Help understand my first couple of nights

So about 1.5 years ago I had a sleep study done because I was feeling so exhausted during the day and my wife said not only do I snore really loud but it sounds like I'm choking in my sleep sometimes. Anyways, the results of the sleep study said that my AHI was around 60. I had a very old cpap machine that a family member had given me so the dr set it up for me. My pressure was 13cm and it was horrible. The machine was very loud and the pressure made it impossible for me to sleep, not to mention the bloating was unbearable. The dr. recommended I give it more time to get used to it. I tried it for about 2 weeks straight and it was just not tolerable so I quit using it.

Well I recently decided to give it another go so I ordered a Dreamstation Auto Cpap. Last night was my second night and I'm having a hard time understanding the results I'm seeing in the DreamMapper app. I set the machine up in auto mode with a min level of 5.5 and a max of 14 with CFlex level 3. These were kind of arbitrary but I thought it seemed like a good start.

On Monday these were the results
My 90% pressure was only 6.5cm and my AHI was 10.4
I had 7 clear airway apneas, 26 Total Obstructive Apneas and 47 Total Hypopneas.

I woke up quite a bit thru the night, I think mainly because I'm not used to being connected to a machine. I thought it was strange though that my 90% pressure was so low and my AHI was so low at that pressure compared to my sleep study results. I also thought it was odd that with an AHI of 10.4 that my 90% pressure wasn't a little higher to try to prevent those extra apneas.

So Tuesday night I bumped up the min pressure from 5.5 to 6.5 and here are my results:
90% pressure was 7.5 and AHI was 10.9
Total clear airway apneas was 3, Total obstructive apneas was 26 and Total hypopneas was 50.

It's weird to me that the 90% pressure has been exactly 1cm above the min every night and every time I checked my current pressure thru the night, it was set at exactly 7.5. Also, I don't understand why the AHI and needed pressure is so much different than what the sleep study shows. Now I wonder if I even really needed a cpap machine. Any advice?

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

chopper320 wrote:Now I wonder if I even really needed a cpap machine.

Check out your own words:

chopper320 wrote:I was feeling so exhausted during the day and my wife said not only do I snore really loud but it sounds like I'm choking in my sleep sometimes.

chopper320 wrote: the results of the sleep study said that my AHI was around 60.

chopper320 wrote:On Monday these were the results
My 90% pressure was only 6.5cm and my AHI was 10.4
I had 7 clear airway apneas, 26 Total Obstructive Apneas and 47 Total Hyp

chopper320 wrote:I'm having a hard time understanding the results I'm seeing in the DreamMapper app

DreamMapper is worthless for getting an understanding. Use Sleepyhead.

AHI on the machine is a sleep apnea treated AHI and has no bearing on the AHI that comes from a sleep study without cpap.
So what you are seeing on the machine reported is apneas that weren't prevented. There is no count for the number of apneas it prevented.

Now why your machine doesn't want to be more aggressive with the pressure increases in response to the OAs and Hyponeas....don't know why.

How about using SleepyHead software so we can see for sure what the pressure is doing and when along with when the flagged events are happening.
Also there's some other data available that might help us understand what is going on that isn't included in the AHI and the only way to see it is with the software.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

And share an image of the detailed report
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize

Do NOT do the full screen toggle mentioned in one of the above links. There's a bug in SH that reacts with some operating systems in a manner that makes it extremely difficult to get back out of full screen toggle. Major PITA.

BTW....your treated AHI with the machine still is enough to qualify for a mild OSA diagnosis...so I don't doubt your initial sleep study.
Unless you lost a whole lot of weight in the past year it is unlikely that your OSA has gone away.

Thanks guys! I'll download Sleepyhead and post that data. I requested my report from the Dr. so I'll post that as soon as I receive it.

OK Here is my Sleepy Head stats from last night

chopper320 wrote: I set the machine up in auto mode with a min level of 5.5 and a max of 14 with CFlex level 3

Your graphs don't support that max of 14....looks like it is max of 7.50.

I can't see the settings part of your statistics on the left side. For some reason it isn't showing up.
Are you sure you are in auto mode or are you in cpap mode?

Might want to get back into that clinical setup menu and verify mode and settings.

You need more pressure. All those snores, FLs and OAs and hyponeas point to needing more pressure but the machine's little hands were tied and it couldn't go above 7.50 for some reason.

Hmm. I scrolled down in the left menu to capture the machine settings. Not sure how to make everything fit into one screen grab. I definitely have it in APAP mode with a max setting of 14.0cm. Not sure why it is hitting a limit. Is there another setting that I should look for that would conflict with it? Possibly a faulty machine? Thanks for taking the time to look at this for me!

Where did you get the machine from?
Did you check the run hours to see if it was used previously?

Something definitely isn't right here. The machine isn't responding like it should or we would expect.

I bought it from Amazon. It was sold as brand new and it showed 0 hours when I set it up. I guess I may have to contact the seller.

I would contact the seller because it definitely isn't working like it should be working.
With that much obstructive stuff going on the machine and with the max at 14 it should go much higher.

In the meantime for tonight....Try resetting the machine but use minimum of 8 and max of 20 and see what happens.

One more thing. I'm using a ResMed Mirage Quattro facemask with it. There aren't compatibility issues with the masks and the machine are there?

Thanks

No...there are no mask compatibility issues between brands and models. Wouldn't cause this problem.

BUT....you might confirm that you are using the correct size hose diameter if you aren't using a heated hose.
I just thought about the hose.
If you are using a heated hose the machine should recognize it and make the switch automatically but it won't with the non heated hose.
You have to manually select the hose diameter.
If the wrong size hose diameter is selected that might..stress the might....account for the machine acting weird.

Good news! I messed with the settings thru the night and found that there was an EZ Start setting that was on by default. I turned it off and now my pressure seems to be adjusting correctly and my 90% for last night was 13.0cm and down to 5 AHI. Now the bloating is back but hopefully I can get thru that.

Thanks for all of your help!

So EZ start was the culprit. I have never had a chance to play with EZ start. Wasn't available on the Respironics machines that I have used.
Good to know you don't have to send the machine back.

As for the bloating....just how bad is it and are you using Flex exhale relief? If not using Flex...give it a try and see if it helps.
Can you post an image of last night's detailed report?