Pugsy's Pointers Ideas request

I have decided to polish up the SleepyHead tutorial...and try to consolidate things into an easy to read brief format and those of you who know me also know that me being brief is next to impossible...but.. I will try.

I won't be going over what mollete is going over with his CPAP Basics...there's no need.
Instead I am going to concentrate on beginning tips and some basics on how to understand what you see on your reports.
It will be targeted for SleepyHead reports but I will try to include Encore and ResScan stuff (just the basics) because mainly the difference is a visual thing and not a difference in what the terms mean or data point value ranges are different.

I am not going to go into detail with all the various graphs that SleepyHead offers...like the tidal volume stuff. The norms are to wide and vary so much it is impossible to make general assessments. If you want to know what normals are...google is your best friend. My normals aren't necessarily your normals anyway.

So this thread is a request for what do you want explained. What do you need clarified in general?

If you have specific requests about something you see on your reports...please start a new thread because your own personal data needs to have it addressed specifically. If you put it here and someone else puts theirs here and someone else we tend to not be able to follow each person's request easily.

First thing I am going to address is the SleepyHead install. Going to do just the basics...There is a SleepyHead User Guide (link in my signature) that people can read but many don't or don't know about it.
So mainly I will be trying to get together an outline of the steps..from the "run as administrator" thing to the 60 series Patch file.
It will be install tips for Windows users...I don't have a Mac...sorry...never have used a Mac. Don't have the first clue about how to use a Mac.

I will also be addressing how to evaluate leak data...from the different machines...which numbers are good and which numbers aren't so good. I will address total leak vs excess leak and give approximations of where large leak territory starts with the various machines. Now what I might consider acceptable and what you might consider acceptable (Sheriff I see you rolling your eyes at me ) may be 2 different things. That's okay...I am just going to be using what it "acceptable" in terms of what the machines say they can compensate for.
Any leaks that wake you up, even if tiny...need to be fixed. That's a personal thing and not a general thing. Tiny leaks won't impact the actual therapy all that much but they might impact your sleep quality and/or how you feel the next day.
It isn't my job to make that decision for you. My job is to try to educate you so that you make your own decisions as to what is acceptable to you.

So I will try to cover the basics of what you see...how to look at them and make a decision as to where you stand when evaluating your reports. Unfortunately we don't have a plug in and play model where we can spit out what is okay and what isn't. There are just too many variables.

So what do you want explained and how? What is the easiest way for someone to evaluate what they see on their reports that they don't understand.?

+1

- Carolyn

Question as to format...
Do you want one big novel with everything in one thread? or do you want something like what mollete has done?

Past history with threads is that they have a tendency to get long and difficult to read because people always ask a ton of questions and not start their own thread (hence to upfront request to make your own thread)

I could do something like mollete and have the bulk of the information in first post and subsequent discussion would be just discussion and no real need for people to read the rest of the thread unless they just wanted to.

Like one thread for How to install Sleepyhead 101.
Next thread How to understand leak data
another thread how to understand Flow graph.
Then a thread to consolidate the different threads like mollete's table of contents.

I probably can't do all the SleepyHead install stuff in one long post but I could maybe get it done with a couple...it depends on if we need screen shots or not.

I have no idea how big this thing will get until I start it I don't want 15 pages for a newbie to sort through.

I'd prefer one single thread for the whole topic. Then we can hopefully pin it to the top and it will be easily available as a reference.

Pugsy wrote:Question as to format...
Past history with threads is that they have a tendency to get long and difficult to read because people always ask a ton of questions and not start their own thread (hence to upfront request to make your own thread)
I have no idea how big this thing will get until I start it I don't want 15 pages for a newbie to sort through.

What you can do is use the first post in this thread....then as you make important posts later in this thread, go back and edit your first post and put a clickable link (w/ topic) regarding that important post.

I have SleepyHead 9.1 ... Every time I start SH it says I need to update to 9.2.??? But it ALWAYS FAILS ...

Why?

What am I doing wrong?

Do I really need 9.2?

This is great, Pugsy! I can help some with the install part now that I've done it! I do think screenshots is a good idea for that. It would have helped me to have screenshots for each step. I'm pretty computer literate, but somehow, I was missing a step and had to get some sleep to make sense of it! As for whether to do one post with links to specific posts in the thread or an index, I think either could work. However, I'm leaning more toward the index... otherwise, it could get pretty cumbersome if you have several screenshots and a lot of posts get interspersed with those. I'm assuming/hoping this would get stickied so it would be easy to find.

Since I don't have my machine yet and the one I'm using has the old smartcard, I don't have a lot to contribute to the rest of it. I've been trying to wrap my brain around all these graphs that are posted and am starting to get a little bit of an idea of what they mean, but until I'm doing my own, it's just not going to make much sense to me!

I'll pm you with what I was having problems with on SH.

123.Shawn T.W. wrote:I have SleepyHead 9.1 ... Every time I start SH it says I need to update to 9.2.??? But it ALWAYS FAILS ...
Why?
What am I doing wrong?
Do I really need 9.2?

I think you may be missing a couple of features that the update addresses. Not the end of the world but the fix is easy.

Go to the SleepyHead Icon and instead of double clicking on it to open the program...right click your mouse and choose "run as administrator" from the box that pops up and SH will open and the update will go through and install automatically.

Kenwood wrote:What you can do is use the first post in this thread....then as you make important posts later in this thread, go back and edit your first post and put a clickable link (w/ topic) regarding that important post.

I thought of doing this as well but I can guarantee one massive novel if I do that. Newbies eyes will glass over for sure.
I think what I might do is start a thread...make several space saving replies to myself..that way I can go back and edit those spaces and add or remove stuff as needed...keeping general discussion at the bottom and addressing main things at the top.

Pachyderm's Nose wrote:I'd prefer one single thread for the whole topic. Then we can hopefully pin it to the top and it will be easily available as a reference.

Gotcha. Past experience with this type of stuff is that we get off track and have a lot of discussion it the thread. I don't mind the discussion but sometimes the threads get massively long with the discussion in there and I know people...they won't create a new thread with their question.

So I will do a thread on install and software.
Then I will do a thread on evaluating what you see on the software reports.
What other threads would I need?
I can always tie them all together in one post like mollete has done. That's easy.

is there a way to make this a sticky at the top or somehow to make sure it stays in a place where newbies will find it?

Denial Dave wrote:is there a way to make this a sticky at the top or somehow to make sure it stays in a place where newbies will find it?

This post here? We can just keep bumping it up by making a comment or just a bump...I will make sure it stays on the front page if it falls off before I have enough material to start with.

Right now I am in the outline stage...don't have any guts to anything yet. I totally suck at composing stuff from scratch but I can write a novel in response to a direct question.

Once I get a thread started and/or several done...I imagine that Carolyn will likely help out with keeping things at the top.
Right now there is nothing of great importance to keep at the top.
What I will probably do is create a post with links to whatever threads I create and we can keep that post at the top.
A table of contents like mollete has. I don't need a sticky to all threads...just one that has links to all the others.

I could always have used the Wiki...but people being people won't go there or know where to look. Just easier to do it in threads.

First order of business is an easier read for SH install issues. People can't seem to find the User Guide.

Here's a shameless bump...
It has begun...Software stuff just started. More to come later.
All will be titled "Pugsy's Pointers" for whatever I am talking about in that thread. I have reserved space so that I don't have to have one post be a mile long. I will remove reserved space if I don't need it.
So a forum search for Pugsy's Pointers should bring them up. Right now only one though.

Avi...don't get your panties all in a wad a start citing forum policy about personal stuff here...I am pretty sure Carolyn won't mind and it her sandbox and I don't think she will care.

Keep your questions or thoughts or discussions here for the time being. Once the thread is polished and I have what all I want to say in the first few posts...discussions welcomed but for specific problems...it is still best to create your own thread because a lot of the veteran forum members won't be reading all my thread because they won't need to and your question might get totally lost and not get the attention it deserves.

I'm sure that I and several other Mac users here would be willing to develop an extra chapter for you, or sub-chapters to attach to your main ones, about how the Mac version works (the same or different).

Thanks for doing this Pugsy. Time to dump out that massive brain of yours. Maybe it will cut down on you having to type the same old stuff over and over. You must have very strong fingers by now.

Okay...the first installment ....software hints and install tips...done until someone needs clarification on something.

I thought for my next installment....polish up the SH tutorial...man, I am not looking forward to that....it's a huge can of worms.
I think I am going to start with the very basics and explain what I look at and why. There are so many variables involved...different machines...different leak values...it's an endless undertaking.
Other people look at different stuff but all I know to explain is how I look at things. It may not be the way others look at things...well, that's fine. There are lots of ways to get a job done. I am not saying my way is the best way...it's just simply my way.

Pugsy,

Here's are some specific questions:

1. As regards to leak data, you say you are going to educate us about leaks as reported in Sleephead, Encore Basic & ResMed - can you include the point at which a leak is so large all data is corrupted?

2. How do we know when leak data points directly to mouth breathing?

3. How do we differentiate between leak data limits on the three software's you are covering (ie; how high on Sleephead would be considered the limit)?

4. What data points to central apnea's on each software?

5. How do we tell between actual central's and central's that appear that way due to leaks?

6. Can you explain the 95% as it relates to AHI's in Encore?

I hope I've asked these questions in a way that makes sense. If my questions don't make sense, or if you've already explained that you were going to cover this, just skip the question.

Let me also express my sincere thanks - what you are undertaking will benefit all of us sooooo much. It will also be very, very, very helpful for the newbies who will join this forum & need to learn how to interpret their own data.

Jen