Help for New User !

[Gary1965]

So as you can see, this is my first post. I am 51 and diagnosed with Sleep Apnea during a sleep center test in November, so I am 2 months into this. I have read a lot from this forum and have learned a ton, so Thank you ! I have not had an easy transition to CPAP Therapy to say the least !! So here is my status:
1. I am 8 weeks into therapy
2. I am now on my 4th mask. 1. Wisp Mask 2. Dreamwear Mask 3. Amara View 4. Simplus

I have discovered through this process that I am a real nasally sleeper,(never knew). I love the dream wear mask a lot, but end up fighting the nasal options, so I decided to go to FFM. I am a mustache/Goatee male. The Amara View is awesome, but leaks a lot and very little room for my mouth to move. I started the Simplus just last night. Incedibly comfortable, despite the bulkiness. My Dreamstation said that my leakage rate was 92% (meaning 8% leak?), but my AHI was 8.8 which is high for me. I am now convinced to stick with FFM, any thoughts on my leaks and AHI? And any other thoughts encouragement ??? Thank you! Gary.

[russmac]

If you tend to breathe through your nose, you might look into the ResMed AirFit P10. It's a nasal pillow mask, so it only touches your nose. It's super light and I barely feel it. So far I have no issues with leaks.

[Pugsy]

Get SleepyHead and find out just exactly what that AHI is composed of.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment
Then you consider your options based on the event categories where the bulk of the numbers are coming from.
You may or may not benefit from a little pressure adjustment and it's best to figure out exactly what you are fighting before trying to fix something.

8% of the night in large leaks is far from horrible in terms of time frame in large leak as long as you are sleeping well and the leaks aren't waking you up all night long.
Any leak that wakes us up needs to be fixed even if it is a small leak but because it is impacting sleep quality and maybe not so much the actual therapy effectiveness.
Especially for someone new to therapy and still going through the mask sorting out process...8% of 7 hours of sleep is 33 minutes and it's probably broken down into several segments throughout the night Not the end of the world by any means.

[OkyDoky]

Get SleepyHead and find out just exactly what that AHI is composed of.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment
Then you consider your options based on the event categories where the bulk of the numbers are coming from.
You may or may not benefit from a little pressure adjustment and it's best to figure out exactly what you are fighting before trying to fix something.

8% of the night in large leaks is far from horrible in terms of time frame in large leak as long as you are sleeping well and the leaks aren't waking you up all night long.
Any leak that wakes us up needs to be fixed even if it is a small leak but because it is impacting sleep quality and maybe not so much the actual therapy effectiveness.
Especially for someone new to therapy and still going through the mask sorting out process...8% of 7 hours of sleep is 33 minutes and it's probably broken down into several segments throughout the night Not the end of the world by any means.

I don't think Sleepyhead is quite ready yet for the DreamStation. He may need Encore Pro if he wants to go that way.

[grayghost4]

He has a Dreamstation ... will need mark or Paleriders help setting it up ... I don't think the std. download will work yet .

[palerider]

if he's got linux, or can compile for windows/mac from source, he can get in on the ground floor of dreamstation testing for the new version of SleepyHead...

but there's no 'ready to go' packages yet.

[Pugsy]

Oh crap....I looked quickly at the image of the machine and brain thought "AirSense" and that's why I said Sleepyhead.

That's one of the reasons I hate the images...I don't always think to look closer.

My apologies.
Right now you will need Encore Pro latest version.
Do you have a Windows computer? Encore only works with Windows.
I will send you a link with more information on where to get Encore. If you run into trouble with it (it can be a finicky bitch) just post back and someone will try to help you sort it out.

[Gary1965]

Oh crap....I looked quickly at the image of the machine and brain thought "AirSense" and that's why I said Sleepyhead.

That's one of the reasons I hate the images...I don't always think to look closer.

My apologies.
Right now you will need Encore Pro latest version.
Do you have a Windows computer? Encore only works with Windows.
I will send you a link with more information on where to get Encore. If you run into trouble with it (it can be a finicky bitch) just post back and someone will try to help you sort it out.

Thanks...Just changed equipment to text. I am a MAC/IPad user. I might just have to wait. Also, being so new, I do not know what sleepyhead is and what data it provides. There is a dream mapper app. Does that do the same ?

[Pugsy]

DreamMapper gives you the most basic details.
AHI and maybe each category and a leak evaluation number. I think higher is better when it comes to DreamMapper.

SleepyHead or Encore will give you much more detailed reports.
Encore essentially gives the same detailed reports as SleepyHead but just presents the reports in a different manner.

Does DreamMapper give you a breakdown into each event category or just the single AHI number?
If it gives you the breakdown...the hourly average for each category
Clear Airway/Central Apnea
Obstructive Apnea
Hyponea
these 3 make up the AHI and if your AHI is higher than you want and is made up primarily of OA and Hyponeas then usually a little more pressure is needed but if the AHI is primarily Central in nature then more pressure won't help.

Also these machines record and report snores, Flow limitations and RERAs...which are not included in the DreamMapper reports and these data points are very useful in determining the effectiveness of the therapy.

If DreamMapper was reporting a nice low AHI ....and you were sleeping soundly and feeling great then there is no real urgent need to evaluate things deeper but since you aren't able to say this is happening then it's kinda hard for us to offer any suggestions without knowing exactly what we are dealing with.

Most likely you your 8.8 AHI is Obstructive in nature (OA and Hyponea) but there is a small percentage of people who use cpap therapy that develop Centrals because of the pressure and for us to just say "more pressure" could potentially make things worse. So the best thing is to try to first figure out exactly what we are wanting to fix before we go about changing the pressure. We would hate to tell you something that could potentially make things worse.

Encore won't work on a Mac unless you have some sort of virtual Windows on it and SleepyHead isn't yet compatible but rumor control says they are close.
If DreamMapper will give you the AHI breakdown it would help us know what we could offer in the way of ideas to help.

For now the leak number...like I said before 8% in large leak territory isn't the end of the world. Not ideal but far from the end of the world. It potentially affects the validity of any data reported or not reported during the time spent in large leak. The other time below large leak territory we can trust the accuracy of the data reported. 30 minutes out of 7 hours or so isn't going to impact the AHI that much.

So if you can report back the AHI event category from DreamMapper perhaps we can get by with that data until SleepyHead is compatible.

[Gary1965]

DreamMapper gives you the most basic details.
AHI and maybe each category and a leak evaluation number. I think higher is better when it comes to DreamMapper.

SleepyHead or Encore will give you much more detailed reports.
Encore essentially gives the same detailed reports as SleepyHead but just presents the reports in a different manner.

Does DreamMapper give you a breakdown into each event category or just the single AHI number?
If it gives you the breakdown...the hourly average for each category
Clear Airway/Central Apnea
Obstructive Apnea
Hyponea
these 3 make up the AHI and if your AHI is higher than you want and is made up primarily of OA and Hyponeas then usually a little more pressure is needed but if the AHI is primarily Central in nature then more pressure won't help.

Also these machines record and report snores, Flow limitations and RERAs...which are not included in the DreamMapper reports and these data points are very useful in determining the effectiveness of the therapy.

If DreamMapper was reporting a nice low AHI ....and you were sleeping soundly and feeling great then there is no real urgent need to evaluate things deeper but since you aren't able to say this is happening then it's kinda hard for us to offer any suggestions without knowing exactly what we are dealing with.

Most likely you your 8.8 AHI is Obstructive in nature (OA and Hyponea) but there is a small percentage of people who use cpap therapy that develop Centrals because of the pressure and for us to just say "more pressure" could potentially make things worse. So the best thing is to try to first figure out exactly what we are wanting to fix before we go about changing the pressure. We would hate to tell you something that could potentially make things worse.

Encore won't work on a Mac unless you have some sort of virtual Windows on it and SleepyHead isn't yet compatible but rumor control says they are close.
If DreamMapper will give you the AHI breakdown it would help us know what we could offer in the way of ideas to help.

For now the leak number...like I said before 8% in large leak territory isn't the end of the world. Not ideal but far from the end of the world. It potentially affects the validity of any data reported or not reported during the time spent in large leak. The other time below large leak territory we can trust the accuracy of the data reported. 30 minutes out of 7 hours or so isn't going to impact the AHI that much.

So if you can report back the AHI event category from DreamMapper perhaps we can get by with that data until SleepyHead is compatible.

Thanks again, very helpful. The dream mapper only show the single AHI number. Last night was much better, only 1% leak and AHI of 3.4. I might be able to have the provider printer out a full report, I need to stop by as they have not enabled all of the features on my Dreamstation. Stay tuned !!

[OkyDoky]

Gary, Do you have the clinical manual for your machine? If not you can go here and scroll down to section three. It will give you instructions to have them email you one. The clinical manual will tell you everything your DME knows about the machine. http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p ... tup-manual

[Gary1965]

Gary, Do you have the clinical manual for your machine? If not you can go here and scroll down to section three. It will give you instructions to have them email you one. The clinical manual will tell you everything your DME knows about the machine. http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p ... tup-manual

Thank you! Very Helpful!

[Pad A Cheek]

This thread is a great example of the good that happens on this special forum. I am pleased that I have been able to see such goodness for all the years that I have been registered here.
Johnny and Carolyn, this is a good platform you have provided and I thank you. You have helped so many sleep better.

Warmly,
Karen Moore

[Gary1965]

This thread is a great example of the good that happens on this special forum. I am pleased that I have been able to see such goodness for all the years that I have been registered here.
Johnny and Carolyn, this is a good platform you have provided and I thank you. You have helped so many sleep better.

Warmly,
Karen Moore

Very true and so thankful for this forum. I have read a ton prior to any post and learned so much. Ian committed to this therapy and know that it will be successful. Just wish it wasn't so darn hard to get used to. !!!

[Mudrock63]

Very true and so thankful for this forum. I have read a ton prior to any post and learned so much. Ian committed to this therapy and know that it will be successful. Just wish it wasn't so darn hard to get used to. !!!

It can be difficult to get used to. I was feeling kind of bummed about having to deal with this. But then I had an epiphany earlier this week. Thursday night we had severe storms and either a power bump shut the machine off during the night, or I turned it off and didn't remember to turn it back on. Long story short, I felt like hell all day yesterday. Made me realize what a blessing the treatment is, and made me realize the little inconveniences are worth it to have a much better life overall. There is no way I would ever go back to how it was before.