Newbie wanting starter advice!

[palerider]

Ok, downloaded last nights stats if anyone has any comment!!

just do it like this:
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize

[Pugsy]

Ok, downloaded last nights stats if anyone has any comment!!

From 4:00 on things look great.
Before 4:00....pressure wasn't sufficient to hold the airway open very well and you had some pretty serious large leak going on which also impacts the machine's ability to respond with appropriate pressure.

[rick blaine]

Hi mattshaw,

OK, the first thing I need to ask is: what is your intention in putting up this chart? Are you asking for information? So you can learn about the process, as a way to better understanding your treatment, and coming to terms with it?

Or are you indirectly asking people here to suggest changes you might make to your settings? To offer parallel and possibly competing treatment?

For all sorts of UK legal reasons, I, for one, can't and won't do that. I'm happy to provide information - the way a journalist would. But at this point, you need to give your consultant a chance to show what she can do.

As information: the thing about auto machines like the one you've got - they don't react to each breath, one at a time. Instead, the software looks at a moving four-minute 'window' - and it responds to the patterns it 'sees'.

Obviously, the machine is programmed to respond to apneas and hypopneas - what we might call 'your actual obstructions'. But it is also programmed to respond to snoring and to 'respiratory-effort-related-arousals' (or RERAs for short) - because experience has shown that these can easily turn into apneas or hypopneas.

So what the charts from this one night show is: a lot of snoring - and the machine reacting to that snoring (you can see it 'going up the steps' at 00.10 and at 03.42).

There is a school of thought which says: 'treat snoring pretty much the same way as you treat hypopneas' - and that is, by increasing the minimum pressure. And that's where your consultant comes in.

A second piece of information: the grey bits mean that your mask was leaking. Leaking so much that - who knows how much pressure was being delivered 'at the coalface'.

So, as is the case with many people, the first few weeks are a kind of 'shakedown cruise' - for the whole process. Machine settings, mask type and fit, psychologically getting used to it, and sleep hygiene.

It may be you need to be shown how to get a better mask fit. It may be that you need to try one or two different masks. It may be you need to try using cotton liner pads with your mask. These are things for your consultant to decide.

To repeat my suggestion from above: give your consultant and her team a chance to show what they can do.

[mattshaw]

Thanks for the previous detailed reply Rick. Right a week in and happy to report good progress. AHI down to 2.2, 1.1 and 2.3 over the last three nights. Mask fit 95, 100 and 99%. Been getting 6-8 hours use of it per night with not too many problems, more psychological than anything - feeling claustrophobic etc but managing to keep the mask on. Now a couple of other things. I rang the nurse today, she says if I need a humidifier all I do is ring Philips and order one. (on the Bradford NHS) so may do as my mouth has been very dry. Secondly she was impressed with my results and emailed them to the consultant who has said that I can drive again without waiting for the fourth week download, subject to me continuing compliance.

I am feeling much better and brighter in myself. I have also noticed the machine stepping up to an initial pressure of 7.5 rather than 4, so putting the improvement in results down to that. Let's hope it continues!!!