Hey guys, Andrew Esquivel here back with another tutorial.
Today, I'm going to show you how to change the settings for pressure on your Phillips
Respironics Remstar Auto A-Flex machine.
Now, a lot of people with say this is a legal gray zone because supposedly it is a myth
that it is illegal to change the settings on this and should only be changed by your
physician and what not.
It's not illegal.
Show me the law that states that it is illegal and I'll take this video down.
Until then, I don't believe you.
It doesn't make sense.
I've seen testimonials from other doctors saying that it's absolutely ridiculous to
think that so I hope they're right.
Anyways, moving along.
This is the CPAP and its got the humidifier and the heated tube.
Now, lets go to the settings here.
Obviously...we've got 'Therapy', 'C-Flex', 'Setup', 'Info'.
Most people would just go to 'Setup' and be like "La De Da De Da.
Oh wait a minute, the only thing I can adjust is the ramp and the ramp is right here."
You can always set ramp to something lower than what it actually can do.
So what we do is go back and click 'Setup'.
Keep it on there for a minute.
Follow me.
Hold these two buttons here ('Ramp' and 'Wheel' button) while it's on setup.
Hold it and you'll hear a few beeps.
Now, you've entered the real menu.
Now, go to 'Setup'.
Now, this is what you change.
Change the 'Auto max' and the 'Auto min'.
Now, I recommend don't go past your 'Auto max'.
Just change your 'Auto min' and there's a number of reasons why you'd do this.
If the settings are too high and you start getting uncomfortable and you start having
leaks and what not or it's hard to breathe, you'd lower it.
If you can't breathe at all, you'd raise it.
Now, lets exit out of here because there are a lot of settings in here.
Let me just go back...
Okay, so...where does this leave us?
Well, I got another topic of discussion for you.
Now, when it comes to CPAP masks, there are different designs - we all know this.
I need a full face.
A lot of people have this.
It is the 'Mirage Quadro From ResMed', pretty decent mask.
It's designed to work at the lower pressure settings around 5 to 7.
However, at 7 I do find myself having a lot of leaks.
So, with this mask, I would lower it from 7 in order to make it more comfortable and
I'd have the max at whatever my doctor prescribed me at.
Now the next scenario happens to be something called a 'Hybrid Mask'.
So a 'Hybrid Mask' has some unique things about it.
It is a full face technically but as you can see it's not like other full face masks.
For the nose, it has nasal pillows and for the mouth it's just a mouthpiece.
Now this is an issue because I did a review on this mask and it's a cool mask except for
the fact it's nearly impossible to breathe through your nose because these tubes just
don't allow enough air to pass through for you to be able to breathe.
Well, I thought "What if i increased the pressure to allow me to actually breathe?"
And I did that.
And it's like freakin' magic, I can breathe.
So, I did a little experiment with that and it worked.
For that mask, I had to set it all the way to 12 - way higher than what my doctor prescribed
for my minimum pressure but this mask required it in order to function at all.
But of course you get other issues where you have some leaking because it is higher pressure.
What are you gonna do, you want to be able to breathe right?
It defeats the purpose of a CPAP mask if you can't even breathe.
So, I mean there are different scenarios in which you would need to adjust it and it's
not like you're gonna go to your doctor every single time if you're doctor's like mine and
you just can't get an appointment.
You got to do it on your own and for the most part it doesn't make sense to drive all the
way to doctor to change one setting especially if you just want to use a different mask.
I've got a variety of masks.
I've got: nose masks, I've got full face, I've got hybrid masks.
Each one needs something a little different.
So it only makes sense that you'd want to change your settings by yourself - dependent
on the situation.
The only thing is, know your limits.
Don't do anything that's ridiculous and uncomfortable.
Don't do anything that'll break the machine.
And, I just wanna note, the most ironic thing happened to me, by the way.
As I was adjusting the machine and telling you about the masks, I got a call from the
company that leases me the machine and it was just something random, had nothing to
do with what I just said.
So, yeah...that's how you adjust it, why you would adjust it.
So, do what works - that's what I think.
Don't be absurd, don't be stupid about it but if you need to, the options are there.