Pretty much a Newbie...Excited I have to share

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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ecolligan624
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Pretty much a Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by ecolligan624 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 2:36 pm

Backstory.. Diagnosed with Moderate OSA (AHI at 15.6) I started BiPap about 25 days ago. Originally started with a nasal mask, however found out quickly I am a mouth breather. It wasn't an issue that a chin strap would fix and I was too afraid to tape my mouth shut.

On to the Resmed F10...I stopped waking myself up because the air was rushing out of my mouth and started waking up to the squeaky balloon sound. I became angry, ripping off the mask several times in frustration....tightening, loosening, tightening..loosening...gah.. Yesterday I had an epiphany. First, I saw an idea to make a mask liner out of an old tee shirt. I cannot find the original post, but it worked amazingly! Not one squeaky leak last night. Second, I took the headgear from my first mask I think it's the airfit n10 and swapped it with my full face f10 headgear. It was amazing. A much better fit. Wondering if I might need XS headgear instead of S. Best night of sleep ever. I had to rig the mask, but I think it's going to work! AHI was down to 2.85 and leak rate at .41.
Last edited by ecolligan624 on Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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telly
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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by telly » Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:05 pm

EColligan,
Thanks for sharing your story. It's nice to hear when all is needed for restful sleep is a little innovation and a cut up t-shirt.

Telly

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xzombie
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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by xzombie » Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:11 pm

You are a Pretty Newbie!

Go Steelers!

Telly, from you're sig you must be a trumpet player. Me too!

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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by Tango » Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:13 pm

Fantastic!!
Question for the experienced: a 5 or lower on AHI means therapy is working. I understand getting a 0.00 is not possible so, what is a good average most folks obtain that is between 0 and 5?
Is a 2.8 considered normal therapy or should i try and get a 1 or less. In other words , should i be super happy with a 3. or do i need to tweak things a bit?
if you had to guess, what is the average AHi of regular everyday users?
maybe we can all post our average AHI for the month, months or week. ?? That way us newbies know what you all consider to be happy numbers on the AHI scale.
New guy-T

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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by xzombie » Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:37 pm

5 or less is normal for a healthy person without cpap. So I figure if I'm under 5 I'm doing pretty well. If I get close to 5 I start to get nervous and try to figure out what's happening.

Obviously, not a scientifically based answer.

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SleepyEyes21
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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by SleepyEyes21 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:02 pm

Tango wrote:Fantastic!!
Question for the experienced: a 5 or lower on AHI means therapy is working. I understand getting a 0.00 is not possible so, what is a good average most folks obtain that is between 0 and 5?
Is a 2.8 considered normal therapy or should i try and get a 1 or less. In other words , should i be super happy with a 3. or do i need to tweak things a bit?
if you had to guess, what is the average AHi of regular everyday users?
maybe we can all post our average AHI for the month, months or week. ?? That way us newbies know what you all consider to be happy numbers on the AHI scale.
New guy-T
Good questions, Tango - I'm interested in these things as well. Why is a 0.00 not possible? Does everyone experience some apneas by a certain age?

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ecolligan624
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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by ecolligan624 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:04 pm

My dr also told me that their goal is to be less than 5. It is really hard to get all the way down to 0, but it is possible. When I first started, I was getting anywhere between 6-8, but just recently my AHI has dipped under 5 each night (since I got the FFM).

Em

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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by palerider » Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:05 pm

Tango wrote:Fantastic!!
Question for the experienced: a 5 or lower on AHI means therapy is working. I understand getting a 0.00 is not possible so
says who?

Image

unusual, but not impossible. normally somewhere under 1 these days

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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by kteague » Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:07 pm

Tango wrote:... a 5 or lower on AHI means therapy is working. I understand getting a 0.00 is not possible so, what is a good average most folks obtain that is between 0 and 5? Is a 2.8 considered normal therapy or should i try and get a 1 or less. In other words , should i be super happy with a 3. or do i need to tweak things a bit?
What is an acceptable AHI depends on more than just the number. A person with an AHI of 4 whose events were all maybe 10-15 seconds without desats or arousals may do just fine to not strive for lower numbers. Then a person with an AHI of 1 whose events were of 45 second duration with desats and arousals may suffer greatly from ineffective treatment. The other piece to that puzzle is whether increasing the pressure to prevent more events causes other issues, like pressure related centrals, leaks or air in the belly. Then one would have to weigh if the gains are worth the losses. I personally have had long periods where a zero AHI was as often as not, but in the last few years I've hovered between 0.5 and 1.3 and I'm gonna have to be ok with that due to belly air at the pressure I now require. Each of us has to figure out what is acceptable for our own situation. My approach is to tweak toward perfection but stop short if problems develop.

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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by Captain_Midnight » Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:11 pm

eco624, nice work. I always applaud people who find ways to succeed.

Tango asks... Question for the experienced: a 5 or lower on AHI means therapy is working. I understand getting a 0.00 is not possible so, what is a good average most folks obtain that is between 0 and 5?
Is a 2.8 considered normal therapy or should i try and get a 1 or less. In other words , should i be super happy with a 3. or do i need to tweak things a bit?
if you had to guess, what is the average AHi of regular everyday users?
maybe we can all post our average AHI for the month, months or week. ?? That way us newbies know what you all consider to be happy numbers on the AHI scale.


It is a fair question you ask, and the best answer is likely a bit vague. Taking a large view, any improvement is good, and should be physiologically helpful. That said, I think that one's objective should typically be to find ways of incrementally improving AHI; and this might be a combination of optimizing the xpap setup (eco624 is a great example), and also good diet and exercise. I fully expect the question you ask to become a topic of greater interest among researchers in the field, eventually.

Should we apneic patients post our averages? Might be useful, my one worry is that some folks might hit a therapeutic wall at a higher AHI than others, and feel as thought they did not succeed. Worthy of a discussion, however. I would love to know the median AHI of this group, and what some typical changes are from beginning therapy to current.

.

.

.

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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by Guest » Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:33 pm

ecolligan624 wrote:Backstory.. Diagnosed with Moderate OSA (AHI at 15.6) I started BiPap about 25 days ago. Originally started with a nasal mask, however found out quickly I am a mouth breather. It wasn't an issue that a chin strap would fix and I was too afraid to tape my mouth shut.

On to the Resmed F10...I stopped waking myself up because the air was rushing out of my mouth and started waking up to the squeaky balloon sound. I became angry, ripping off the mask several times in frustration....tightening, loosening, tightening..loosening...gah.. Yesterday I had an epiphany. First, I saw an idea to make a mask liner out of an old tee shirt. I cannot find the original post, but it worked amazingly! Not one squeaky leak last night. Second, I took the headgear from my first mask I think it's the airfit n10 and swapped it with my full face f10 headgear. It was amazing. A much better fit. Wondering if I might need XS headgear instead of S. Best night of sleep ever. I had to rig the mask, but I think it's going to work! AHI was down to 2.85 and leak rate at .41.
Pretty Newbie starts out with a BiPap, an excellent machine, how you managed that may be a topic for another thread.

Zeros can be had but as mentioned there can be other factors; did anyone mention LARGE leaks? Leaks can prevent the machine from detecting events. So it is important to know other info before celebrating.

You need to know your mask leak rate. There should have been a sheet with a chart for the leak rates in with your mask. The leak rate varies with the pressure so you also need to know your 90% pressure, that will get you close enuff. So when evaluating how you are doing post your
1. mask make & model
2. Pressure
3. Leak rate avg.

Leak rate is best seen in the software as you may see spikes or other problems the LCD display doesn't show you. In fact, the display is an avg. so can hide leaks and events.

My last visit to the doc my AHI avg was .2 He smiled and wanted to make a copy. That means I had plenty of zeros during that period. So yes they are possible but the AHI does not count FLs (Flow Limitations), I can feel the difference if I have too many FLs mixed in there.

On the software chart you want your leak line to be fairly flat, so keep an eye on that and make any corrections to keep that in check. Adjusting the straps on your mask at your peak pressure while laying down in your sleeping position BEFORE going to sleep is the best way to help reduce leaks. As the pressure increases it puts more force on the straps.

HTH

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ecolligan624
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Re: Pretty Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by ecolligan624 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:43 pm

So from what was explained to me, most of my episodes were apneas rather than hypopneas and during my titration I didn't respond to treatment until they switched to bipap. I also think mine has to do with the frequency of CA. Here is last night's graph.

Image

Leak rate makes me happy!


Em

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Re: Pretty much a Newbie...Excited I have to share

Post by Guest » Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:07 pm

ecolligan624 wrote:Leak rate makes me happy!
It should it looks great.

You have an excellent machine which appears to be set up well also.