Resmed autosense 10

[TD7410]

Hello, having been recently diagnosed I have been on treatment for about 3 weeks. Have settled in fairly well with the mask, a resmed P10. I do feel some better, but feel I'm not getting enough. After reading some here and other places I got into the clinical setup to see just what I have. My machine is set to CPAP and not autoset. My question is do I dare switch to autoset without my doc's permission? My next appointment is not for a few weeks and I'm impatient, lol! Will be downloading and installing sleepyhead this weekend. The app always shows good seal, scores in the upper 90's and averaging right at 5 AHI's. Any input is appreciated!

[Janknitz]

5 AHI's a night show that your apnea is not being very effectively treated at the fixed pressure. Most of us have numbers under 2, many of us under 1.0.

So the next question is whether you want to wait for your doctor to prescribe another number or tweak it yourself. Ultimately that is YOUR decision. There is no such thing as the CPAP police. You won't get arrested or lose your machine--the insurance company does NOT care if you touch the settings, as long as you are using it. A GOOD doctor will be pleased that you are engaged and involved in your care, though other doctors might be threatened by it. So ultimately you're going to have to decide if you want to have suboptimal treatment for another few weeks or manage your own care. Or you could call the doctor and ask to be seen sooner, the choice is yours.

You can download the free Sleepyhead software and see if the reports you can generate give you any insight as to why your AHI is still around 5. It could be as simple as the settings are showing you a monthly average which includes the first week or so when you were getting used to all this. Or it could show that there are times of the night where the prescribed pressure isn't managing your apneas. And then, in that case, you can choose how you want to handle that.

[TD7410]

I'm seriously thinking about trying the autoset for a night or 3. I'm not to worried about my doc. What I am concerned about is the high end setting I don't want it blowing out my ear drums out in the middle of the night. Right now it is set at what I assume is the default setting of 4-20. A couple a nights ago I did up the base setting in CPAP mode to 6 so I didn't feel like I was suffocating. One more question, if set to CPAP does it stay at the setting of 6 all night?

[LSAT]

I'm seriously thinking about trying the autoset for a night or 3. I'm not to worried about my doc. What I am concerned about is the high end setting I don't want it blowing out my ear drums out in the middle of the night. Right now it is set at what I assume is the default setting of 4-20. A couple a nights ago I did up the base setting in CPAP mode to 6 so I didn't feel like I was suffocating. One more question, if set to CPAP does it stay at the setting of 6 all night?

If you have the setting at 6 min 20 max the machine will change the pressure within those parameters as needed to stop events from occuring. It will only go as high as needed, rarely even close to 20. That's the idea of the Auto setting. Eventually you will find the perfect range for you...it mayb e 6/12...or 8/15..etc

[Wulfman...]

Hello, having been recently diagnosed I have been on treatment for about 3 weeks. Have settled in fairly well with the mask, a resmed P10. I do feel some better, but feel I'm not getting enough. After reading some here and other places I got into the clinical setup to see just what I have. My machine is set to CPAP and not autoset. My question is do I dare switch to autoset without my doc's permission? My next appointment is not for a few weeks and I'm impatient, lol! Will be downloading and installing sleepyhead this weekend. The app always shows good seal, scores in the upper 90's and averaging right at 5 AHI's. Any input is appreciated!

I'm seriously thinking about trying the autoset for a night or 3. I'm not to worried about my doc. What I am concerned about is the high end setting I don't want it blowing out my ear drums out in the middle of the night. Right now it is set at what I assume is the default setting of 4-20. A couple a nights ago I did up the base setting in CPAP mode to 6 so I didn't feel like I was suffocating. One more question, if set to CPAP does it stay at the setting of 6 all night?

Sounds like your pressure setting still isn't optimal. You could try increasing your pressure about 1 cm. for about 3 nights at a time to see if that helps. If you keep increasing and the numbers get better, you know you're going in the right direction.

Did you have an in-lab sleep study? Did you get a copy of your sleep study? If so, what did it show?

You don't "need" to have an auto setting/range to tweak your therapy. Lots of new users have problems sorting things out with wide-open pressure settings. You can do it like they do in the in-lab titrations.....slowly increasing your pressure till you find the optimal setting.

Yes, in CPAP mode, it will stay at that setting all night long.


Den

.

[TD7410]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes I had 2 sleep studies don't have the report in hand at the moment. What I do know is I had trouble both times with getting enough "sleep" time for good readings. My sleep patterns were so screwed up from so many years of this. I have the feeling my doc, a neurologist, is starting low and will move up as he gets better feedback. I know adjustments need to be made but am unsure whether to stay CPAP and inch up or go autoset. The problem I have with waiting on him is he's good but is hard to get to see. Like I said before I am impatient because after so many years of not knowing I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and am hell bent on getting there!

[Wulfman...]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes I had 2 sleep studies don't have the report in hand at the moment. What I do know is I had trouble both times with getting enough "sleep" time for good readings. My sleep patterns were so screwed up from so many years of this. I have the feeling my doc, a neurologist, is starting low and will move up as he gets better feedback. I know adjustments need to be made but am unsure whether to stay CPAP and inch up or go autoset. The problem I have with waiting on him is he's good but is hard to get to see. Like I said before I am impatient because after so many years of not knowing I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and am hell bent on getting there!

I understand what you mean by being impatient. I was in the opposite direction. My doctor prescribed a pressure of 18 cm. and after an hour of trying to sleep and stop the leaks with that, I reset my machine to 10 cm. (sounded like a reasonable number) and found that I did very well with that pressure. In fact, I left it there for a year before I started experimenting with a little more pressure. I also acquired an APAP and tried that with a range of pressures ( 10 - 15 ) and it showed me that I had ultimately picked an optimal pressure of 12 cm on my own. I didn't like the changing pressures with the APAP but found out alot of things about my sleep and breathing while using it in a range of pressures.


Den

.

[palerider]

I'd set the min pressure to 1 less than your cpap pressure is, and leave max at 20... till you've got some data.

[TD7410]

Thanks palerider that's what I was looking for!

[Wulfman...]

Keep in mind that Flow Limitations and Snores are what primarily drive pressure increases.
If your minimum is too low, it can take too long to reach an effective pressure. And, you may feel starved for air.


Den

.

[LoBattery]

You didn't say what your pressure is now. I bought an Airsense 10 with the expectation that the machine would find the ideal setting, it didn't. For a couple of days it was better and then the events went climbing. This happens with some and I went back to cpap. Give any setting time to develop baseline data. A couple nights won't give a good indication.

[LSAT]

You didn't say what your pressure is now. I bought an Airsense 10 with the expectation that the machine would find the ideal setting, it didn't. For a couple of days it was better and then the events went climbing. This happens with some and I went back to cpap. Give any setting time to develop baseline data. A couple nights won't give a good indication.

The ideal setting may be slightly different every night. If the machine detects a possible event it raises the pressure to try stopping it. You sleep differently each night.

[AMESS]

According to my doc and resp therapist and the res med literature anything under five on the resmed score is good.

[LSAT]

According to my doc and resp therapist and the res med literature anything under five on the resmed score is good.

Sleeping 7-8 hours a night with an AHI of 5 means you stopped beathing 35-40 times during the night.....that's good???? That statement just gets the Therapist and Doc off the hook when you are feeling like crap and they don't know what to do to fix it.

[AMESS]

Just relaying what the pros say. Nobody is perfect and its not worth trying to be.