Thoughts on my Sleepyhead data?

[Meeseeks]

Didn't want to hijack the other dudes thread so thought I'd make a separate one. My AHI has been around 5 for a while now.
Been suffering from aerophagia, but it seems to be getting better. current pressure is at 7 min and 12 max. I use a full face mask and usually starts to leak really bad around 11 or 12 pressure.

Here's my results from the last 3 days. I'm probably going to up my pressure to 7.5 and see how that goes.

[reolhlains]

Didn't want to hijack the other dudes thread so thought I'd make a separate one.]

Thanks man.

I hope you get yours sorted - I figure if I'm going to the bother of scuba-diving every night, I want it to work!!

[Pugsy]

Your reports don't add up.
The total of your CA plus OAs plus hyponeas shown on the left don't add up to the AHI.
OAs seem to be missing from the Left side and the Events graph...
Go down to the bottom of the graphs on the left where it has a little down/up arrow and you see PB in the tiny box....click on the down/up arrow to expand the menu and see if OA is red or green. It needs to be green. If it's red click your mouse on the red part to turn it green.

[Meeseeks]

Your reports don't add up.
The total of your CA plus OAs plus hyponeas shown on the left don't add up to the AHI.
OAs seem to be missing from the Left side and the Events graph...
Go down to the bottom of the graphs on the left where it has a little down/up arrow and you see PB in the tiny box....click on the down/up arrow to expand the menu and see if OA is red or green. It needs to be green. If it's red click your mouse on the red part to turn it green.

Yep. The OAs were red for some reason. I re-uploaded the images to show the OAs.

[Meeseeks]

Bump. I guess there's not much advice one can give outside of just upping my pressure. The damn aerophagia has been holding me back.

[OkyDoky]

It does look like a min pressure of 8 or 9 would benefit. I would start with 8 and evaluate for a week. Have you searched the forum for aerophagia? There's lots of discussion on that.

[Pugsy]

Well it's fairly obvious that a little more pressure is needed but with the aerophagia issues there's a real chance that more pressure will make those issues worse.
The thing is that you didn't spend a whole lot of time at pressures all that much higher than the 7 cm or I would suggest a small increase but cut way back on the maximum in hopes it was the time at higher pressures that were causing the aerophagia problem. You didn't spend much time at pressures all that much higher but you did spend some time up there.

Are you using the exhale relief on your machine? It's called Flex relief. Have you tried it?
While it doesn't offer a huge amount of drop even at the max of 3 it does offer a little.
Sometimes we can use the exhale relief to make the machine act like a little mini bilevel machine and use pressures a little more than we could otherwise without making the aerophagia worse..

Depending on the pressures needed and just how bad the aerophagia is you might do better with a real bilevel machine.

I have been lucky in that I have only had the really bad aerophagia issues maybe twice. The other times just a little belching and farting which although annoying....not really a big deal but the 2 times I have had it really bad were enough for me to not dismiss someone complaining about aerophagia. If I had face those 2 times every day...man it would have been darn near impossible to stick with it. I was physically ill with extreme nausea and painful belly during the entire next day.

You do have some options though.
1..Add AFlex exhale relief to the settings and try more minimum pressure. See if having a little mini bilevel machine would help..
2..Limit the maximum to see if it's just that top end pressure that is responsible for the unwanted belly symptoms
3..Talk with your doctor about these difficulties and consider a real bilevel machine
4..Give it some time to see if the body adjusts and no longer causes the belly issues

[Meeseeks]

Well it's fairly obvious that a little more pressure is needed but with the aerophagia issues there's a real chance that more pressure will make those issues worse.
The thing is that you didn't spend a whole lot of time at pressures all that much higher than the 7 cm or I would suggest a small increase but cut way back on the maximum in hopes it was the time at higher pressures that were causing the aerophagia problem. You didn't spend much time at pressures all that much higher but you did spend some time up there.

Are you using the exhale relief on your machine? It's called Flex relief. Have you tried it?
While it doesn't offer a huge amount of drop even at the max of 3 it does offer a little.
Sometimes we can use the exhale relief to make the machine act like a little mini bilevel machine and use pressures a little more than we could otherwise without making the aerophagia worse..

Depending on the pressures needed and just how bad the aerophagia is you might do better with a real bilevel machine.

I have been lucky in that I have only had the really bad aerophagia issues maybe twice. The other times just a little belching and farting which although annoying....not really a big deal but the 2 times I have had it really bad were enough for me to not dismiss someone complaining about aerophagia. If I had face those 2 times every day...man it would have been darn near impossible to stick with it. I was physically ill with extreme nausea and painful belly during the entire next day.

You do have some options though.
1..Add AFlex exhale relief to the settings and try more minimum pressure. See if having a little mini bilevel machine would help..
2..Limit the maximum to see if it's just that top end pressure that is responsible for the unwanted belly symptoms
3..Talk with your doctor about these difficulties and consider a real bilevel machine
4..Give it some time to see if the body adjusts and no longer causes the belly issues

Thnx for the advice. The aerophagia is there, but it's rare that I have the pain that you described(nausea and painful belly). I plan to see a gastroeterlogist soon because the belching has been a problem even before I ever used a cpap, although it has become a lot worse with the cpap.
I tried using Aflex but could never get used to it. Just wasn't for me.

Upping my pressure to 7.5 seems to have done the trick. Had an AHI of 2 last night.

[Meeseeks]

It does look like a min pressure of 8 or 9 would benefit. I would start with 8 and evaluate for a week. Have you searched the forum for aerophagia? There's lots of discussion on that.

Yep I've done my research on aerophagia. Upped my pressure from 7.0-7.5 and had an AHI of 2 last night. Think I'll stick with that for now.

[Pugsy]

If 7.5 minimum keeps the AHI a little lower and doesn't make the belly worse and you are sleeping decently and feeling decent during the day the by all means continue with that pressure and see how it does long term.
Sometimes it just takes a tiny bit more pressure to do a much better job.
It 0.5 cm more minimum can keep a better handle on the therapy without creating more problems then that's an easy fix.

I would still keep an eye on the pressure variation and make a mental note of any increase in symptoms of aerophagia and if you are seeing time at a little higher pressure you might limit that maximum a bit in an effort to see if not going so high is a factor or not.