Starting My Therapy

[AlanE]

Hi. I'm Alan (bet you didn't know that) and was diagnosed back in January with apnea. It took more than a month for my titration and another month to get a machine. Apparently my insurance is real slow and uses some 3rd party review board. Anyway... I was asked in another thread to post a new thread and download Sleepyhead and such.

Well I did that and ...
I can figure out some of it. I see a bunch of graphs and numbers. I suppose my next trick is to learn the software so I know what the heck I am looking at.

My baseline polysomnogram (love those big words) shows my overall AHI is 53.1. (66.2 on my back and 42.6 on my side)
During the test I had 286 events which they broke down to:
134 apneas - 109 obstructive and 25 central.
152 hypopneas.

They listed the oximetry data but that wasn't as bad as the overnight oximetry I had previous to the sleep study.

By the way, that sleep study is a bit of a joke. It took me hours to fall asleep with all those wires on my head and rubber bands around my chest and stomach.

anyway, I've been on therapy for a couple weeks now. The first week was aggravating but I forced myself to use it. I had to buy one of those overhead hose holders because I kept crushing the hose and cutting off the air. Then I would get P*ssed off mad and so much for sleep.

If I read the data right, I'm certainly doing better than my sleep study but I'm having okay days and awful days with AHI. My best day I had an AHI of 1.85 and the worst was a couple days ago when it was 14.3. I changed my EPR to 3 from 2 that day. It might have something to do with it but it is easier to breath out now. Since that day its been 5.97 and 5.04. I want to go a few more days to see if it improves before going back to EPR 2.

By the way, my wife is now having trouble sleeping since after 18 years of snoring she can't hear me snore now. It keeps her up thinking I might be dead. So she touches my arm to check if I am still alive.
Of course this wakes me up. Growing pains for both of us.

Someone mentioned to post the data but not sure what you need to look at from sleepyhead. How do I do that with sleephead? just take a pic?
Or is it really just too early in my therapy to start making changes.

Thanks for reading.

Al

[retired_guy]

Hi Alan,

What we would like to know from your results is the AHI, which you have provided, and what is the makeup of the events.... How many OA's vs CA's vs Hypops... that sort of thing.

It looks like you're off to a good start. Certainly better than the 53.1 they picked up at your sleep test!

I'm thinking, without seeing your graphs, that the night you got 14 you spent more time on your back than the nights you are getting 5's. Either that, or you have made some other change such as raising the head of your bed, which would be a good thing to do, or remove the cat from your mask intake --- which would also be a good thing to do.

I would avoid fooling much with the EPR just now, as long as you feel comfortable with exhaling against the pressure. If not, go to 3.

Other changes? It sort of depends on where you are with the pressures that are being used. Your sidebar says you are set at a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10? What does Sleepyhead have to say about your actual pressures? The 95% value, and the median value? It seems to me likely that a modest increase of the max to 11 or 12 might be in order, depending on the answer to the above questions.

So off you go to Sleepyhead land & let us know what you discover.

Oh, and as to making changes? In general, only one thing at a time, then wait a few days to see what the results will be. The exception would be perhaps raising the pressure a little bit and locking the cat out of the bedroom.

[AlanE]

Yes, I frequently wake up to cats all over me but if I lock the cats out they caterwaul all night and Bengals are loud.

I would post a screen shot, which would be so much easier but I'm not allowed to post pictures.

I'll try as an attachment.

   


Thanks.

[retired_guy]

OK, that works.

95% of the time you are at or below 10 pressure. On average for the night, you were at 7.54.

Your leak rate was fine.

You prefer red wine with your sausage and egg omelets.

You had one, maybe two occasions where you and/or the cat made some very funny noises during the night. This seems to have manifested with a bit of a sudden air leak from your mask. But again, it's just one occasion --- overall the air leaks look fine.

So that pretty much sizes everything up.

You might benefit from raising the top end pressure to 11. Outside of that, I think just sit tight for a few days and see how you settle in.

[trish6hundred]

Hi AlanE,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
I know CPAP can take some getting used to but it does get better, you'll get the hang of it all, just keep on hangin in there with it.
Much success to you with your CPAP therapy.

[AlanE]

Thanks. I'm going to get used to it whether I like it or not
When I do have a decent for me night I feel better during the day. Sure beats driving home exhausted.

Last night was another bad night. I'm thinking I'm going to have to go with a full face mask next time. I try to tighten up the mask but I still end up having an issue with the pillows. Using the medium pillows I have a hard time pushing air through it. But I'm going to try them again tonight to see if I get a better seal.

The pillows end up getting blown aside when my nose is congested. You know where you lay on your right side and everything moves to the right and clogs up the right side of your nose. Flip over to the left and everything moves to the left. I take allergy pills but they wear off during the night. Its why I sleep on my back a lot. when I get both sides of my nose working I can breath easier.

Lets see if I can post this pic from last night:

[AlanE]

Oh and thank you to whomever switched me to a 'member' status so I can post the pic.

[OpalRose]

AlanE,
It looks like your pressure is hitting the max setting of 10 quite a bit.
I would raise the max pressure to 11 or 12 and change the start pressure to 7.
That might help the CA's to settle down.
Just monitor for a week and see what happens.
Oh, and you'll like it after awhile!

OpalRose

[SuperSleeper]

Oh and thank you to whomever switched me to a 'member' status so I can post the pic.

That would be our illustrious forum software. It's very thoughtful.

The transition is done automatically once you reach a certain post-count and have been a member for a few days.

[AlanE]

technology... I'll panic when it starts controlling traffic lights and we call it skynet.