A NewBie with Hypopnea Concerns

[palerider]

My question was: "After a few more days of adjusting to 20 cmH2O / 7 cmH2O do you think I should raise the lower pressure some more?"

Your first response was: "depends, do you want to feel better?"
My answer to that is "Yes", now what do I do?

ah, yes, sorry... you asked if you should raise the pressure, my response of "well, do you want to feel better" was meant to say "yes, raise the pressure to reduce hypopneas, which should result in your feeling better."

it needed a bit more reading between the lines than usual

greater pressure, less hypos, should result in better sleep, as long as the higher pressure doesn't cause problems for you.

[GearBear70]

My question was: "After a few more days of adjusting to 20 cmH2O / 7 cmH2O do you think I should raise the lower pressure some more?"

Your first response was: "depends, do you want to feel better?"
My answer to that is "Yes", now what do I do?

ah, yes, sorry... you asked if you should raise the pressure, my response of "well, do you want to feel better" was meant to say "yes, raise the pressure to reduce hypopneas, which should result in your feeling better."

it needed a bit more reading between the lines than usual

greater pressure, less hypos, should result in better sleep, as long as the higher pressure doesn't cause problems for you.

OK, I understand. I can slowly raise the pressure until either the hypopneas are greatly reduced or until the higher pressure starts causing other problems.

OK I'm good. Thank you.

[Greg Riddle]

Why not just raise the pressure yourself. In my experience dr and dme are nothing but a pain in the arse top deal with

[GearBear70]

Why not just raise the pressure yourself. In my experience dr and dme are nothing but a pain in the arse top deal with

Yes, I am beginning to find that out for myself. However, right now Medicare is paying for my equipment and I do not want to do something that would cause me to lose this benefit.

Thank you

[Greg Riddle]

I do understand that. I recently got a vpap auto and have been setting it up myself. I'm curious as to what the dr will say next Tuesday when I go back for follow up visit

[palerider]

Why not just raise the pressure yourself. In my experience dr and dme are nothing but a pain in the arse top deal with

Yes, I am beginning to find that out for myself. However, right now Medicare is paying for my equipment and I do not want to do something that would cause me to lose this benefit.

over time, you'll learn that the only thing they (and insurance companies) give a crap about is hours of use... not whether the machine is actually helping your apnea, and certainly not if you changed the settings to make it work better.

[GearBear70]

I do understand that. I recently got a vpap auto and have been setting it up myself. I'm curious as to what the dr will say next Tuesday when I go back for follow up visit

Hi. If you would not mind, would you please share your experience with your doctor here or to me in a private email.

Thank you

[Greg Riddle]

It started with my first sleep test. Took the test had no idea what was going on for about 6 weeks. Got a call and nurse said I needed to go back for second test with cpap machine. After that it took a long time to get machine. I took first sleep test in early August of 2013. Didn't get cpap until october 25. Dme gave me a non data machine, partly my fault for not educating myself. Had several mask fit issues over the next 10 months. Tried to get a mask that fit from dme and they beat around the bush for 2 months and I gave up. I was feeling bad from symptoms of sleep apnea again. I called dr and got an appointment in September. Finally meet sleep Dr for first time. She scheduled another test. Took test at end of October and had follow up visit December 15. By this time my symptoms had gotten pretty bad. Over the last six months I tried several times to raise the pressure to help but didn't help and caused other issues. At follow up visit I talked with dr and she said I needed bi level machine. She also said that during the test they didn't get to finish the titration do to time. But she said to she was going to prescribe a resmed vpap auto set at ipap 25 epap 14 and ps of 5. It took 2 weeks off bugging the dr and dme to get the machine. Dme said they didn't get rx. Dr said they sent it. Dme said no. On and on and on. Finally got it straightened and dme had the machine. I went to dme to get it and they set it wrong. They set out at ipap 25 epap 19 ps of 5. The dme also tried to give me the wrong mask. During the sleep test I used a resmed airfit 10 and it worked great. Dme missed the party of the rx that had that mask on it. Got it home and set it up at ipap 25 epap 14 and ps 6. I've been running it in the best I can the past month and I'm getting there.

[GearBear70]

I am back to report on the results of raising the lower pressure on my APAP machine. But first I do want to thank Sleeprider on Sun Jan 18, 2015 3:29 pm, Passer on Sun Jan 18, 2015 3:44 pm, Wulfman... on Sun Jan 18, 2015 11:50 pm, Julie on Mon Jan 19, 2015 5:48 am and palerider on Mon Jan 19, 2015 4:41 pm. The advice you have given me has improved the quality of my life. For that, I am very very grateful and I want you to be proud you have helped me.

The sleep doctor changed my CPAP to APAP with a pressure setting of 20 cmH2O / 5 cmH2O on January 7, 2015. On January 20 based on the advice from those above, I asked the pressure to be increased to 20 cmH2O / 7 cmH2O. Not feeling the results I thought I should have on February 3 I again asked for a lower pressure increase. The sleep doctor prescribed 20 cmH2O / 9 cmH2O. I have 12 nights of data. This chart shows the change for the AHI and the Hypopnea from January 7 to February 14.


Last night, February 14, I experienced my lowest AHI reading of 0.10. I show the SleepyHead Charts here:






I feel a world better than I have for a long long time. I owe this improvement to those folks above you volunteered their ideas for a solution to my sleep problem. They know more than the doctors. My advice to anyone new coming onto this forum is to listen & respect these veterans opinions.
Thank you very much and thank those who built and maintain CPAPtalk.com.

[palerider]

I feel a world better than I have for a long long time.

that's awesome... it's always great when I (and I think I speak for most others) hear that someone is getting a handle on things, and is starting to feel better.

here's hoping that the better sleep continues with you (last night looks great!) and how you feel continues to improve.

[Sleeprider]

Very cool! The student surpasses the teacher(s). I am yet to see a 0.1, but got a 0.51 last night.

The success stories are really fun to hear, and the reason many of us try to help with our experiences and suggestions. Thanks for following up! There may be some ups and downs from night to night, but your results should continue to be very good.