So, I got my tank in. And it IS a tank. It's a Respironics BiPap Auto SV, intended to handle the fact that I couldn't do things the easy way. No, no, I couldn't have ordinary OSA, obstructive sleep apnea. 'Cause mine got WORSE when they put me on CPAP. I started throwing central apneas. In central apneas, the brain basically says, "Breathing? Oh... she doesn't need to breathe...." So Complex Sleep Disordered Breathing.
I got the machine Tuesday, brought it home and set it up. (Just what I need, MORE stuff required when traveling!) It's set for 14/10 with a min of 10 and max of 14, although that isn't QUITE true.
And settled in. Got the mask on -- decided to try the nasal pillows instead of the nasal cushion (turns out I take a small, not the medium the lab sized me with). And turned it on. OK, fine, it's about as comfortable as one can expect a Darth Vader meets the Klingons set up to be.
The Duo handled it just fine. They were a little puzzled by the mask, but wearing the nasal pillows instead of the cushion let them get in a tongue slurp on the nose. My girl curled by my hip, and my guy lay down with his head over my shoulder. The machine itself is significantly more quiet than the ceiling fan or the air purifier, so that wasn't a problem. Well, until I turned my head and jetted my guy with some cold air. At which he lifted his head and just set his chin down over the exhale vent, making it a trifle difficult to do that. I had to move his chin, and turn my head so he didn't get hissed at, and he just put his head down on my shoulder and went to sleep.
I turned out the light, and attempted to doze off.
Bleep-bleep-bleep!
Jerk upright and try to peer at the screen. All I can make out without my glasses is IPAP of 10.1 and EPAP of 9.8. OK, I lie back down and try to doze off.
Bleep-bleep-bleep!
Repeat procedure.
Repeat bleep-bleep-bleep and check and nothing over and over for the next four hours, at which point, I said, "BLEEP THIS, YOU STUPID MACHINE!" and turned it off, took the mask off, went to the bathroom, came back, and crawled in with my fur kids and went to sleep, feeling kind of guilty at not keeping the mask on all night.
Got up in the morning, and went to install the card reader and software, only to find the card reader will not work with my computer. It makes it freeze up. So I install it on the lap top. And look at my data.
Ouch. AHI of 18, with one apnea and 17 hypopneas, which is more than I had during my original sleep study without CPAP. In four hours. Further down, I find out that the average patient triggered breaths were under 89%. Oh. Goodie. And that my mask leak rate was around 53.1, which is BAD for my mask. It should be no more than 25-38.
I called the respiratory therapist, and told her if the alarm was going to go off all night, it was rather defeating the purpose of the therapy, which is to get me a night's sleep without my being jolted awake by these breathing events. So we reset the timing on the alarms.
I approached bedtime the second night with trepidation (but was very glad my husband was back from 3 days in Norfolk, VA). Masked up, settled in, and went to sleep. Still very conscious of the mask. Woke around 3a and went to the bathroom. Realized I had NOT been awakened by hip pain for the first time in over six years. Put mask back on and turned machine back on. Went back to sleep and was sleeping just fine until Harry came back around 5:45 to tell me he'd dropped the jar of homemade mustard and broken the jar. AND lost the mustard. I suspect my efforts to discuss this with him contributed greatly to the night's leak rate. Went back to sleep until around 8a, at which point, I got up and pulled the card, and trotted off to check my stats.
Which were much better than the night before -- AHI of 8 (1 apnea and 7 hypopneas) for a period 2.5 times as long as the previous night, 96.8% patient triggered breaths (but the periodic breathing was 3%, so if I wasn't breathing and the machine wasn't breathing, who was breathing the other .2% of the time? the Dachshunds?), and a mask leak rate of 38.8, which is still too high for my mask, but much better than the night before.
Last night, settled in OK. Had two alarms. AHI of 7 (1 apnea and 6 hypopneas). Several episodes of periodic breathing, 2%, and a mask leak rate of 41.1. Rather annoyingly, I had what I can only describe as "glue mouth." My mouth wasn't dry, which would indicate mouth breathing, but my throat felt clogged, and I couldn't swallow without opening my mouth. I normally sleep with my tongue against the roof of my mouth,. That's where it was whenever I woke, or tried to swallow.
Apologies for the lack of graphs, but it seems that the smart card reader locks up my computer regardless of which USB port I put it into. And there's no way to export the data from Encore Viewer for transport from the lap top to this machine. (Network is down; must go buy a new splitter.)
IS there a way to copy and paste Encore Viewer graphs?
IS there a way to do tables on this board? (I do not have a web site to post stuff like this to.) The data below will NOT line up, either using tabs or spaces. I hope it's comprehensible.
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Event Tues, 28 Oct 2008 Weds, 29 Oct 2008 Thurs. 30 Oct 2008
Time 4h 3m 9h 44m 8h 5m
Hours 10:52p – 2:55a, 10:11p – 9:55a 11:09p – 7:14a
AHI 1A/17H 18 1A/7H 8.0 1A/6H 7.0
Break 2:10a 3:30a 1:15a
Max Set 14.0 14.0 14.0
Avg Peak IPAP 13.9 13.7 14.0
Min Setting 10.0 10.0 10.0
EPAP 10.0 10.0 10.0
Per Breathing 0% 3% 2%
Avg Tidal Vol 420.0 419.6 374.9
Avg Peak Flow 19.2 21.2 18.6
Avg Breaths/ Min 11.8 12.8 12.2
Back Up Rate Auto Auto Auto
Avg PT Breaths 89.5 96.8% 95%
Large Leak 13.0 min 0.0 min, 0.0
5.35% 0% of night 0%
Avg Leak 53.1 38.8 41.1
Mask Avg. @ 10 -15 28-35 28-35 28-35One thing which is really annoying is that when I attempt to roll over, I typically hold my breath. (I don't know why: possibly, I'm bracing against back, hip, and incision pain.) The machine, of course, thinks this is, at best, a hypopnea, and starts trying to correct it, and when I start breathing again, if I try to keep up with the machine, I find myself hyperventilating.
Clearly, the leak rate needs to come down. Equally clearly, the AHI is nowhere near acceptable. Hopefully, the leak rate will change as I get more accustomed to the headgear and am not knocking the thing around when I try to sit up or change positions. I'm very glad I got the Hozer hose manager, because if I had to cope with moving the mask, and moving the hose, and moving me, I'd lose it altogether. I need to be a Moti (with at least three hands) in order to hold onto the mask AND grab my trapeze in order to get up or roll over.
Kind of yes, and kind of no. I found the ramp annoying, so haven't bothered with it. I find the 10 Exhale somewhat difficult when I'm settling in and trying to relax to go to sleep. I'm putting more effort into exhaling than I am inhaling.DSM said: "Your settings are an interesting variation - no bilevel mode but only pressure support mode - am guessing you would find that quite comfortable."
