Hi, I'm new

[Doberbrat]

I've been lurking since I started therapy 3mo ago. I was initially very resistant. I felt like I slept great. But I promised my cardiologist that I would give it my best shot. Its going great. I have very few issues with the P10. I went from AHI 28 to AHI 2.8 total & central AI 1.7 and 0 central AI. I rarely fall asleep at 2pm. My dr was really pleased.

Questions:

1. Cleaning the stuff is a PIA. I wash the pillows and attached tubing daily. That isnt awful but cleaning the grey tube is a bear. Is weekly really necessary? Cleaning it during the weekend would be ideal but I tend to lounge in bed reading/napping on the weekend and there isnt enough time for it to dry by the time I get up.

2. How do I get into the provider section to see the full statistics. I've managed to get into it twice but I dont know how - I think the tubing was leaning on something?

3. Given that I seem to be doing so well, do I need to download data into OSCAR?

4. Is wearing the CPAP when I'm not sleeping a skewing my stats? I read myself to sleep. Sometimes it takes 5minutes. Sometimes the book is really good and it takes much longer. Or on the weekends when I'm lazy and I just leave it on until I get out of bed. Last Sunday, it looked like I slept 13 h with 1.8 events/h Realistically I prob slept 7-8h so the /h would be higher. Does it matter since they're so low to begin with ?

This is a great place and I'm grateful for the information I've gotten so far.

[ChicagoGranny]

I wash the pillows and attached tubing daily.

Ridiculous, but following the manufacturers' recommendations.

That isnt awful but cleaning the grey tube is a bear.

My current hose is three years old and has never been cleaned. Hoses don't get dirty. A user is more likely to introduce foreign material during the washing and drying process than just leaving them alone.

My mask gets wiped down (the parts that touch me) every morning with an alcohol swab. These swabs are the little ones made for diabetics using insulin. They are available in the diabetic section of every pharmacy.

How do I get into the provider section to see the full statistics.

Easy. Find your model on youtube - many videos explaining.

Given that I seem to be doing so well, do I need to download data into OSCAR?

If your AHI is low, your leak level is low, you think you sleep well, and you have no excess sleepiness during the day, it's not necessary.

Does it matter since they're so low to begin with ?

It's your preference. Some people obsess over data. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Miss Emerita]

Ditto what Chicago Granny says.

I wash my long hose and my water container maybe once a year, for no particular reason. I wash my short hose/interface once a week, since the interface bit can get a little cruddy, especially if I do any half-sneeze, half-cough stuff. I mostly just top up my water container when the level runs low, though every few months I'll dump any remaining water and let the container air-dry. I replace my filter once a month, though it never looks dirty.

[palerider]

Hi, I'm new

Hi New, I'm Palerider, nicetameetcha.

1. Cleaning the stuff is a PIA. I wash the pillows and attached tubing daily. That isnt awful but cleaning the grey tube is a bear. Is weekly really necessary? Cleaning it during the weekend would be ideal but I tend to lounge in bed reading/napping on the weekend and there isnt enough time for it to dry by the time I get up.

Many of us *never* wash the tube, I haven't washed mine in 6 years, (yes, they will last).
I'll wash the pillows (and frame, with the diffuser) every week or two, I'll wipe the pillows on the outside, (or any mask cushion) with a bit of alcohol every day to remove oils.

2. How do I get into the provider section to see the full statistics. I've managed to get into it twice but I dont know how - I think the tubing was leaning on something?

Different machines, different methods, since you didn't fill in your equipment profile, or mention what machine you have, we can't tell you anything.

3. Given that I seem to be doing so well, do I need to download data into OSCAR?

2.8 isn't 'so well', it's just 'ok', There's room for improvement. If my AHI is over 2, I feel worse the next day.

4. Is wearing the CPAP when I'm not sleeping a skewing my stats? I read myself to sleep. Sometimes it takes 5minutes. Sometimes the book is really good and it takes much longer. Or on the weekends when I'm lazy and I just leave it on until I get out of bed. Last Sunday, it looked like I slept 13 h with 1.8 events/h Realistically I prob slept 7-8h so the /h would be higher. Does it matter since they're so low to begin with ?

Again, not really "so low", and yes, wearing it for more than a little time does skew the numbers, but it would would require looking in Oscar to see when the events were, they might have been while you were awake and reading (ps, I have the same problem with reading... most recent book, "Hench", and that kept me up for hours night before last).

[robysue1]

1. Cleaning the stuff is a PIA. I wash the pillows and attached tubing daily. That isnt awful but cleaning the grey tube is a bear. Is weekly really necessary? Cleaning it during the weekend would be ideal but I tend to lounge in bed reading/napping on the weekend and there isnt enough time for it to dry by the time I get up.

A lot of us give up on daily cleaning of the mask pretty soon. How frequent does mask cleaning take place? It really depends. Keeping the cushion (or nasal pillows) clean can be done by wiping them down or giving them a quick rinse.

And for those of us using pillows style masks with short hoses? Most of us don't bother with cleaning the short hose unless we're cleaning the main hose.

And a lot of us don't bother cleaning the main hose on a regular basis either.

2. How do I get into the provider section to see the full statistics. I've managed to get into it twice but I dont know how - I think the tubing was leaning on something?

What machine are you using? A quick google search for your specific machine should give you links to videos that show you how to get into the clinical menu.

3. Given that I seem to be doing so well, do I need to download data into OSCAR?

I'd say yes, it's worth downloading the data into Oscar now and then. How often? That depends. But if you run start running into any kind of problems, it's easier to fix if you already know how to use Oscar rather than waiting until you're dealing with problems to learn how to work with Oscar.

4. Is wearing the CPAP when I'm not sleeping a skewing my stats? I read myself to sleep. Sometimes it takes 5minutes. Sometimes the book is really good and it takes much longer. Or on the weekends when I'm lazy and I just leave it on until I get out of bed. Last Sunday, it looked like I slept 13 h with 1.8 events/h Realistically I prob slept 7-8h so the /h would be higher. Does it matter since they're so low to begin with ?

Yes, wearing the CPAP for long periods of time when you are not asleep skews the data. But since your AHI is low AND since you are doing well, the skewing of the data is not particularly important.

And if you download the data in Oscar, you might be surprised to see lots of the scored events occurring during the times when you know for sure that you were not asleep. These false events (pugsy calls them false positives) get scored because for most of us, our wake breathing is no where near as regular as our sleep breathing is. And there are lots of normal wake breathing patterns that the machine can (and will) mis-interpret as sleep disrupted breathing---the machine's programmers assume that if you are using the machine, there's a pretty good chance that you are asleep. So they don't try to use the flow rate to tease out when you are or are not asleep; they just have the machine score anything that matches the programmers' definitions of CA, OA, H, RERA, FL, etc.

[Okie bipap]

I have never cleaned my equipment daily. When I first started, the respiratory therapist I was working with said she washed her and her husband's equipment once a week. That sounded reasonable to me, so that is what I did at first. Now, it's more like once a month if I remember to do it. I never wash our hoses and my current hose is over seven years old and my wife's hose is six years old.

[chunkyfrog]

I have not cleaned anything but the tank for years--even while in chemo.
And I'm still here.
I clean the tank when it gets gross--sometimes very gross.

[loggerhead12]

1. Cleaning the stuff is a PIA.

Yes. Some of us don't clean any of it. Ever.

We dislike cleaning so much we even adopted a daily disposable mask system to avoid it.

[robysue1]

I have not cleaned anything but the tank for years--even while in chemo.
And I'm still here.
I clean the tank when it gets gross--sometimes very gross.

That became my modus operandi several years ago. Although, I prefer to not let my tank get to "very gross".