Do what you are most comfortable with. If that means giving the doctor a bit more time and patience, allow yourself that time and don't just "up the pressure" because you feel some peer pressure coming from here to do it.novatom wrote:I almost raised my pressure the other night. I reviewed the Youtube video and stared at the machine for a minute and then chickened out. I'm still torn between being influenced by my peers on this board and still feeling intimidated by my doctor (I am not intimidated by my DME, btw, they don't bother me).
The first time I changed my pressure settings by myself was after 6 months of PAPing. It was clear that the third titration's prescribed pressure of 7/4 was not doing the job in terms of keeping my snoring under conrol and my AHI was higher than I wanted, but still below 5.0. But bumping the pressure up to 7.5/4.5 didn't really do any good and since I'd already had a lot of experience with serious aerophagia at 8/6, I was reluctant to go any higher than that. I had another meeting with the PA scheduled in less than a month, and at our next meeting she gladly agreed to the idea of switching me to Auto BiPAP at the range I still use. I've played with increasing the pressures every now and then, but I typically wind up right back where I am now because increased pressure = increased discomfort because of aerophagia, and it doesn't really do anything for my AHI.
The summary data you posted shows that your CAs are more numerous than your OAs. And increasing the pressure is not going to fix the CAs, and it might just increase the number of CAs. (Or not.) If you "subtract" off the CAI from your AHI, the result is an obstructive event index that is less than 5.0. So from a technical point of view, more pressure may not bring your AHI down much further anyway.Meanwhile I had an AHI of 6.16 last night, which disappoints me of course. At the same time, I have not been able to connect a lower AHI to feeling any better, as my insomnia seems to be masking any real effects, at least I think so.
It would be very useful if we could see some sample Daily Detailed Data. In order to figure out whether a pressure increase might help, might hurt, or not do much of anything, we need to see when those CAs are happening and whether there are significant clusters of OAs and Hs.
Given the fact that you've got almost as many CAs as Hs and many more CAs than OAs, I would encourage you to NOT increase the pressure based on just the statistical data you've shown us.In light of this internal debate I have going on in my head, I thought I would at least share these stats from Sleepyhead. Are these the stats of someone who should change their pressure? Could an increase help reduce my AHI? I know the answer, now I just gotta summon up the courage to do it.
If I had the daily detailed data for the last week or so, it's possible that I might change my mind. But until I see some daily detailed data, I would NOT be increasing the pressure given the sizes of the CAI relative to the AHI, HI, and OAI.