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Finally, SUCCESS after almost giving up on CPAP (retitled)
RE: New member, please help me interpret results
First night with nasal pillow mask and tape masking.  Pretty comfortable, left nostril a bit sore this morning.  My leak rate is steadily improving.  

At what point are the leaks low enough to get therapy from using the CPAP?  Some of the comments on this thread stated that because of my high leak rate that I was getting no value and that OSCAR charts with that much leakage was useless.  I certainly feel better all through this last month of use.

   
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
On your chart the leak rate has a dotted line, put your mouse on the left side of the graph and right click near the words leak rate.  When you do that you will see a menu with the last being dotted line.  Put your mouse on it and see if you have checked "leak rate upper threshold".  If you have that the dotted line shows the largest leak the machine can make up for.  Anything above that you are not getting therapy.  Below that your therapy is less but still working.

NOTICE all of you OAs and Hs are when your leak rate is the highest.
Apnea (80-100%) 10 seconds, Hypopnea (50-80%) 10 seconds, Flow Limits (0-50%) not timed  Cervical Collar - Dealing w DME - Chart Organizing
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
(09-22-2020, 10:37 AM)Computerdoc Wrote: First night with nasal pillow mask and tape masking.  Pretty comfortable, left nostril a bit sore this morning.  My leak rate is steadily improving. 

That soreness of the nose may be a "nasal cycle", see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_cycle.  And you are on your way, leaks are much improved. Your last 100 minutes of sleep are on the edge of perfection. Keep that at your goal.

And the less leak the more effective is the therapy and your sleep is less disturbed.  I see still some mouth breathing but far less than before.  (There is that magical number of 24 litres per minute of leakage -- the red line in "Leakage Rate" which "may be tolerated".  It's said but hardly justified that the machine can "compensate" -- in which way whatever -- for a leak rate less than 24 liters.  I wouldn't give much to that special number as the leak rate is far from being trivial to measure and then to calculate, however the less leak the better.)

The main thing as always are not numbers but that you feel good.  Hence don't chase any AHI but keep  staying well and better.

Happy taping,

Mike
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
Last night's data.  Nasal pillow mask and tape.

What now?

   
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
It's getting better and better.  It appears to me that there are still some mouth leaks, but in some time they will vanish (hopefully).  Nevertheless, nothing to worry about.

A lied about the soreness of your nose ...  In happened to me, too.  You use the P30i, right?  She's a cutie, isn't she?  First, your nose must grow accustomed to her new companion.  In that time I used some arnica salve to calm down the soreness.  To avoid mask leaks adjust the mask a very tiny bit too hard until those leaks disappear.  Our cutie strongly dislikes asymmetry: keep the adjustment strictly symmetric, you have to use a ruler for this purpose.  Each millimeter counts.  Then loose the adjusment millimeter by millimeter .  If the mask is too loose change the adjustment accordingly in very small amounts.  You soon will discover a sweet spot at which you won't feel the mask anymore, no mask leaks will occur and the mask won't slip.


Mike
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
Pretty impressive results, with very low event rate and the lowest leaks I have seen from you.
Sleeprider
Apnea Board Moderator
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
Great!  

Does anyone see the need for any further adjustments or changes to settings on the Aircurve?  I"m still experimenting with nasal pillow sizes.  My best results were with a medium, but conventional wisdom on this board seems to be that you use the largest size that will fit/seal.

Do you think I may have overbought the machine, and that I could have done just as well (gotten these results or better) with an Airsense?  

One of the reasons I ask is that, in the course of setting up access for my doctor to the data on my new SC=D, the respiratory therapist in my sleep doctor's practice asked me this question:
      Why do you have a vauto machine? That is a BIPAP and you are currently on auto CPAP. They are 2 different devices that do different things.

Any suggestions on how I might reply to her question?
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
The bi-level is a CPAP on steroids.
Crimson Nape
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INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
It seems pretty simple. VAUTO can do everything the autoset can do and more. The ps settings are greater and can be set to make it more comfortable for you. Look at the read outs of the 2 machines.
Apnea (80-100%) 10 seconds, Hypopnea (50-80%) 10 seconds, Flow Limits (0-50%) not timed  Cervical Collar - Dealing w DME - Chart Organizing
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RE: New member, please help me interpret results
I see no need in adjusting pressure, all runs very smoothly.  

I used first size M, too, but the large ones do a better job for me.

Concerning overbuying: does your diagnosis contain CSA? That would be the main reason for the AirCurve. If not, an AutoSet would be sufficient.  Actually, you're running your AirCurve as an AutoSet with EPR = 3 ...  I pretty sure you'll get the same results with an AirSense AutoSet.

Mike
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