very low AHI, do I still need the machine???

Hi all.
My CPAP tells me I have very low AHI (always below 1 per hour and 0.4 per hour
on average this month).
I am not sure how to understand this result:
A/ I no longer need my CPAP as there is no respiratory event to "fix"
or
B/ the CPAP works very well for me since it brings my event close to none

Shall I keep my machine as my nightstand friend?

It's this:

cpaptalkmtl wrote:B/ the CPAP works very well for me since it brings my event close to none

What you are seeing reported are the events that slipped past the defenses and happened.
There's no way to know how many apnea events never happened because they were prevented in the first place.
It might have prevented 100 airway collapses for all you know.

Yes...it still needs to be your best friend on the nightstand.

It's like wearing glasses...your vision is fixed only when wearing those glasses...you take them off and not use them and your vision goes to crap real fast. It's a temporary fix...not a permanent cure.

If you were adrift in the ocean, floating in a intertube, no land in site, would you let the air out of the intertube? I'd start paddling for land. Jim

thx pugsy for the answer,
thx goodproof for the humor.

cpaptalkmtl wrote:Hi all.
My CPAP tells me I have very low AHI (always below 1 per hour and 0.4 per hour
on average this month).
I am not sure how to understand this result:
A/ I no longer need my CPAP as there is no respiratory event to "fix"
or
B/ the CPAP works very well for me since it brings my event close to none

Shall I keep my machine as my nightstand friend?

substitute "glasses".

I can see well with my glasses, does this mean I don't need my glasses anymore?

in other words, that low AHI while using the machine, is just like being able to see while wearing glasses, it just means the treatment is working, not that you're 'cured'.

B. How could it possibly be any other way?
Apnea is pretty much permanent--until someone comes up with a cure.
It just does not go away spontaneously, though that would be nice . . .

As already stated, you low AHI is almost certainly due to your successful use of the machine. The machine simply "turns off" your sleep apnea, it doesn't cure or remove it.

After starting CPAP trial I was also wondering if all this discomfort was really necessary given my CPAP AHI has only gone over 1 once in 16 nights, and I'm mainly recording CAs.

When I saw my sleep doctor this week I asked if it were possible I'd been misdiagnosed because the sleep lab stuffed up so many results the night of my sleep study (study not done with my current sleep doctor). He said no, the results/graphs he was seeing on CPAP were consistent with my initial AHI of 21.2. This was reassuring, and made me realise even if my sleepyhead graphs look really boring it doesn't mean I don't have a health issue.