1. I now sleep on my left side and don't move all night other than bathroom breaks. I used to toss and turn, moving all over the bed throughout the night.
2. I used to get up literally every 2 hours to go to the bathroom. Now I sleep thru with one trip. ONE! Amazing.
3. I have adjusted to the nasal pillow mask very well. Not experiencing leaks as far as I can tell. I did discover after the first night that I need a chin strap so have been experimenting with several. I have been a major mouth breather all my life, so no surprise that a chin strap is needed.
4. I love the Airsense 10 Auto. It's so quiet, love the built in humidifier, the auto sensing that it does. I am lucky my doctor prescribed this specific top of the line machine.
5. I raised the doctor's initial 8-10 setting to 8-13, and it looks to me like the max of 13 is just about right. I am really not sure how to judge the 8 min. though. Does the SH data support a 8 min setting?
6. I am in 100% compliance, have averaged about 9 hours per night of machine time, but that doesn't mean sleep time.
Here is the other news:
1. Most importantly, I am not feeling well rested, and I really really want to think CPAP will accomplish this. I am yawning, low energy, and late in the day watching TV I can doze off. Yesterday I went to see "The Black Panther" at 9:30AM and found myself dozing some! Now I know it's only been about a month, but still...
2. Getting to sleep is still a bit of an issue for me although it's getting better. Still taking 30-45 minutes.
3. I am seeing good AHI numbers for the first session or two (AHI > 2.0) but then if I try to go back to sleep so I am not so tired during the day and that last session is crap. I have seen this a couple of nights now.
For example, Last night went to bed at 9:30, bathroom at 1:00, woke up at 4:15, went to bathroom and checked the console - AHI was 1.9 at that point, not bad. I don't look at a clock, but It's still dark out, so I think I should be able to get some more sleep so I try. After about 40 minutes I think, maybe a second pillow to elevate my head might be a good idea so I turn off the machine and get a second pilllow. This morning I load the SD card into SH to see what happened. The overall AHI is now 5.48. From 5:00 to 7:00 it's mostly SWJ time and the AHI from 4:26 to 6:57 is 14.9. Are you kidding me?
Here are two graphs from last night:
First graph is the whole night, and second one is just the period when I was trying to get some more sleep after 4:26AM. What happened at 5:30 that all of a sudden I am getting lots of apnea's of every flavor?
I have my first doctor folowup appointment monday, so I guess the bottom line is : progress, but it certainly is not acceptable yet.
