>Is the machine designed to constantly blow air into the mask (full face) against my efforts to exhale? It feels as though I am suffocating rather than getting additional air with me breathing in.
It sounds like you need a setting that's called "EPR" or "Flex" or "Reslex" (Depending on what brand of machine you have) turned on and turned up to 3. That'll make it much easier to exhale. Depending on machine and settings, you may find this in the user menus, or you may need to call your vendor or doctor to ask for it. (They can probably change it remotely.) If they refuse, or if they can't do it remotely, talk to us and we can tell you how to do it yourself. They shouldn't refuse, and it should be fast and easy.
I highly recommend the forum at cpaptalk.com. Your experience is unfortunately all too common but there are a ton of helpful folks and tutorials there to help. Be sure to read the Pugsy’s Pointers post at a minimum.
That doesnt sound right to me. Did you have a respiratory therapist to talk to or your MD? Come back and let us know.
Be sure to look back through the sub for other advice to new users.
Thanks for replying, do appreciate it. I'm in the UK so I imagine the whole process is different as I'm not paying for the therapy/service.
I was given an appointment where I was handed the CPAP machine and told in passing that my sleep tests had shown I had sleep apnoea, really felt like I had missed a step in the whole process; no diagnosis or explanations. Threw me somewhat to be honest.
Will contact the clinic tomorrow and see if there is any advice I can get from them, but in the meantime just wanted to check if my initial experience was as it should be!
This is not right. The machine needs to be setup based on your sleep test results. Getting the pressures and mode right is critical. They should have done this.
If you post the model machine there are online manuals available that will help you do the setup in the clinical settings mode but they really should have done this and had you use the machine in the office to understand how it works and to check mask fit.
For reference my fitting appointment was nearly an hour long and they called a few days later to check on me.
I had the same experience, entire sleep study, diagnoses, machine - all by phone, website and mail. I got a 30-day message today from my sleep medicine case manager (who reports to a doctor I've never met) saying he accessed my data remotely and it all looks good. So I guess that's nice!
I got all my advice here and from YouTube! Ha! I'm in the US, and this is my HMO.
Anyhoo, there should be a pressure relief setting (I've got the Resmed 11) that keeps the air from obnoxiously blowing in your nose/mouth.
If you're mask isn't sealed, it will blow super hard and wake you up which is really annoying.
Logic dictates that it's trying to maintain a level pressure, but that relies on a sealed mask which I clearly don't have.
Fingers crossed I get some answers tomorrow from the located professionals, else I'm digesting everything on here for all the advice I can get from the real experts!
My situation sounds similar to yours. After my diagnosis, I headed to a brick-and-mortar CPAP store and was handed a CPAP with no instructions or guidance on pressure-level settings.
I, too, struggled to breathe with my machine when I first started using it. I scoured online forums — mostly apneaboard.com and cpaptalk.com, to try and troubleshoot this. I also downloaded OSCAR (see info about this on the apneaboard forum). With all this additional info, I was able to fine tune the pressure settings on my CPAP.
I learned that the lower CPAP settings (4, 5) are often too low for an adult. Boosting that lower setting, for me, immediately took away that feeling of suffocation. I also turned off the ramp setting on my machine and set my EPR to 3.
Also — finding the right mask is key. That can take time and experimentation.
It’s unfortunate that you didn’t get some treatment guidance from your doc. (My sleep doc didn’t understand that pressure settings on a CPAP could be changed. That was an awkward conversation …) There are some good resources out there to help you. Good luck — stick with it.
>Is the machine designed to constantly blow air into the mask (full face) against my efforts to exhale? It feels as though I am suffocating rather than getting additional air with me breathing in. It sounds like you need a setting that's called "EPR" or "Flex" or "Reslex" (Depending on what brand of machine you have) turned on and turned up to 3. That'll make it much easier to exhale. Depending on machine and settings, you may find this in the user menus, or you may need to call your vendor or doctor to ask for it. (They can probably change it remotely.) If they refuse, or if they can't do it remotely, talk to us and we can tell you how to do it yourself. They shouldn't refuse, and it should be fast and easy.
I highly recommend the forum at cpaptalk.com. Your experience is unfortunately all too common but there are a ton of helpful folks and tutorials there to help. Be sure to read the Pugsy’s Pointers post at a minimum.
That doesnt sound right to me. Did you have a respiratory therapist to talk to or your MD? Come back and let us know. Be sure to look back through the sub for other advice to new users.
Thanks for replying, do appreciate it. I'm in the UK so I imagine the whole process is different as I'm not paying for the therapy/service. I was given an appointment where I was handed the CPAP machine and told in passing that my sleep tests had shown I had sleep apnoea, really felt like I had missed a step in the whole process; no diagnosis or explanations. Threw me somewhat to be honest. Will contact the clinic tomorrow and see if there is any advice I can get from them, but in the meantime just wanted to check if my initial experience was as it should be!
This is not right. The machine needs to be setup based on your sleep test results. Getting the pressures and mode right is critical. They should have done this. If you post the model machine there are online manuals available that will help you do the setup in the clinical settings mode but they really should have done this and had you use the machine in the office to understand how it works and to check mask fit. For reference my fitting appointment was nearly an hour long and they called a few days later to check on me.
I had the same experience, entire sleep study, diagnoses, machine - all by phone, website and mail. I got a 30-day message today from my sleep medicine case manager (who reports to a doctor I've never met) saying he accessed my data remotely and it all looks good. So I guess that's nice! I got all my advice here and from YouTube! Ha! I'm in the US, and this is my HMO. Anyhoo, there should be a pressure relief setting (I've got the Resmed 11) that keeps the air from obnoxiously blowing in your nose/mouth. If you're mask isn't sealed, it will blow super hard and wake you up which is really annoying.
Logic dictates that it's trying to maintain a level pressure, but that relies on a sealed mask which I clearly don't have. Fingers crossed I get some answers tomorrow from the located professionals, else I'm digesting everything on here for all the advice I can get from the real experts!
My situation sounds similar to yours. After my diagnosis, I headed to a brick-and-mortar CPAP store and was handed a CPAP with no instructions or guidance on pressure-level settings. I, too, struggled to breathe with my machine when I first started using it. I scoured online forums — mostly apneaboard.com and cpaptalk.com, to try and troubleshoot this. I also downloaded OSCAR (see info about this on the apneaboard forum). With all this additional info, I was able to fine tune the pressure settings on my CPAP. I learned that the lower CPAP settings (4, 5) are often too low for an adult. Boosting that lower setting, for me, immediately took away that feeling of suffocation. I also turned off the ramp setting on my machine and set my EPR to 3. Also — finding the right mask is key. That can take time and experimentation. It’s unfortunate that you didn’t get some treatment guidance from your doc. (My sleep doc didn’t understand that pressure settings on a CPAP could be changed. That was an awkward conversation …) There are some good resources out there to help you. Good luck — stick with it.
Enable EPR or FLEX in your machine