still not sleeping, BP going up, maybe giving up

Don't give up! I have beat this all around the bush but here are some highlights...

Re: Is there a CPAP Honeymoon Syndrome??
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65 ... 62#p614562

Re: SEVERE Apnea affecting mental functioning??? Please Help!
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69 ... 14#p642914

Re: Do you hose up before you're ready to go to sleep?
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69 ... 09#p642909

Re: Update on husband
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68 ... 38#p638338

Re: Dreaming of insects - frustrated with CPAP
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68 ... 23#p635323

Re: Help with ASV report
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68 ... 41#p635041

Re: How long did it take to "take to it"?
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67 ... 49#p627249

Re: No Answers Yet For Problems With ASV
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?p=623157#p623157
Re: No Answers Yet For Problems With ASV
viewtopic/t70576/viewtopic.php?p=623579#p623579

Dogluvr..just want to chime in here and tell you to hang in there. I'm only a couple months in, but you have a great group of people here to walk you/talk through learning what you need to in order to get things right!! I've not had the troubles you've had, but even minimal I would of never figured any of it out without these folks...stay with us and it will work out!!

Don't give up. You only just started.

Think about it, if you broke your leg would you expect to be up and running with a cast on in 2 weeks? I know i couldn't make it up and down stairs with a cast on for the first 4 weeks!

Both you sleeping mind and your body have to adapt to this new way of sleeping. Ever try to break a habit? Then you know you don't do it over night or in two weeks.

Thanks all for the helpful tips and encouragement. I slept my 'normal' last night initially sleeping about 2 1/2 hrs then waking up and got frustrated trying to fall back to sleep. Finally, got up (woke my husband up as well...this has been hard on him also) and as robysue has suggested, went and did some other things for about an hour I think. Was feeling very tired at that point and went back to bed with the mask on and slept a pretty good 3 additional hrs.
I've looked at some of my data from my sd card but I need to study the tutorial from uncle bob some more so i know what i am looking at. I tried saving some print/screen images in a word document and the overall summary in pdf but don't know what I can do with those. I don't have a digital camera (still use the old film kind....'if it ain't broke...') and am not very tech savvy but at least I figured out that my husband's computer had the sd card slot and looked at the data on there. Then sent the images via attachments to my computer.
questions though from this data...I see my pressure ranges from 6 to about 10 so that seems to be fairly consistent right? It says 95th percentile at 8.8 and median at 7.0. The leak data says median = 0, 95th percentile = 9.0 and maximum = 16.8. What does all that mean? My average AHI = 0.5.

dogluvr wrote:I see my pressure ranges from 6 to about 10 so that seems to be fairly consistent right? It says 95th percentile at 8.8 and median at 7.0. The leak data says median = 0, 95th percentile = 9.0 and maximum = 16.8. What does all that mean? My average AHI = 0.5.

These numbers are all very good.
95% numbers just mean that for 95% of the night your were at OR below that number.

So for pressure...95% of the night you were at or below 8.8 with a median average of 7.0. These are right where we would want them to be with an APAP range of 6 to 10cm.

For leak...95% of the time you were at or below 9.0 L/min (ResMed reports unintentional leak). Median average is 0.0 and the worst the leak ever got to was the maximum of 16.8 L/min. ResMed's line in the sand where they say therapy and data reporting can be impaired is 24 L/min. So your leak is well controlled.

AHI of 0.5 is very good. Well under the AHI of 5 that is generally considered to be effective.

So nothing here pointing to obvious reason for waking up. The reports themselves might point to a maybe.
To post the reports here you have to place those images in a host site. I use photobucket. Then I copy the IMG code for where the image is located and I paste it in the post here.

Sounds more like you are having some sleep maintenance insomnia issues from something. It could just be the general use of the machine and mask or even external forces. Did you have any problems along this line prior to starting cpap therapy? If not, can you identify what may be waking you up? Mask issues? Hose issues?

Congrats on navigating the tech side of things! You are well on your way to learning and becoming an empowered cpaper!! Your numbers are great for a newb, and I suspect your wake up is either a subconscious thing dealing with this new object attached to your face, or if you are also prone to bathroom calls during the night, your mind may be anticipating those...but you will find, soon enough, they no longer happen. Give it some time.... you are doing great!

I will take a look at photobucket to see if I can figure out how to upload any images but I am encouraged about the data. I knew the AHI was good but wasn't sure about the leak data. Yes, I did have some insomnia issues, like I am having now previously. Not too much trouble falling asleep but waking up during the night and having difficulties falling back to sleep. However it was more sporadic, at most this would happen 2 days in a row, maybe once a week. I often have gotten up at least once though to use the restroom, certainly over the course of the last year or two. Perhaps I am anticipating needing to get up and/or it's part of the insomnia monster that robysue has written about. Also perhaps now, my body thinks I have had enough sleep after 2 - 3 hrs because I am getting more restful sleep, something I wasn't getting before. However, of course 2 - 4 or 5 hrs of sleep in total is not good enough, at least not for me. I need at least 7 to feel rested. I could still be waking up due to getting used to the mask also. It's feeling better but still foreign. And I did notice more of a dry throat last night and have on occassion. I've played around some with the heat and humidity to get that under control.
I did take the melatonin last night and will try that for a few days. Maybe I can get my body back into a 'normal' sleep pattern and teach it to sleep through the night for the most part.
Thanks all !!! I am so glad I found you all. You have been so helpful

dogluvr wrote:Thanks all for the helpful tips and encouragement. I slept my 'normal' last night initially sleeping about 2 1/2 hrs then waking up and got frustrated trying to fall back to sleep. Finally, got up (woke my husband up as well...this has been hard on him also) and as robysue has suggested, went and did some other things for about an hour I think. Was feeling very tired at that point and went back to bed with the mask on and slept a pretty good 3 additional hrs.

First a great big congratulations for taking the first step in breaking that bad habit of simply taking the mask off and turning over and going back to sleep.

It does get easier with time. But you do have to work at it by not giving in to the dark side.

And yes, this process of learning how to sleep with a hose on our nose hard on our partners. I've woken my hubby up numerous times in frustration. And woken him up accidentally when either coming to bed or coming back to bed. Give your hubby a big kiss and a hug and tell him you know it's been hard on him too. I bet he gives you a big bear hug back and says something along the lines of "It's even harder on you, but we'll get through this somehow."

questions though from this data...I see my pressure ranges from 6 to about 10 so that seems to be fairly consistent right? It says 95th percentile at 8.8 and median at 7.0. The leak data says median = 0, 95th percentile = 9.0 and maximum = 16.8. What does all that mean? My average AHI = 0.5.

As pugsy points out, all good data. That AHI = 0.5 means that you are now averaging about one apnea/hypopnea every two hours of sleep. That means as far as the breathing is going, you're breathing normally and that with mask, your OSA is no longer an issue: Objectively your sleep is no longer being interrupted by the OSA-arousals and desats. So now you can focus your attention on making the sleep subjectively feel as high quality as the objective data indicates.

I wouldn't pay much attention to the smiley/frowny face. In almost a year I have never had a frowny face and my leaks have been all over the place. You can look at your leak line in ResScan and get a better idea how that is going. Leaks may be waking you up.
I think I saw that your minimum pressure is 6 and your ramp starts at 6 for 20 minutes. Is that correct? If so, you could just turn the ramp off since it isn't doing anything. If you are comfortable starting at 6.
Are you using EPR? It's an exhale relief feature that drops the pressure so you don't have to exhale against it. For many of us feels like the machine is telling us when to breathe. DME's tend to set it to 2 or 3 on a new machine. You might try turning it off and then go up from 0 if you feel you need it.
Looking forward to seeing some screenshots of your data.

The overnight numbers can also be read on the screen. It should show something.

Also, in the Finnish CPAP-pages many have indicated that high blood pressure has gone down once the
treatment starts working.

[edit]
I forgot to mention many of them were treated with depression dugs for some years before the apnea was diagnosed.
So they lost something too, when the treatment started to work - their depression.

dogluvr wrote:I will take a look at photobucket to see if I can figure out how to upload any images but I am encouraged about the data.

I need at least 7 to feel rested. I could still be waking up due to getting used to the mask also. It's feeling better but still foreign. And I did notice more of a dry throat last night and have on occassion. I've played around some with the heat and humidity to get that under control.
I did take the melatonin last night and will try that for a few days.

Both photobucket and flickr are very helpful with the uploads. Basically look for the "Upload" button and follow the instructions - which tend to look just like the "find and open the file" of your word processor.

Dry throat is a red flag. Often if you are using nasal masks it means you are opening your mouth. That means experimenting with chinstraps, tape, or getting a full face mask.

Hurray, I had my first good night of sleep last night since I started cpap I think I slept about 7 1/2 hrs. Happy today and my coworkers noticed. Hubby happy too.
2 nights ago was probably my worst. was very depressed and angry. I hope last nights results will continue to be the norm at least for the most part
I'm going to an appt with my dr tomorrow to look over my data. Hopefully she or her nurse will spend a little time with me going over the results with me thus far so I can closely monitor in the future.

So now that you know it can work, stick with it! It does take some time to adjust. Glad you got a good night.