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I'm new at this!
#1
I'm new at this!
Last night was the first night on my machine. I seem to sleep pretty good, but did wake up 2 times for bathroom. I checked the machine and it showed a happy face and an AHI of 6.3 pressure 9.6 leak 3L/min don't know if that is good for a first night.
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#2
RE: I'm new at this!
Welcome to the forum and congrats on excellent start
Sleep-well

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#3
RE: I'm new at this!
Firstly, hello and welcome to the forum.

I used to wake up around 6-8 times every evening having to go to the bathroom. I still often wake up once, and very occasionally twice per evening having to go to the bathroom.

Looking at data from only one night tends not to be particularly definitive, unless of course you are performing a sleep study. Too-funny

Having said that, a leak rate of 3L/min looks like a really good (ie. low) leak rate. The AHI of 6.3, on the other hand, is higher than one would like. However, I'll bet these are the "summary" values shown by your machine for the entire session. That means that the 6.3 might include "apnea events" where you were still awake and, say, consciously holding your breath as you adjusted your pillows, swallowed some saliva, or any one of a number of things that don't really count.

What we recommend here is to take control of your own therapy. The machine you have listed is what we call "data capable". In other words, it writes out detailed data regarding every breath you take and every event it detects while the machine is on. If you have a Windows computer, you can download a free program called SleepyHead (from here) and actually look at that data to see what is actually happening. The data is written to an SD flash card that is plugged into the back of your unit. With any generic flash card reader (if you don't have one, take the card with you when you buy one - if the card fits properly into the card reader, it will read your card) you can download the information and display it on your computer. This does not affect what is stored on the card, so if your doctor wants you to bring the card with you, everything will be as it would have been.

Have a look at the various threads here. You are at the start of what is not a particularly easy road to follow. The important thing is that you are not alone here. Feel free to ask questions. Above all, Sleep-well
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#4
RE: I'm new at this!
But it is just one night. Don't read too much into the data until you've used it for at least two weeks, preferably a full month. It will take time for your brain and body to get used to the idea of being attached to something, getting adequate oxygen, and not being woken up repeatedly because you stopped breathing.

Congrats on making it through the night, though! Sleep-well

PaulaO

Take a deep breath and count to zen.




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#5
RE: I'm new at this!
I know I will have a lot of questions. But one is I was told to empty my humidifier every morning and rinse it. I dumped half of the water out. Do I need to put less water in? Also when needing a bathroom break is it best to turn the machine off or just take the mask off? Thank you for all the replies!
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#6
RE: I'm new at this!
Hi mommavic,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
I usually wash my humidifier tub out once a week in warm,mild soapy water with my hose and mask and I use distilled water in the tub between washings. There is lots of information about this here on the forum.
Hang in there for more responses to your post and best of luck to you with CPAP therapy.
trish6hundred
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#7
RE: I'm new at this!
Its better to turn the machine off, as for the dumping the water, no two people would give the same reply, I refill the tank just below the top line with tap water. ResMed FAQs http://www.resmed.com/au/service_and_sup...c=patients

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#8
RE: I'm new at this!
Yeah, the care and feeding of the humidifier tub is a topic of much debate. I think that the consensus is that people just agree to disagree. Personally, I use distilled water and top up (without dumping leftovers out) to full every evening before bed. Once every week or two, I perform a full soak and clean of the mask, hose and tub in warm water, unscented mild dishwashing detergent, and some "magic CPAP cleaner" that I got from my DME.

I suspect the "official line" of emptying the old water after every use is just to make absolutely positively sure that there is minimal chance of bacteria and/or mold growth in the tub water. Using distilled water makes lots of sense in places with hard water where the tub can get lots of scale buildup, or in places with "questionable" water where you just don't want to breathe that stuff. And distilled water, emptied and refilled every day is always going to work well, so better to recommend a generic solution than to try to specify what might or might not work.

I also turn the machine off when I go to the bathroom. If nothing else, it doesn't skew the "large leak" statistics.
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#9
RE: I'm new at this!
mommavic, welcome, I agree with Zonk, I clean everything twice a week but only top up the water when I don't clean it but everyone has so many different opinions. I use distilled water but again everyone has a different opinion on the type of water, tap water, boiled water, distilled water. I also agree with Paula your AHI takes time to settle and one night isn't really enough to tell. You want your AHI to be as low as possible but anything under 5 is considered good, 0 is virtually impossible by some people have got that magical number.
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#10
RE: I'm new at this!
I've been using distilled water myself but I'm starting to wonder if that is not really necessary now that H5i tubs are able to be disassembled for cleaning.

I wonder also if the aluminum (standard) tub is affected any differently by hard water than the stainless ("cleanable"/dishwasher-safe) tub.

Maybe when my standard tub wears out I'll switch to the "cleanable" tub and start using tap water. Thinking-about
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