Newb with bad first night results

Hello,
I was recently diagnosed with moderate apnea with an AHI of 15. I just picked up my APAP and nasal pillow mask yesterday. After using the machine last night, my results weren't good, I still got an AHI score of 15. Is that normal to get a bad score the first night? Maybe it takes a few nights/weeks for my body to accept the treatment? I did lift my mask a couple times before falling asleep so I could take a mouth breath, since it felt like I couldn't take a full breath through the nasal pillows. (I always have to take a few deep deep mouth breaths before falling asleep, habit I guess) I also woke up later when the pressure ramped up to 15, and had air leaking into my mouth, blowing out my cheeks, I did see on here before that putting your tongue against your top front teeth can fix this, and it helped, but I could still feel some air trying to leak into my mouth. Anyway, any suggestions or wisdom would be helpful!

MoodyMollypending wrote:Hello,
I was recently diagnosed with moderate apnea with an AHI of 15. I just picked up my APAP and nasal pillow mask yesterday. After using the machine last night, my results weren't good, I still got an AHI score of 15. Is that normal to get a bad score the first night? Maybe it takes a few nights/weeks for my body to accept the treatment? I did lift my mask a couple times before falling asleep so I could take a mouth breath, since it felt like I couldn't take a full breath through the nasal pillows. (I always have to take a few deep deep mouth breaths before falling asleep, habit I guess) I also woke up later when the pressure ramped up to 15, and had air leaking into my mouth, blowing out my cheeks, I did see on here before that putting your tongue against your top front teeth can fix this, and it helped, but I could still feel some air trying to leak into my mouth. Anyway, any suggestions or wisdom would be helpful!

Welcome.
It is very common for the APAP lower pressure limit to be set too low to be comfortable, and it also makes it harder to prevent apnea.
I strongly recommend joining the forum, reading the 3 links below, and start learning how to better manage your therapy.

It's very possible that some of the events you saw flagged were related to awake breathing irregularities getting flagged by mistake.
These machines don't know sleep status at all. They just measure air flow and our awake breathing is much more irregular than our asleep breathing.
So if you had multiple wake ups during the night it wouldn't be impossible for a good many of those events to be awake breathing events.

It is also possible that your pressure settings aren't optimal.
Get the available software so you can see what kind of events are happening and when they are happening.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

Don't feel badly about not sleeping so great. I think it took me over 2 weeks to have any semblance of a decent night's sleep with all the crap on my face. It's just not natural and takes the brain a while to come to grips with the new alien best friend on the face.

TedVPAP wrote:

MoodyMollypending wrote:Hello,
I was recently diagnosed with moderate apnea with an AHI of 15. I just picked up my APAP and nasal pillow mask yesterday. After using the machine last night, my results weren't good, I still got an AHI score of 15. Is that normal to get a bad score the first night? Maybe it takes a few nights/weeks for my body to accept the treatment? I did lift my mask a couple times before falling asleep so I could take a mouth breath, since it felt like I couldn't take a full breath through the nasal pillows. (I always have to take a few deep deep mouth breaths before falling asleep, habit I guess) I also woke up later when the pressure ramped up to 15, and had air leaking into my mouth, blowing out my cheeks, I did see on here before that putting your tongue against your top front teeth can fix this, and it helped, but I could still feel some air trying to leak into my mouth. Anyway, any suggestions or wisdom would be helpful!

Welcome.
It is very common for the APAP lower pressure limit to be set too low to be comfortable, and it also makes it harder to prevent apnea.
I strongly recommend joining the forum, reading the 3 links below, and start learning how to better manage your therapy.

Thank you
I joined, and am waiting for approval, looks like it could take a while though. Thank you for the links, I did get Sleepyhead, uploaded the data from last night, got a screenshot, uploaded it to Imgur, now I'm just trying to figure out how to share it Let's see if it works, I put a space after the . so I could post it. https://imgur. com/a/K8ltK

Fixed the link for you

https://imgur.com/a/K8ltK

Please review this thread for format of the graphs. You have included unneeded graphs and made the needed ones tiny.
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

No need to redo this image though. I mention it for future images.

Your minimum pressure is likely too low and very probably part of the reason you had some issues feeling like you couldn't breathe initially.
It's hard to make much of a conclusion from one night's data and a night with poor sleep...but I suspect that 7 cm might be a better choice both for comfort and holding the airway open better.
Often when the minimum pressure is more optimal the machine won't go as high as it did with the lower minimum.
It works better by preventing the airway from collapsing in the first place than trying to fix it after the fact.

Ultimately you need good solid blocks of sleep to be able to get a real feel for the pressure needs.

I am thinking that the guest who posted the link was the original not logged in member MoodyMollyPending who just didn't use the handle.

MoodyMollypending wrote:I still got an AHI score of 15.

Goes along with the report that was linked to from "guest".

No need to start a new thread. Unless the "guest" isn't MoodyMolly.

xxyzx wrote: please start a new thread
it gets confusing when two people or more get intermixed in the same one

Thank you Pugsy! Sorry about the funny graphs, I read the post, and I'll be sure to do it right next time!
The time that the pressure dropped suddenly from 15, that's when I woke up with the pressure feeling too high, and blowing into my mouth, so I turned the ramp back on in hopes that I could fall back to sleep with a lower pressure. Anyway, I'll keep on keeping on, and maybe skip the ramp so hopefully the pressure will start off higher. I'll try posting my results from tonight again tomorrow. Thanks again for your comments, hopefully I'll improve once I get used to everything!

Sorry for the confusion with the username, I did indeed accidentally post my results under "guest" instead of the username I started with, I'm still getting used to this forum's design!

OMG! dare you suggest the Dr x neglected to actually read and understand the post and has been proven wrong? Again? You all are in for it now! After all, if Pugsy can notice that, surely a superior intellect like Dr x should notice.

I would avoid the ramp but it really isn't all that much different from your starting pressure of 5.
Ramp starts at 4 cm.

If you wake up during the night with the pressures too high...just turn the machine off and then right back on again and it will start at 5.

You may find that 5 starting point doesn't feel like enough air is moving. Play with the starting pressure a little just to see if a little more is more comfortable or not.

Don't know the ins and outs of your machine and how to change things?
Go here and request the provider/clinical manual.
http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p ... tup-manual

Also read up on Flex exhale relief. You might try it and see what you think but remember you have to be using at least 6 cm pressure for Flex exhale relief to kick in. You can't feel it at 5 cm because it won't engage until you are using at least 6 cm.

MoodyMollypending wrote:Thank you Pugsy! Sorry about the funny graphs, I read the post, and I'll be sure to do it right next time!
The time that the pressure dropped suddenly from 15, that's when I woke up with the pressure feeling too high, and blowing into my mouth, so I turned the ramp back on in hopes that I could fall back to sleep with a lower pressure. Anyway, I'll keep on keeping on, and maybe skip the ramp so hopefully the pressure will start off higher. I'll try posting my results from tonight again tomorrow. Thanks again for your comments, hopefully I'll improve once I get used to everything!

Sorry for the confusion with the username, I did indeed accidentally post my results under "guest" instead of the username I started with, I'm still getting used to this forum's design!

You are doing all the right things. Skipping the ramp make sense.

MoodyMollypending wrote: I did see on here before that putting your tongue against your top front teeth can fix this, and it helped, but I could still feel some air trying to leak into my mouth.

I'm not sure from your post if the back part of your tongue was up against the roof of your mouth (like when pronouncing a 'k' sound) at the same time the tip of the tongue was resting up behind your front teeth. If the back of the tongue is not raised, air can still easily enter the mouth when the tongue tip is in the raised position. Practising during the day can make the manoeuver more familiar come bedtime.

2 cents from
Jean

xxyzx wrote:

TASmart wrote:OMG! dare you suggest the Dr x neglected to actually read and understand the post and has been proven wrong? Again? You all are in for it now! After all, if Pugsy can notice that, surely a superior intellect like Dr x should notice.

====

typical nonsense
i read and understood the post
i have not been proven wrong

if i were you would post proof instead of stalking and harassing me

You were wrong because you thought that there were 2 different posters in this thread, rather than realizing that the same poster had simply forgotten to log in. By your own definitions, not only were you wrong but that makes you a liar also. Personally, I don't think an error makes one a liar but that's what you have claimed about me, and as it is said, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

My second night was much better than the first! AHI of 4.9. I did get some tiny leaks, and my nose is sore from the mask, but hopefully things will keep getting better from here!

Results from last night, I left off the snore chart, I only had one event of snoring -
https://imgur. com/a/2aiqa

MoodyMollypending wrote:My second night was much better than the first! AHI of 4.9. I did get some tiny leaks, and my nose is sore from the mask, but hopefully things will keep getting better from here!

Results from last night, I left off the snore chart, I only had one event of snoring -
https://imgur.com/a/2aiqa

You can try using some Ayer Saline Gel w/ Aloe.



I too had same sore nose issue when I first started and the gel helped me keep going until nose adapts to mask. Yes, your nose will adapt and stop becoming irritated.

Thank you Dreamstalker, I'll look for some next time I go to the store!