05-06-2018, 08:00 AM
Therapy Questions [high AHI, smoker, drink alcohol]
Hello, I am new to CPAP and I'm glad to be part of this community (unfortunately 
).
Sorry in advance if this post should be under some different subject and if any of my questions are already explained before (then please just send me a link to that).
I have problem with snoring over 20 years, and probably last 10 years people were noticing that I stopped breathing during the night (probably it was longer than that). Last two years i started closing my eyes while driving, in the morning after "sleeping" I was still tired with severe dryness in mouth that I mumbled first 10-15 seconds and couldn't speak, was sleeping in company of friends in the caffe bar and similar... Also was breathing through mouth, but fortunately CPAP machine thought/force me to breathe through nose. Unfortunately it took me 2 years to go to the doctor.
On polysomnography (Alice Nightone) my AHI was 88 and was diagnosed with heavy apnea and started treating it at hospital with same machine I have at home, but with other nasal mask where tube is going from nose. After first night I was already feeling better during the day and in 3 nights I spend in hospital results were dropping (15, 7 and then 4.5).
I am using it 3 weeks at home and have average AHI of 4.8. My first question is can I get it under 1, or considering that my polysomnograph AHI was 88, is this very good?
I had septum deviation which was operated some 5 years ago, have gastritis, have some 40lbs more than I should, smoker and drink alcohol. I guess with all those things there is no chance I get AHI under 1 ? The main thing is that I am feeling much, much better but I think could be feeling even more better with lower AHI. Did machine did its best and if I don't loose weight, quit smoking and living healthier, AHI of 5 is best machine can do?
When machine records apnea which lasted under 10 seconds is that considered to be OA or HY? Sometimes there is no flat line when it is recorded and sometimes it lasts for 6-7 seconds.
A good part of my apneas show in first 15 minutes while I start to fall asleep. Sometimes half consciously I feel that I stop breathing and after that take more air (like i do when I am awake), so that doesn't count as apnea? My settings are automatic from 4-16 but maybe should be raised from starting point to 8 or something like that? It is automatic, but I don't feel that it is raising automatically in start (ramp time 5 minutes meaning pressure at start is growing by 1 every 5 minutes?)
Another problem is with mask is when I try to sleep on the side (figuring sleeping on the side will decrease my AHI) but I feel how air is going out more as pressure from laying on the side is moving mask under my nose a little bit. I never had large leaks and in these 3 weeks my average leak is 6.6 (90% is 20) and is going down week by week. I think it is atrached good, as I make it more tighter then under my nose gets little bit redness. At the moment how it is attached it jumps a little bit when I do a "test snore". Maybe if it is tighter it won't jump and I could sleep on the side without any air going out? And soreness under nose will be gone as nose will be used to it?
I also wake up with sore teeth, but I guess that is normal as 95% of the time pressure is at maximum 16.
Just to mention that when I lost my weight couple of years ago to some "ideal" weight, my wife noticed that I snore much less, so I guess when I loose weight I might be one of those lucky ones whose apnea is caused by overweight?
Thank you in advance for some advice and comments. If it is needed I can make some screen shots from Sleepy Head.
).Sorry in advance if this post should be under some different subject and if any of my questions are already explained before (then please just send me a link to that).
I have problem with snoring over 20 years, and probably last 10 years people were noticing that I stopped breathing during the night (probably it was longer than that). Last two years i started closing my eyes while driving, in the morning after "sleeping" I was still tired with severe dryness in mouth that I mumbled first 10-15 seconds and couldn't speak, was sleeping in company of friends in the caffe bar and similar... Also was breathing through mouth, but fortunately CPAP machine thought/force me to breathe through nose. Unfortunately it took me 2 years to go to the doctor.
On polysomnography (Alice Nightone) my AHI was 88 and was diagnosed with heavy apnea and started treating it at hospital with same machine I have at home, but with other nasal mask where tube is going from nose. After first night I was already feeling better during the day and in 3 nights I spend in hospital results were dropping (15, 7 and then 4.5).
I am using it 3 weeks at home and have average AHI of 4.8. My first question is can I get it under 1, or considering that my polysomnograph AHI was 88, is this very good?
I had septum deviation which was operated some 5 years ago, have gastritis, have some 40lbs more than I should, smoker and drink alcohol. I guess with all those things there is no chance I get AHI under 1
? The main thing is that I am feeling much, much better but I think could be feeling even more better with lower AHI. Did machine did its best and if I don't loose weight, quit smoking and living healthier, AHI of 5 is best machine can do?When machine records apnea which lasted under 10 seconds is that considered to be OA or HY? Sometimes there is no flat line when it is recorded and sometimes it lasts for 6-7 seconds.
A good part of my apneas show in first 15 minutes while I start to fall asleep. Sometimes half consciously I feel that I stop breathing and after that take more air (like i do when I am awake), so that doesn't count as apnea? My settings are automatic from 4-16 but maybe should be raised from starting point to 8 or something like that? It is automatic, but I don't feel that it is raising automatically in start (ramp time 5 minutes meaning pressure at start is growing by 1 every 5 minutes?)
Another problem is with mask is when I try to sleep on the side (figuring sleeping on the side will decrease my AHI) but I feel how air is going out more as pressure from laying on the side is moving mask under my nose a little bit. I never had large leaks and in these 3 weeks my average leak is 6.6 (90% is 20) and is going down week by week. I think it is atrached good, as I make it more tighter then under my nose gets little bit redness. At the moment how it is attached it jumps a little bit when I do a "test snore". Maybe if it is tighter it won't jump and I could sleep on the side without any air going out? And soreness under nose will be gone as nose will be used to it?
I also wake up with sore teeth, but I guess that is normal as 95% of the time pressure is at maximum 16.
Just to mention that when I lost my weight couple of years ago to some "ideal" weight, my wife noticed that I snore much less, so I guess when I loose weight I might be one of those lucky ones whose apnea is caused by overweight?
Thank you in advance for some advice and comments. If it is needed I can make some screen shots from Sleepy Head.
