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Thank you everyone who helped me with your suggestions and expertise! After a week of AHI of 7-17, I finally got it down to 4 and last night, 2!! I wouldn't have known how to make that happen without your help, changing the pressure, mask and chin strap issues, etc... Praying this will continue and my apneas will be kept low. My doctor finally got back to me yesterday. He told me that we might be able to change the pressure after checking the data from the machine, being that if it's mostly centrals, then raising the pressure could make it worse, etc... but it looks like my apneas are mostly obstructive or hypo in nature. Either way, we seem to have figured out what I need at the moment, so oh well, hopefully my doctor will understand and appreciate that I took control of my therapy and figured things out on my own.

https://imgur.com/a/bN9EX

Looking really good. If you explain to your doctor your reasoning for increasing that minimum pressure he shouldn't have a problem with it and if he does than too bad. You are correct in that since the bulk of your events are obstructive in nature then more minimum was the key to getting the numbers down to a more acceptable level.

How are you sleeping and feeling? That's and important part of all this therapy in addition to the validation of "good numbers".

My suggestion is to give these settings about a week to settle in and your body to get used to the pressure and then evaluate the pressure needs again....always keeping in mind how you feel and sleep too. If you need a little more minimum...you can do it then if you wish but I don't think you are going to be needing much more minimum (if any).

Back some years ago I was tweaking my settings and found something that worked some of the time so I left it alone for 6 weeks and during the 6 weeks I was watching things I noticed that the really good nights started slowly happening more often and the fluke not so good nights got rarer.
At the end of the 6 weeks my AHI had dropped by 50% (from 3 to less than 1.5) without ever changing anything.

Now if during this week of watching you still don't think you are sleeping so great then you might consider a little more minimum even if the numbers don't necessarily point to an urgent need.

You are finally really close to optimal therapy and I was right...the 90% numbers are coming down because the minimum is doing a better job holding the airway open in the first place so the machine doesn't have to go so high so often to try to fix the problem after the fact.
Prevention is always better than fixing after the fact.

Should you start having issues with aerophagia then we might take a look at that maximum but if you don't....no need to do anything about it.

Pugsy wrote:Looking really good. If you explain to your doctor your reasoning for increasing that minimum pressure he shouldn't have a problem with it and if he does than too bad. You are correct in that since the bulk of your events are obstructive in nature then more minimum was the key to getting the numbers down to a more acceptable level.

How are you sleeping and feeling? That's and important part of all this therapy in addition to the validation of "good numbers".

My suggestion is to give these settings about a week to settle in and your body to get used to the pressure and then evaluate the pressure needs again....always keeping in mind how you feel and sleep too. If you need a little more minimum...you can do it then if you wish but I don't think you are going to be needing much more minimum (if any).

Back some years ago I was tweaking my settings and found something that worked some of the time so I left it alone for 6 weeks and during the 6 weeks I was watching things I noticed that the really good nights started slowly happening more often and the fluke not so good nights got rarer.
At the end of the 6 weeks my AHI had dropped by 50% (from 3 to less than 1.5) without ever changing anything.

Now if during this week of watching you still don't think you are sleeping so great then you might consider a little more minimum even if the numbers don't necessarily point to an urgent need.

You are finally really close to optimal therapy and I was right...the 90% numbers are coming down because the minimum is doing a better job holding the airway open in the first place so the machine doesn't have to go so high so often to try to fix the problem after the fact.
Prevention is always better than fixing after the fact.

Should you start having issues with aerophagia then we might take a look at that maximum but if you don't....no need to do anything about it.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good, even after a long day of bringing all 5 kids to the dentist with me, visiting and helping my sister clean, getting groceries from 2 different stores with all the kids in tow, I wasn't feeling beat by the time I got home like I usually do! Last night I did have some wakeups, in fact I woke up sometime around 2 and could not get back to sleep for a while, but overall I feel like the quality of my sleep was good. We'll see about today, I have high hopes of feeling good
I know, I am still getting used to the machine, mask and headgear, so it is possible that my sleep and AHI could even improve in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed!
I did change my maximum to 20 the other night, but so far the machine hasn't given me anything over 15 anyway. I'll let it stay at 20 for now though, and see what happens the next few days in case I need the higher pressure.

MoodyMolly wrote:

Pugsy wrote:Looking really good. If you explain to your doctor your reasoning for increasing that minimum pressure he shouldn't have a problem with it and if he does than too bad. You are correct in that since the bulk of your events are obstructive in nature then more minimum was the key to getting the numbers down to a more acceptable level.

How are you sleeping and feeling? That's and important part of all this therapy in addition to the validation of "good numbers".

My suggestion is to give these settings about a week to settle in and your body to get used to the pressure and then evaluate the pressure needs again....always keeping in mind how you feel and sleep too. If you need a little more minimum...you can do it then if you wish but I don't think you are going to be needing much more minimum (if any).

Back some years ago I was tweaking my settings and found something that worked some of the time so I left it alone for 6 weeks and during the 6 weeks I was watching things I noticed that the really good nights started slowly happening more often and the fluke not so good nights got rarer.
At the end of the 6 weeks my AHI had dropped by 50% (from 3 to less than 1.5) without ever changing anything.

Now if during this week of watching you still don't think you are sleeping so great then you might consider a little more minimum even if the numbers don't necessarily point to an urgent need.

You are finally really close to optimal therapy and I was right...the 90% numbers are coming down because the minimum is doing a better job holding the airway open in the first place so the machine doesn't have to go so high so often to try to fix the problem after the fact.
Prevention is always better than fixing after the fact.

Should you start having issues with aerophagia then we might take a look at that maximum but if you don't....no need to do anything about it.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good, even after a long day of bringing all 5 kids to the dentist with me, visiting and helping my sister clean, getting groceries from 2 different stores with all the kids in tow, I wasn't feeling beat by the time I got home like I usually do! Last night I did have some wakeups, in fact I woke up sometime around 2 and could not get back to sleep for a while, but overall I feel like the quality of my sleep was good. We'll see about today, I have high hopes of feeling good
I know, I am still getting used to the machine, mask and headgear, so it is possible that my sleep and AHI could even improve in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed!
I did change my maximum to 20 the other night, but so far the machine hasn't given me anything over 15 anyway. I'll let it stay at 20 for now though, and see what happens the next few days in case I need the higher pressure.

You are Superwoman! Jim