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Icon6671 · 09-17-2006, 05:38 PM

I have had sleep apnea for around two years. I was
recently in a sleep lab and the results showed that the
BI-Pap Machine was not working. My settings are
20/13. Diagnoses is severe apnea.

I am not getting to much help from my doctor.
Any suggestions would be very helpful at this
point.

Thank you very much....

Icon6671

Sunnycal · 09-26-2006, 12:44 AM

My husband has severe obstructive and central apnea. His CPAP didn't really help him at all because the pressure was so high (16), the mask leaked all the time. He had another sleep study using the brand new adapto-servo Bi-pap. This has a variable setting with a computer that tracks your breathing and adapts the pressure to your pattern. It is supposed to help the central apnea (and did, during the study). He received the machine today, so we will see how it works. What was the problem you were having?
Sunny

lamac · 10-01-2006, 10:31 AM

Can you explain the difference between a CPAP and bi-pap...I was just diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and got a CPAP machine. The first night it didn't bother me but the second night I wanted to rip it off my face. I guess I didn't investigate different machines enough.

Lamac

Sunnycal · 10-02-2006, 12:12 AM

A CPAP gives continuous pressure all the time. A regular Bi-pap give higher pressure when you are breathing in and little or no pressure when you are breathing out, but it is set to a fixed rate. The adapto servo unit is very new; the sleep center we go to has only used 5 so far. It computerizes your breathing pattern and adjusts the pressure accordingly. My husband has used his for two nights, and is very pleased. He thought his face was going to blow off with the regular CPAP. The new kind is very expensive, though. We haven't heard whether the insurance is going to pay for all of it. The regular Bi-pap might help you enough. What pressure is your set at?
Sunny

lamac · 10-11-2006, 10:49 AM

Man, some of the other numbers look so high. I think my machine starts at 4 and after 20 minutes it goes up to 7. I am wondering if I should continue to try to us the machine. I did not like it at all. In the sleep study I had about 20 episodes of obstruction each hour....I DON'T WANT SLEEP APNEA!!!!!....I am having a tantrum!!! Lamac

cloudydaze22 · 10-17-2006, 09:17 PM

I am waiting for my CPAP to come in. I wish I had a choice of what kind of machine to get, but they didn't give me a choice. However, I did get to try out the tube-in-the-nose kind instead of the mask kind. The mask made me claustrophobic.

I have about 10 episodes an hour...I couldn't imagine having 20...

I'd probably be dead by now if the apnea was any worse. It took them 10 years to figure out I had a major problem...so now i've had 10 years of sleep deprivation...the doc thought I had narcolepsy - which is why i had a sleep study in the first place....but no narcolepsy....just extreme sleep deprivation...

I wish i had known there were different machines though...I find it a little difficult to breath out when there's air blowing up my nose.

At least at home they can't turn up the pressure on me...at the sleep lab, they started my pressure off at 4, and raised it up 6 times during the night. Each time I woke up, gasping, not able to breathe until i got used to the pressure again. That's pretty freakin annoying. It scared the bejeebers out of me.

Mr Schecter · 10-25-2006, 01:23 PM

[url]http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/4/621[/url]

Obstructive sleep apnea initiated by a lax epiglottis. A contraindication for continuous positive airway pressure
AP Andersen, J Alving, T Lildholdt and CH Wulff

Treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was attempted in a patient with severe obstructive sleep apnea. However, application of nasal CPAP gave the patient a feeling of being suffocated. This was later documented by cine-fluoroscopic examinations of the upper airways with and without nasal CPAP. The epiglottis was large and lax, and upon positive pressure inspiration, it was literally blown down so it occluded the hypopharyngeal airway.

hessie28 · 10-27-2006, 09:45 PM

My machine was set at 7. I tried over a year to use the CPAP. I would wake up with the mask on the floor or the cord around my neck. It would leak so that woke me up. I now use a Mandibular Dental Device. It was $1500.00 and only an Orthodontist makes it. Luckily my insurance paid 90 percent of it. It is not as good as CPAP but does the job. You soak it in hot water and then put it in. You turn it like a retainer with a key. It pushes your jaw out eventually so the airway stays open. I had stopped breathing 192 times during my sleep study. Mine is OSA. I also have narcolepsy.

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