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New here, help with sleepyhead data - Printable Version

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New here, help with sleepyhead data - Mark71 - 02-13-2017

Hello 
   After having severe fatigue I was given an at home sleep study which showed an AHI of 26.  I have no insurance (self employed) and was given a donated machine to use. It was set to 5- 20 as recommended by the sleep study.   I tried the Quattro FFM as I breath through my mouth, but was unable to tolerate it and gave up after about 5 nights.  A few weeks later, I tried a Dreamwear nasal pillow mask and chin strap that was a lot easier to tolerate. (I was given a medium /wide)  When I took the machine in to have the data checked, they said they didn't have the card reader for that machine anymore. lol  I gave up for a few weeks.  After some reading here, I purchased an Res med Air sense 10 autostart for myself and started over.  First night or two showed large leaks. Then I found the sizing chart for the dreamwear and realized I should have a small.  That solved the leak problem.  I was able to get the machine set to "plus" mode and set parameters to 5- 16.  I now have about 20 days worth of data and wonder if I can get some opinions here on how to proceed.  I think I need a certain number of posts here before I can post images.  So I am one more post closer to that.  I look forward to hearing opinions, and let me know how I should proceed.
Thanks all!
Mark

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - pholynyk - 02-13-2017

Welcome to Apnea Board, Mark. Even without data graphs to look at, I think many would mention that your starting pressure is so low that you might feel like you have to take extra deep breaths. There are two aspects to this; your therapy pressure, and something called 'ramp start pressure'. Both of these are set in the Clinicians' Menu. You can read about the secret handshake that opens the Clinicians' Menu by following the CPAP Setup Manuals link at the top of the page. It's your machine, you don't need a license to learn how to operate it.

Back to those pressures - most people find that their lowest pressure needs to be 6 or more for them to feel comfortable and breathing easily. With a starting pressure of 6, you probably don't need to use the ramp pressure at all, so turn it off. If you ever get to a therapy pressure of 10 or more, you may want to turn it on again.

If all that's too much for one go, ask questions - you'll get to the required number of posts sooner Big Grin

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - trish6hundred - 02-13-2017

Hi Mark71,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck to you with your CPAP therapy, hang in there for more answers to your questions.

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - Gideon - 02-13-2017

Welcome Mark.

1. Get and install Sleepyhead software (Free)
2. Organize your Sleepyhead charts,  some are more valuable than others and if you miss one that in your case may be needed we will tell you.  This step IS important
3. Take a screen shot.
4. get an IMGUR.com account.  You will keep your screenshots in your own folder
5. Copy your screenshot to IMGUR
6. Get the code from IMGUR (this is for your image and a large thumbnail.  
7. Paste this code into your post.  Before 4 posts just add a space or 2,  we can figure that out, just don't tell anyone.  ;-)

See my sig for more details

Fred

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - Mark71 - 02-14-2017

Thanks for the welcome!

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - Mark71 - 02-14-2017

Thanks Pholynyk.  I had in fact noticed that I seemed to need more air at startup.  I changed the min setting to 6 and turned off the ramp feature last night.
Mark

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - Mark71 - 02-14-2017

Bonjour- I am not the most tech savvy person but I think I got all that and will try to post a screenshot!
Thanks
Mark

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - Mark71 - 02-14-2017

It says I need more posts...

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - Mark71 - 02-14-2017

[Image: M7AExBMl.png]

RE: New here, help with sleepyhead data - Sleeprider - 02-14-2017

Hi Mark, finally we have an image! Things looks pretty decent here, You have some OA that are preceded by a snore and flow limit, so I would take the minimum pressure to 7.0 to avoid some of that. I think the CA will take care of itself in time, and I question this is even CA, so no need to make changes now for that. Overall this looks pretty good in spite of the marginally high AHI.

The Dreamwear mask looks like it is working okay for you, but consider trying the Airfit P10 in the future. There are complete masks with 3 sizes of cushion on Amazon for $65. It sure looks like you do well on nasal therapy, and the P10 stays in place pretty well. The period of higher leak looks like it could be a mouth leak rather than a mask leak. You might right click the left margin of the leak graph and manually set the Y axis to 0-80 so we have better resolution, and I think you should do the same to the Flow Rate graph. That will make the trace appear taller.