Help Me Understand My APAP

jdm2857 wrote:I upped the min pressure to 11.4 (in APAP mode) and will leave it there for several nights. I also tried to keep myself on my side with pillows. I thought I was successful but I really don't know for sure.

The LCD display numbers from last night are pretty bad:

95% pressure 13.6
Leak........... 0.42
AHI........... 24.8
AI............. 10.5
HI............. 14.3

I don't have time to download, crop, upload and post the data right now. unfortunately.

And, until you switch to CPAP mode and try to find some consistency, you probably won't even come close to being able to figure it out. In APAP mode there are too many variables that can mess with your numbers.


Den

That leak number is uncharacteristically bad for me.

As for APAP, how does it complicate things? I'm figuring that seeing how high it goes can guide future adjustments of my minimum pressure. But if there is agreement that CPAP will simplify things, I will try that.

If I have the energy tonight, I will turn my dresser around and push the back of it up against the side of the bed. I will prop pillows against it, and see if that will keep me on my side. Sort of like sleeping with my back up against the wall.

jdm2857 wrote:That leak number is uncharacteristically bad for me.

As for APAP, how does it complicate things? I'm figuring that seeing how high it goes can guide future adjustments of my minimum pressure. But if there is agreement that CPAP will simplify things, I will try that.

If I have the energy tonight, I will turn my dresser around and push the back of it up against the side of the bed. I will prop pillows against it, and see if that will keep me on my side. Sort of like sleeping with my back up against the wall.

I just keep referring back to the title (subject) of this thread: "Help Me Understand My APAP"

I've been trying to help......but, in the end, it's YOUR therapy.

Good luck.

Den

jdm2857 wrote:I will turn my dresser around and push the back of it up against the side of the bed. I will prop pillows against it, and see if that will keep me on my side. Sort of like sleeping with my back up against the wall.

If you have a T-shirt with a pocket, just turn it around and wear it backwards---but with a tennis ball inside the pocket. That should keep you from sleeping on your back.

If you still get dense untreated apneas & hypopneas while side sleeping, then your clinicians really need to dispense with the APAP trial and arrange for a proper in-lab titration IMO.

jdm2857 wrote:As for APAP, how does it complicate things? I'm figuring that seeing how high it goes can guide future adjustments of my minimum pressure. But if there is agreement that CPAP will simplify things, I will try that.

Well, for starters, if you do happen to have "CPAP emergent central apneas" and/or "CPAP emergent central hypopneas" (CompSAS) then allowing static pressures to move around the whole night via APAP modality is probably going to aggravate that tendency in physiology.

But there are yet other reasons in both physiology and algorithm design why CPAP modality can work for any given individual better than APAP modality. For me it's the opposite: I tend to fare just a little better with APAP modality than CPAP modality. But you don't have my particular physiologic reactions to various xPAP machines. Rather, you have your own presently undetermined SDB characteristics that might not take well to APAP modality for an entire variety of possible reasons.

Good luck.

-SWS wrote: . . . If you have a T-shirt with a pocket, just turn it around and wear it backwards---but with a tennis ball inside the pocket. That should keep you from sleeping on your back. . . .

The other trick I've heard about is running a belt through the slots of a bike helmet so that the belt is worn up under your armpits and the bike helmet edges are against your shoulder blades. The T-shirt trick sounds more comfortable, though.

jdm2857 wrote:...turn my dresser around and push the back of it up against the side of the bed. I will prop pillows against it, and see if that will keep me on my side. Sort of like sleeping with my back up against the wall.

How 'bout just a suitcase? Pack some books inside to prevent easily upendinged it, wedge it between your sleeping spot & a wall (assumng your bed is near a wall ), clutch a pillow to chest to support your arm while learning to sleep on your side.

-SWS wrote: Good luck.

Your smokin' monkey avatar is back! Feels like home. Hope you're enjoying a great start to the holiday weekend, -SWS.

jdm, IMHO, you'd be wise to listen to -SWS and Den (Wulfman), both of whom are very experienced and knowledgeable forum members who go that extra mile in giving us their advice. I've definitely benefited from the guidance I've been given here, as I'm sure many others have, too. Consider what they're telling you to do to improve your therapy. They know what they're talking about. Best of luck.

A little off topic - I'd like to respond and show some data but dont' know how to copy or get data from my Encore Viewer. It only lets me print reports. How are you all copying data and putting it in these posts?

Thanks

John

zebrajeb wrote:A little off topic - I'd like to respond and show some data but dont' know how to copy or get data from my Encore Viewer. It only lets me print reports. How are you all copying data and putting it in these posts?

Thanks

John

Hi, John.

Some of us scan the report into the pc and then upload it to a site like photobucket (free image hosting). Others take a screen-shot of the report on the pc, instead, and then upload it.

I use my scanner, upload to photobucket, and then resize the image to make it a little smaller. (Otherwise, when posted here, the right side of the report is obliterated, and that's where all the numbers are.) Once saved on a site like photobucket, copy the image's link location. Then create your post here and click the [Img] tag (above the post composition window) and paste the image's link location between the opening and closing Image tags. That should place the image in your post.

I might not be explaining this very well. It's easier done than said. If you have problems with it, let me know, and I'll try to be more specific. Hope this helps.

John - when you scan your detailed data page, save it in jpg format or you won't be able to put it on the forum from photobucket.

Actually, any way you can get the page in jpg format will work. It doesn't have to be scanned. Some do it with a photo imaging program that allows them to save it in jpg format.

BleepingBeauty wrote: Your smokin' monkey avatar is back! Feels like home.

The monkey breeder was supposed to mention prohibiting tobacco habits at home... So if your monkeys are allowed to freely smoke at home, I can't help but wonder which vices your pet cats are allowed. Catnip and rodent antagonism?



j/k

-SWS wrote:

BleepingBeauty wrote: Your smokin' monkey avatar is back! Feels like home.

The monkey breeder was supposed to mention prohibiting tobacco habits at home... So if your monkeys are allowed to freely smoke at home, I can't help but wonder which vices your pet cats are allowed. Catnip and rodent antagonism?



j/k

Yes to both, and "rodent antagonism" is a perfect expression! The catnip toys are more fun for me than they are for the cats, both of whom are approaching 10 years of age but revert to kittenhood in seconds when the catnip comes out.

As to rodent and/or bug patrol, all three of my pets (the two cats and the dog) are skilled hunters. If it moves, it doesn't for long. I've had two rodent incidents since I moved here. One time, one of the cats was going nuts in the living room. I was in the next room and went to investigate all the noise she was making. The cat had been stalking a mouse, and she had chased it INTO my rocker-recliner. Yikes! The mouse had scurried up underneath the chair and had successfully escaped the cat by climbing up into the hardware. I couldn't leave it there, because I feared that if I sat down, rocked or reclined, the mouse would be crushed and I'd have a real mess on my floor. (Sorry for the imagery!) So I shook the chair vigorously to dislodge the little beast and, before I could catch him and put him outside, the cat was on him. End of story.

Both of the cats subsequently alerted me to the presence of another pesky little rodent (a deer mouse) who'd chewed his way through a hose in my under-the-house heating/cooling duct system. He was running through the system, from floor vent to floor vent, and the cats were well aware of where he was at any given time. I was finally able to catch the little bugger by removing the floor vent in my dining room when I could see him clearly sitting there. I blocked his only exit back into the duct system, and then I was able to catch him. I let him go, hoping he wouldn't find his way back into the system. But by then he was pretty tired from being chased back and forth for so long (even though the vents prevented the cats from actually getting to him), and he didn't move from the spot where I let him go for a good few hours. I had the heating/cooling guy come and fix the chewed-up hose immediately, and I haven't <knock wood> had any problems since.

(My apologies to jdm for unwittingly hijacking your thread. Now back to our regularly-scheduled program of understanding your APAP and including reports in your posts...) Hawthorne is correct re: my omission about saving your scanned report in .jpg format. Sorry about that!

Thanks Bleeping Beauty and Hawthorne! I can scan to pdf from hard copy. Just didn't think to do it - duh.

John

If you use pdf, you don't have to go through scanning.
You can install a free program that creates a "pdf printer" on your compute. Selecting that printer you can create an immediate pdf file and save it on your disk. Saves time, and paper.

My personal preference in pdf printers is "PDF creator" http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

O.