Therapy Goals: Is from severe to mild ok?

[Dancingnanna]

Hi, I am a newer CPAP user, just passed the 1 month mark. Now on my 4th full face mask and finally found a fit. As a petite woman, active and in otherwise good health, I was shocked to discover that I had severe sleep apnea - 50 episodes per hour. The clue was when my worsening snoring had my husband, also on CPAP therapy, asked me to sleep in the other room and get evaluated. Lucky for me he persisted because I was in denial. Finally, using the DreamWear full face mask, I am getting somewhat better sleep and definitely a better fit. For 3 nights running my average episodes were 6.5. This still puts me in the mild range of sleep apnea. I was unable to tolerate air pressure of 20 and am now at 15. The higher pressure still seems to wake me up. MD follow up in a few days. Concerned that I am still at risk for associated health issues. Anyone else gone from severe to mild as their new normal and stayed there? Thanks!

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

What kind of events are you having? Where are you getting the number for your AHI...off the machine LCD screen or somewhere else?
What brand and model machine?

Please read the sticky "Newbies...please read" at the top of the Announcement section on the main page of the forum.

Are you still having a lot of wake ups during the night? That might explain the higher than you want AHI if some false positive awake events are making things look worse than they really are.

[Dancingnanna]

Hi and thanks for your thoughtful questions. I only had an in-home study and will speak with my MD about that. From speaking with others and researching online, I think that my study only told part of the story and I should have an in-patient study. I am getting the number of events from "myair.resmed.com" account.

I am definitely awaking several times a night and slept terribly during the sleep study as well.
Thanks!

[ChicagoGranny]

I am getting the number of events from "myair.resmed.com" account.

MyAir has little detail.

As a first step, learn how to see a Daily Report on your machine's display. It will show you the type of events. Here are some teaching videos for viewing the Daily Report - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ily+report

[D.H.]

First, you're very fortunate to have a husband who is already familiar with Sleep Apnea to be able to sound the alarm. I think that the under-representation of females in the Sleep Apnea population is driven in part by the stereotype that this is a male disease.

Your machine is a single pressure machine, so you don't have the option to set a higher max pressure. if you need more pressure, I suggest upping your pressure by ½ cmH2O every week.

The lower your AHI, the better; there's no such thing as too low. Certainly 6.5 is better that 50, so keep using the machine in any event.

[Gator5000e]

MyAir is terrible, especially compared to DreamMapper. At least DM tells you the type of events it's logging. MA just tell s you the number of events and gives you a score. Like last night I got a 75 with the message That's a great score!! Really? It told me I had 14.4 events an hour but yet that's a great score. I haven't had time to analyze the data on SH yet but still. That is so misleading. I can't believe ResMed can't do better with the app.

[Pugsy]

Can you please confirm exactly which machine model you are using?
Look on the front of the machine and tell us all the words you see.
I sure hope you don't really have the AirSense 10 CPAP machine because it can't tell you exactly what that AHI is composed of and it's kinda important to know the composition of that AHI.

[Dancingnanna]

Hi Pugsy,
The exact words on the machine are on the left - ResMed - of course. On the lover right AirSense10/autoset.
I opened up looking for the sd card and guess what! There is none. My sleep report on the machine is very limited. It only shows usage hours, mask seal and humidifier.
When I click on myAir at the bottom of the sleep report it says to go to ResMed.com/myAir. Well as I said, I see the MD on Monday. So hopefully I can clear some things up.

Yes, D.H. I do realize that I am fortunate. And it is definitely an important issue for women to be aware of. Just read this article on women, sleep apnea and heart disease. https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/n ... than-men#1

[Pugsy]

Okay....go to the equipment profile and edit it.
You have the wrong machine chosen...look in the machine list and scroll down until you get to the R's....your machine is in the R's.
ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet...choose that one.
You've got a great machine.

No SD card. Big surprise there ...go to Walmart or similar store and get the cheapest generic SD card you can find.
It will be larger in capacity than you need but the smaller cards are impossible to find unless you order them and usually cost more than the large capacity cards.
I am currently using a Sandisk SD card 8 GB size...works just fine.
The SD card has to be in the machine during the night to get the details you need. Only summary numbers are stored on the machine's internal memory. All the detailed stuff has to go directly to the SD card.

[Dancingnanna]

Hi Pugsy, Was just about to edit my profile for equipment. Thanks for the information about the disk. That's an easy fix at least.
But only could add air sense autoset for her! I just have a generic autoset. Anyway this is a start. Thanks all for the great info and support!

[Pugsy]

The regular non her AutoSet is listed in the equipment menu but it isn't up with the other AirSense models in the "A's"....it's down in the
"R's" because they stuck ResMed in front of AirSense. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the list.
I have asked to get it fixed so it would be less confusing to newbies but it hasn't been done yet.
I will ask again. It's not something that I can fix myself. I don't have access to that software detail.

[D.H.]

I told you that you had a fixed pressure machine based on what was in your profile at the time I posted. It appears that you have since made a correction to the profile.

It seems that you do have an automatic. Therefore, you can set a max pressure that will ramp up only when you need. You might be able to tolerate a higher pressure for a short time during the night, even if you would not be able to tolerate that pressure on a sustained basis throughout the night.

[D.H.]

I told you that you had a fixed pressure machine based on what was in your profile at the time I posted. It appears that you have since made a correction to the profile.

It seems that you do have an automatic. Therefore, you can set a max pressure that will ramp up only when you need. You might be able to tolerate a higher pressure for a short time during the night, even if you would not be able to tolerate that pressure on a sustained basis throughout the night.

[palerider]

Hi Pugsy, Was just about to edit my profile for equipment. Thanks for the information about the disk. That's an easy fix at least.
But only could add air sense autoset for her! I just have a generic autoset. Anyway this is a start. Thanks all for the great info and support!

Find your machine here: wiki/index.php/CPAP_models
and put the appropriate entry in your equipment profile.

[Dancingnanna]

When I first received the DreamWear ff mask, I was happy. AHI was much lower and mask seal seemed good. Slept a bit better. However for the last 3 nights, each night AHI going up, struggling with the mask seal all night. Woke up with red lines on my upper lip and the lower portion of my nose due to tightening the straps and pushing the mask up into my nose to eliminate leakage. I will be taking advice from here and purchasing an SD card today; seeing doctor tomorrow and will discuss. I will also request an inpatient study. Every time I awake and press the home button I see that I am at or close to the max air pressure of 15. As I mentioned before, only had an in-home study and I feel that something is missing from the decision of how to treat me.