Respironics BiPAP S/T cutting off in the middle of the night

I am SO happy that I found this forum. It has already been such a help in understanding how this process works.

My husband just got the Respironics BiPAP S/T this past Wednesday 3/21/07. Pressure was set by RT at 14/9, Rise time 2, Inspiration time 1.7s, BPM 12

The first nite he felt that he did not have enough time to finish exhaling fully before the pressure increased for his inhalation. I called the RT and asked her if there was any way to adjust that. She said no. At that point, I had done NO research (read the manual or anything). I hadn't had time due to working my job.

On Sat 3/24 I got the book out and found that there IS indeed a way to adjust what I was describing. It's called the "Rise Time". I told my husband that the girl obviously does NOT even know her machine. Don't get me wrong, she is nice and all, but SHE is supposed to be the EXPERT in this. This just confirms to me that we as patients MUST take an active role and educate ourselves in our own care. FYI, my husband is dyslexic and has a hard time reading... that's why I do it, in case someone was wondering.

So, we played around with the Rise Time and he finally settled on the level 6 - which is the longest time between pressures.

Actually, what is funny about this whole thing is that the RT actually left the machine in "setup" mode so I have the ability to adjust all kinds of things.

I did adjust the IPAP from 14 to 15 because my husband said that the inhalation pressure was higher when he was taking his sleep study. I left the exhalation pressure at 9, like the dr prescribed.

Will making the chg from 14/9 to 15/9 going to screw things up?

So last nite, my husband actually had a pretty good nite, until he got up to go to the bathroom about 3:30am. He took off the mask and turned the pressure switch off. He did that because if he leaves the mask off for over a minute or so, the alarm will start sounding and he does not want to wake me up.

When he got back, put the mask on and started the machine, he said that the pressure never built back up. He said that he felt like the pressure was about 1/2 of what it should be and then it just slowly and progressively got slower until the alarm sounded. He did NOT have an apnea because he was AWAKE. He hit the alarm reset button and the same thing happened about 3 more times. At that point he was frustrated and just took the darn thing off.

Note: Machine was NOT in ramp mode when he tried to get it going again. But the ramp mode is used at the beginning of the nite. This same thing happened in Friday nite BEFORE I made the adjustments.

I noticed that the Harmony machine (or maybe some others too) have an Auto Shut-off feature when you remove the mask, the machine goes into a standby mode. Then when you put the mask back on, you take 3 breaths and the machine resumes. I think that is cool, but I'm not sure that our machine has that option.

I will say that last nite was the first time he had FIVE solid hours of sleep. No leg movements either. I laid in bed for about 30 minutes and could hardly hear him breathing. He told me that he felt better at 3:30 this morning than he did when he got up at 7:00am this morning when he was breathing without the machine.

Please help us figure out how to get that darn alarm to stop!

Mrs. Lee Doss

Did you note the alarm message or code? You should still be able to view the code when the machine is turned on. I used a Respironics Synchrony BiPAP ST for almost 3 years, before switching over to VPAP Adapt SV last fall. Is his the Synchrony or the plain BiPAP ST? I would think the BiPAP ST is set up fairly close to the Synchrony BiPAP ST.


Also, how old is the machine? Do you know if it was brand new?- you should be able to check how many hours use on one of the screens. Sometimes xPAPs do fail during the break in period, though it doesn't happen often. The first machine I got from my DME 3 1/2 years ago was a VPAP II STA and it died after 12 hours of use. And more recently, with my VPAP Adapt SV, I had an integrated humidifier that didn't heat as well as it should, which had to be replaced.

There was no alarm msg or code.

[quote="babydoss"]I am SO happy that I found this forum. It has already been such a help in understanding how this process works.

My husband just got the Respironics BiPAP S/T this past Wednesday 3/21/07. Pressure was set by RT at 14/9, Rise time 2, Inspiration time 1.7s, BPM 12

The first nite he felt that he did not have enough time to finish exhaling fully before the pressure increased for his inhalation. I called the RT and asked her if there was any way to adjust that. She said no. At that point, I had done NO research (read the manual or anything). I hadn't had time due to working my job.

On Sat 3/24 I got the book out and found that there IS indeed a way to adjust what I was describing. It's called the "Rise Time". I told my husband that the girl obviously does NOT even know her machine. Don't get me wrong, she is nice and all, but SHE is supposed to be the EXPERT in this. This just confirms to me that we as patients MUST take an active role and educate ourselves in our own care. FYI, my husband is dyslexic and has a hard time reading... that's why I do it, in case someone was wondering.

So, we played around with the Rise Time and he finally settled on the level 6 - which is the longest time between pressures.

Actually, what is funny about this whole thing is that the RT actually left the machine in "setup" mode so I have the ability to adjust all kinds of things.

I did adjust the IPAP from 14 to 15 because my husband said that the inhalation pressure was higher when he was taking his sleep study. I left the exhalation pressure at 9, like the dr prescribed.

Will making the chg from 14/9 to 15/9 going to screw things up?

So last nite, my husband actually had a pretty good nite, until he got up to go to the bathroom about 3:30am. He took off the mask and turned the pressure switch off. He did that because if he leaves the mask off for over a minute or so, the alarm will start sounding and he does not want to wake me up.

When he got back, put the mask on and started the machine, he said that the pressure never built back up. He said that he felt like the pressure was about 1/2 of what it should be and then it just slowly and progressively got slower until the alarm sounded. He did NOT have an apnea because he was AWAKE. He hit the alarm reset button and the same thing happened about 3 more times. At that point he was frustrated and just took the darn thing off.

Note: Machine was NOT in ramp mode when he tried to get it going again. But the ramp mode is used at the beginning of the nite. This same thing happened in Friday nite BEFORE I made the adjustments.

I noticed that the Harmony machine (or maybe some others too) have an Auto Shut-off feature when you remove the mask, the machine goes into a standby mode. Then when you put the mask back on, you take 3 breaths and the machine resumes. I think that is cool, but I'm not sure that our machine has that option.

I will say that last nite was the first time he had FIVE solid hours of sleep. No leg movements either. I laid in bed for about 30 minutes and could hardly hear him breathing. He told me that he felt better at 3:30 this morning than he did when he got up at 7:00am this morning when he was breathing without the machine.

Please help us figure out how to get that darn alarm to stop!

Mrs. Lee Doss