2nd night on cpap still tired

[Spirit]

Hi,
cpap/mask update, no mask adjustments, no nostril swelling, no mouth dryness, chin strap stayed on, no mouth breathing, humidifier set to 3, but woke up 2 times cause water was filling hose, had to lift hose and drain water back into unit. So tonight, I am going to fix the hose higher then the unit. So tonight, I should fall sleep and not awaken at all, hopefully.

For newbies: Do not over tighten chin strap, I had on too tight, reason it kept popping off.

Although I am feeling mentally better, physically I still feel tired, I hope the fatigue doesn't continue, cause I have little patients and will get discouraged. My personality expects overnight results. Just been sleep deprived for so long, I'm craving to get a good nights sleep and feel refreshed once again. Not waking up, waiting for nightfall to go back to sleep.

Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

[Pugsy]

It does take time to repair the damage done by sleep apnea. Overnight miracles are really rare. Takes a lot of work and sometimes detective work.

I don't see any where that you posted any data? Have you looked at things to make sure that the therapy seems to be in the effective range? I went a week on therapy and still felt awful and still had my morning headache. My AHI was running 7-9. Once I increased the pressure a bit the numbers dropped and the morning headaches are a very rare occurance now. Energy levels vary. I am not supercharged yet. Started therapy on May 23.

Confirm that your results seem good. That leaks aren't impacting therapy, etc. Fix any problems that may be hindering things. Then worry about patience.

[Spirit]

I don't see any where that you posted any data?

Hi Thanks for reply. I have no idea about data, cpap tech said, the only thing, I need to worry about is starting/stopping the cpap. But would be awesome, if I could see what was happening during sleep. Would like to make pressure adjustments, etc.... Sometimes waiting for doctors, can take forever !!!

Thanks for encouragement, it's taken 3 years to finally figure out, I have apnea, I hope it doesn't take another 3 years to get a decent night sleep from treatment. I'm feeling better mentally, so that's a positive.

[vipertec]

I expect instant results also,boy was I wrong,stick with it ,like I did you will get positive results. I am also experiencing insomnia ,I'm still working on fixing that,the first medication the dr gave me hurt my kidneys but I slept like a rock. With just the cpap therapy ,I'm nowhere near as tired as I was ,I may still have a little crabbiness but I'm not as tired ,keep at it and good luck.

[Spirit]

I expect instant results also,boy was I wrong,stick with it ,like I did you will get positive results. I am also experiencing insomnia ,I'm still working on fixing that,the first medication the dr gave me hurt my kidneys but I slept like a rock. With just the cpap therapy ,I'm nowhere near as tired as I was ,I may still have a little crabbiness but I'm not as tired ,keep at it and good luck.

Hi Vipertec,
Thanks for reply, encouragement and inspiration. I'm sure we all wish for overnight miracles. I developed insonmia, not feeling comfortable falling asleep, feeling oxygen deprived. Thought I had copd. Think it may be a mental issue for me, cause I don't feel any pressure going into my nose, but when I open my mouth, feels like a tornado, Lol !!!! So mentally, not feeling treatment is working. Just seems pressure was alot higher during sleep study, the pillows were about to blow off my nose, that was some serious pressure.

Just need to give it more time.

Fantastic news, your feeling lots better, and I hope you continue to improve.

[vipertec]

Fantastic news, your feeling lots better, and I hope you continue to improve.

Thank you ! and so will you ,you'll see!

[Pugsy]

I have no idea about data, cpap tech said, the only thing, I need to worry about is starting/stopping the cpap. But would be awesome, if I could see what was happening during sleep. Would like to make pressure adjustments, etc.... Sometimes waiting for doctors, can take forever !!!

I don't wait for doctors. If I had been willing to do that I would have had to wait till next week's appointment to discuss the sleep studies and still felt like crap for 2 months. There are many things your little machine can show you that might indicate either good results and needing more patience or maybe less than optimal results and work needs to be done. You don't want to go on "feelings" alone and you don't have to with your machine. If you go into the clinical menu be sure to write down what you see just in case you change something and want to change it back. Be careful in there.

I don't have your type of machine. Can someone please explain how to get to the data on the LED screen?
It may or may not even be turned on from within the clinician window. You can get to the Clinician menu this way. This may point you in the right direction.

http://www.cpap-supply.com/Articles.asp?ID=130 this should get you close,
ResMed S8 Series
To get into the provider setup mode in a ResMed S8 CPAP machine - such as the S8 Compact, S8 Elite or S8 AutoSet Vantage - follow these steps:

1. press the right and down arrows simultaneously for about 3 seconds until the "Clinical Menu" appears on the screen

Use the up and down arrows to cycle through the settings and use the left "soft key" to select "Change" or use the right "soft key" to "Exit" from the Clinical Menu. Below is a list of settings you can cycle through on an S8 AutoSet Vantage automatic CPAP machine. There are four groups of settings which have adjustments and data within them.

* Settings
o CPAP Mode
o Minimum CPAP Pressure
o Maximum CPAP Pressure
o Maximum Settling / Ramp
o Mask Type
o Tube Length
o Humidifier
o Smart Start
o Leak Alert
* Results
o Efficacy Data
o Usage Data

[Spirit]

Hi Pugsy,
I'll give it a shot in a bit, and post what info it shares.
Thanks

[SleepyT]

Spirit...looks like you will kill two birds with one stone, then. You will get better by using the CPAP AND you will get patience. A two for one deal! (my best guess is it will take a month or more before you feel significantly better...but who can tell? stick with it!)

T.

[Hoze-Zay]

Todays suggested reading is.....Sleep Debt.

[Spirit]

Hi Pugsy,
I was able to browse around cpap data, here's the results:

Used: 00014
Usage: 0003/0003
Usage: 0:15hrs
Leak: 0.16 L/s
AHE: 8.0
AI: 4.0
HI: 4.0

I have idea, what this data means. Any help greatly appreciated.

[carbonman]

Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

Spirit, it's a journey.

You're on the correct path.
Stay on it.
Once you get your body and machine dialed into each other,
it will happen.... a little each day.

Keep reading.
Keep asking questions.
Keep learning.
Keep trying stuff.

It's about education and perseverance.

All the best to you as your new life begins.

[DoriC]

You might lower the humidifier setting,it should help with rainout. This is a journey, not a sprint to the finish line, so have patience my friend, you'll get there. Read all you can on New Users and Our Wisdom sites, it will answer so many questions. Good luck, Dori

[Pugsy]

Usage: 0:15hrs
Leak: 0.16 L/s
AHI: 8.0
AI: 4.0
HI: 4.0

ResMed machines already do the math and subtract the intentional leak or vent rate flow, so what you see as a leak report is true leak. Respironics machines do not do this math for us and they also report leaks in L/min. So don't confuse what you see and try to compare it to what I might have. Just a caution because it can be misleading.

Leak of 0.16 L/s (9.6 L/min) is not a huge leak but it is a leak. I use the Swift LT for her and regularly have what amounts to zero leak after I factor out the flow rate. I think ResMed says that leaks above 0.20 L/sec may start affecting therapy effectiveness so you are close to that number.

Try to get the leaks less than 0.10 L/sec and watch the AI and AHI numbers. These indicate average number per hour but don't tell us timed length of event which also impacts how a person feels. It is possible to have a rather large leak occur allowing events and the rest of the night not leak so bad so the overall average isn't alarming but events still happened.

What pressure is the machine set at? If you get the leak rate down and the numbers still stay up then a slight pressure increase may be indicated. I had a week of such numbers and not feeling any better before I upped the pressure but then I had the software to show what was happening.

Finally, the magic AHI number where someone actually notices some improvement seems to vary. The medical profession looks at less than 5 AHI because that is the standard for the dividing line between having sleep apnea diagnosis and not.
I feel awful at 8 AHI. I feel okay at 4 AHI. I feel pretty darn good at less than 1 AHI. You will have to develop a sense of how you feel in relation to your numbers, which do need to come down a bit, but you have just started and these numbers are a significant improvement to what you were doing before CPAP so.... work on leaks first, then watch the numbers and try to correlate how you feel in general with the numbers. Then considering a pressure change after you see a certain trend going on.

It has been 2 months for me on CPAP. The nightly frequent trips to the bathroom have gone (so that is an improvement). My morning headaches are happening much less often now (so another improvement). There has not been a magic on/off switch for energy and fatigue levels. I have good days and not so good days but all are better than before CPAP.

Patience. Hmmm. I never had much patience myself through the years and I kept asking God to give me patience with my problems. Darn him, I finally figured out that he wanted me to learn patience because he kept sending me things to try my patience... So once I quit asking him to "give" me patience, I learned to be much more patient. It made life so much simpler.

[Spirit]

Hi Pugsy,
Thanks so much for all your help. I am learning alot, and have been doing alot of reading. My pressure is set at 8cm. Feel like trying 11cm,. The tech that supplied my equipment, said my pressure is low, cause most patients that visit her start at 14cm or higher, some even 25cm,. So, I thought this is great news ! Maybe my OSA is not as bad as I thought. But during sleep study, the pressure was high, felt like the pillows were going to take off.

I think the leak, my be coming from head movement, cause I sleep on my stomach, I can't sleep any other way. I may also try tightening the head straps, cause during sleep study, it was on pretty tight/snug.

I'll work on the leaks, this upcoming week, and keep track of numbers.

I hope you continue to feel better, thanks for all your encouragement & inspiration.