RE: AHI and Other Stats
Working with what you have, there are two suggestions for making a big difference in your therapy.
1. increase your CPAP pressure to 8.0. This level of pressure just works for the majority of users and should improve your results.
2. Try Flonase (fluticasone propionate), 2x per day for 3 days, then 1x per day for the next two weeks. Sometimes what you perceive as a palatal prolapse or epiglottis blockage is common post-nasal drip. You may not even be aware of it. I had the same problem during exhale where air movement just stopped. The Flonase worked more me and it's worth a try before you do something more drastic.
RE: AHI and Other Stats
I increased pressure to 5.5 last night, it worked well. I'm going to up it .5% per night. My AHI was lower. Sleeping deeper and longer, but still feel 'weird'. Think it takes time to adjust.
RE: AHI and Other Stats
A gradual increase of pressure and observing results is the basic principle of titration. At some point you will reach a point of diminishing returns, and the trick is to keep a log so you can identify at what pressure you begin to observe that, so you can back off to the most recent lower pressure.
RE: AHI and Other Stats
AHI is lower at higher pressure settings, but I do not get a more restful sleep from it. Maybe to soon to tell. I lowered the pressure back last night to 5.5 from 6.5 and slept better in that I woke up feeling more rested and a clearer head.
Not so sure about what the stats say.
RE: AHI and Other Stats
Thanks for your quick reply. I have been using cpap 25 years actually. The congestion I mentioned before was just that 1 particular night. It feels odd having so much pressure coming in. I do wake up several times a night. Reading how so many people struggle with pressure settings here even years after starting therapy, makes me think maybe there is only so much a cpap 'well' be able to do for you. Maybe like you said there is a point of diminishing returns and finding that 1 pressure that can do 'what can only be done' really, is the trick.
The older system one unit I had worked for years at a setting of about 5 or so. It was damaged by the (William Shatner "Captain Kirk" cleaning machine). The ozone destroyed it and also caused weird skipping heart beats.
That's another story.
I'm really tired of waking up on Mars. Feeling like I'm lost mentally. Yesterday was really bad, could not do much with my day at all. Think I'm going to not worry about 'stats' so much, but if my brain is clear and focused when I wake up. Really, thanks for your help man, I've learned a lot here.
RE: AHI and Other Stats
What happened to me was my AHI went up when I didn't set my humidifier to auto adjust. I had it on manual, and my nose became stuffy at night, and breathing became difficult. So, I advise try the humidifier setting. I think I have similar issue and was recently diagnosed with LPR, or silent reflux. I was prescribed Flonase, but I think this humidifier setting resolved it for me.