07-08-2018, 07:03 AM
AHI raised from an average of 3.5 to 6-7. Help with treatment
Hi all,
first of all sorry for the long story...
leaving in NL means that getting advice by a specialist physician on detailed CPAP treatment is quite difficult. Hence my attempt to get some of your experiences on treatment before I start the journey to visit the doctor.
Background: Diagnosed back in 2011. First apparatus was a Respironics One with AutoCPAP and humidifier plus the OPUS 360 nasal pillow. I had an average of AHI 3.5-4.5 throughout the years. Not fully satisfied (morning headache) but it was better than without a CPAP (i.e., panick wakeups, high heart rate etc). With time I managed to reduce the pressure from an average of 8 to 5-6. See a representative report from Encore viewer cummulative for some months of treatment in the first attachment. The only problem was I started to get a weak jaw and a lot of time sleeping with open mouth (weird that the apparatus was not signaling this as a big issue). Chin strap was not helping. I should note here that one important thing I experienced was that I was still waking up in the middle of the night by the extreme air blows in my nose potentially when i was falling in apnea, but in general I had relatively well rested sleep.
Almost a year ago things started changing (i gained back some of kilos but never reached my initial weight when I first started treatment) with AHI raising and sometimes reaching 10 in some days. I switched to a full face mask and a new apparatus because I thought it was something wrong with the machine. Still I am not satisfied and I do not have the sleep quality I had after 1 year in the treatment.
I saw an average raise in pressure to 8.5 instead of the usual 4-6 (Ok, I can understand that new apparatus may measure and respond differently). AHI is most of the time 5 or higher. I do not feel that the apparatus is really "panick blowing air" to compensate and I thought that with the full face mask thing would have been better. Last weeks I raised the minimum and maximum air pressure and reduced the ramp time but instead of better I only got worse. I refitted the mask and now it seems that with the higher pressure I have more leak.
Any friendly advice will be helpful!
Andreas
first of all sorry for the long story...
leaving in NL means that getting advice by a specialist physician on detailed CPAP treatment is quite difficult. Hence my attempt to get some of your experiences on treatment before I start the journey to visit the doctor.
Background: Diagnosed back in 2011. First apparatus was a Respironics One with AutoCPAP and humidifier plus the OPUS 360 nasal pillow. I had an average of AHI 3.5-4.5 throughout the years. Not fully satisfied (morning headache) but it was better than without a CPAP (i.e., panick wakeups, high heart rate etc). With time I managed to reduce the pressure from an average of 8 to 5-6. See a representative report from Encore viewer cummulative for some months of treatment in the first attachment. The only problem was I started to get a weak jaw and a lot of time sleeping with open mouth (weird that the apparatus was not signaling this as a big issue). Chin strap was not helping. I should note here that one important thing I experienced was that I was still waking up in the middle of the night by the extreme air blows in my nose potentially when i was falling in apnea, but in general I had relatively well rested sleep.
Almost a year ago things started changing (i gained back some of kilos but never reached my initial weight when I first started treatment) with AHI raising and sometimes reaching 10 in some days. I switched to a full face mask and a new apparatus because I thought it was something wrong with the machine. Still I am not satisfied and I do not have the sleep quality I had after 1 year in the treatment.
I saw an average raise in pressure to 8.5 instead of the usual 4-6 (Ok, I can understand that new apparatus may measure and respond differently). AHI is most of the time 5 or higher. I do not feel that the apparatus is really "panick blowing air" to compensate and I thought that with the full face mask thing would have been better. Last weeks I raised the minimum and maximum air pressure and reduced the ramp time but instead of better I only got worse. I refitted the mask and now it seems that with the higher pressure I have more leak.
Any friendly advice will be helpful!
Andreas
