Adjustments made: how am I doing

I started this CPAP journey about 12 years ago -- and I believe, based on my wife's testimony, I was probably 15 years late in starting. Since July 31, 2014, I think things are finally getting under control. I've been through the initial CPAP machine, replaced by a BiPAP machine, and now I'm back to a CPAP machine -- this is the first one to give me on-machine readout numbers I can record on a clipboard every morning and immediately see how I'm doing (well, at least in gross terms). My major problem, I believe, in the past six months was large leaks, frequently in the 25% to 45% range. I tried all sorts of strap adjustments to bring those under control, with no consistent results. And even on the rare occasions when I had 0% large leaks, the other numbers (particularly AHI) did not fall into place.

I went to a sleep doctor, and he increased my pressure from 10.00 to 14.00. That didn't help. He then tried me on 16.00, indicating that if that didn't work, I'd have to change machines, go through a bunch of sleep studies ... yikes.

WHAT SEEMS TO WORK

1) This is basic, but because my mask LOOKED clean, I wasn't washing it every morning. So I started. I'd dampen the seal, use one drop of dish washing detergent, and wash away, using fresh water over my fingers and fingers on the seal to rinse until the fingers started making a squeaking sound indicating the soap was gone. That helped a lot, but not completely.

2) That thin film of body oil (so thin I couldn't detect it visually) on the mask had to come from somewhere, so my wife suggested I wash my face with soap and water just before going to bed, and rinse thoroughly. At first I just used water, but later added a little bath soap. And, she said, maybe it would help to use the electric razor and shave just before putting on the mask. THESE CHANGES DID THE TRICK!

The numbers are settling down: In the past 11 days, one 5% leak, one 4% leak, two 2% leaks, thee 1% leaks, and four 0% leaks. All AHI's < 5.0. All partial breathing at 0%.

I look at the SpeepyHead readings (v0.9.3-9) and confess to being confused. There are a lot of numbers there, but in any event I feel better.

Next steps? Is this under control? I don't go back to the doctor until November 14th.

There's a newer version of SleepyHead available if you want to try it.
If you need some explanations as to what you see on SleepyHead you can check out my tutorial.
Links are available in my signature line.

websquad wrote:All partial breathing at 0%.

This must be from the machines LCD screen. It's not partial breathing....the PB is for Periodic Breathing
Periodic Breathing is a Respironics data feature defined as a persistent waning and waxing breathing pattrn which repeats itself between 30 and 100 seconds. The nadir of the breathing pattern is characterized by at least a 40% reduction in airflow from an established baseline flow. The pattern must be present for several minutes before it can be identified as periodic breathing. No therapy adjustments are made in response to periodic breathing.

Glossary of terms you might see on your reports
http://sleepyhead.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... lossary#PB

websquad wrote:The numbers are settling down: In the past 11 days, one 5% leak, one 4% leak, two 2% leaks, thee 1% leaks, and four 0% leaks.

Again I assume this is from the machine's LCD display and if so the what this means is so and so % of the time spent in large leak.
Obviously 0% means at not time did you venture into large leak territory.
Good job on finally getting a better handle on the leaks but even a 2% time in large leak isn't the end of the world. If you slept 7 hours that would be 420 minutes and 2 % of 420 is only 8.4 minutes. Not bad at all.

For my mask, I wipe it down at least every other day with cpap wipes, soak it once a week in a tub of dishwater/vinegar solution along with hose and humidifier which get a weekly bath only. I rinse the hose by soaking in a tub of clean water, rinse the mask and humidifier by hand to get into mask crevices, etc.. do it in the morning as soon as I get up, hang the hose on the shower head, lay the humidifier and mask components on a towel and everything is dry and ready to go at bedtime.

library lady wrote:For my mask, I wipe it down at least every other day with cpap wipes, soak it once a week in a tub of dishwater/vinegar solution along with hose and humidifier which get a weekly bath only. I rinse the hose by soaking in a tub of clean water, rinse the mask and humidifier by hand to get into mask crevices, etc.. do it in the morning as soon as I get up, hang the hose on the shower head, lay the humidifier and mask components on a towel and everything is dry and ready to go at bedtime.

Like so many others, you are very diligent in cleaning your equipment and then leave it to dry in the most germ filled room in the house.

LSAT wrote:Like so many others, you are very diligent in cleaning your equipment and then leave it to dry in the most germ filled room in the house.

meh, what's a little fecal coliform amonst friends?

Pugsy wrote:There's a newer version of SleepyHead available if you want to try it...

Pugsy, I installed the newest version from the link you provided. It was NOT a smooth install. Indeed, it didn't install, and my old version is still registered in my copy of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. It prompted me for my CPAP data, but the implication was that it wanted me to plug in the chip from my CPAP machine (which is not conveniently nearby), so I just bailed on the process. Unless there is something awful about the version I'm using, I'll stick with it. Do you think I need to dig deeper?

websquad wrote:

Pugsy wrote:There's a newer version of SleepyHead available if you want to try it...

Pugsy, I installed the newest version from the link you provided. It was NOT a smooth install. Indeed, it didn't install, and my old version is still registered in my copy of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. It prompted me for my CPAP data, but the implication was that it wanted me to plug in the chip from my CPAP machine (which is not conveniently nearby), so I just bailed on the process. Unless there is something awful about the version I'm using, I'll stick with it. Do you think I need to dig deeper?

the test versions don't install, just unzip the file, and run the version of sleepyhead that's in the unzipped folder.

the newer versions work better.

yes, you have to put the sd card from the cpap into the computer to read the data.

There's no urgent reason to use the newer version if you don't want to.
As PR said...the newer version doesn't have an installer and that may have been your problem if you aren't familiar with using the application.exe file to open a program.
You can wait until Mark finally releases a new version which includes the installer to make it easier if you want.
The newer version doesn't do anything to the older version on your computer. Doesn't update it or make any changes to it. The newer version is a totally separate program and works just like any totally new program would work. It can't pull any data from the older version.