenonally high that you couldn't exhale, well, you'd be cooked. But I think you might notice that something was wrong in--what?--about one second, right?

I cannot advise you on what to do. What I can do, though, is tell you that *I* adjust my pressures all the time. Gasp! Yep. Frankly, I'm sort of dumbfounded that most folks seem to just go with one pressure setting forever.

When I have a cold, for example, I need more pressure to achieve the same effects. In fact, I've gotten pretty good at setting the pressures for myself to give me a good, comfortable night's sleep.

I find that very small changes--say 1/2 or 1 unit on the scale--can have a significant effect.

You have to be careful about the pressure getting too low, as I know that some masks will not remove the "used" exhaled air if the pressure setting is less than 4. So don't go too low.

Good luck to you.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Anyone Wanna Talk Me Out of It? Sheepcounter 08:55 9/10/04 (1)
  • Re: Anyone Wanna Talk Me Out of It? dopey 12:54 9/10/04 (0)

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