Hi
DmxDex,
Your charts are now readable – at least, they are on my screen.
As to your progress – you may or may not know what is the target figure the staff at the NHS work to. It's an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 5 or under. So on these charts, you've reached that level.
But that's only when the mask is on you, and the machine is on.
Short of having you do an in-hospital sleep study, there's no way of knowing what's going on in the gaps in these charts. So the first and most important thing is – to get you to the point where you are not taking the mask off.
Have you watched the videos I gave you the links to? And have you been doing the process?
Getting adjusted to CPAP rarely happens as Tommy Cooper used to say, 'just like that'.
It's a gradual process – for all of us. Psychologists and medics call it 'habituation'. And that's what it is – making something a habit.
So, please, start doing the havening.
If that doesn't work (altho' it should), then we can suggest something else.
As to the 'it's either too dry or too wet' – that also benefits from a gradual approach. Humidity in most of the UK is pretty high – between 70 and 90 per cent – but it may be drier in your home if you have central hearing, and if all the windows are shut.
The machine allows you to set the amount of humidity, and also the temperature of the heated hose. Start with both low, and then increase them. Say, one number every second night. Find out the optimum settings for you
by doing.
One other thing: as far the sleep-medicine department is concerned, you are a new patient, and your previous conditions are the responsibility of other departments. So, as a new patient, what have they given you by way of a 'follow-up' date?
Also, are they monitoring you via the cellular-phone system? Both ResMed and Philips Respironics machines can have a chip in them which 'phones home' to the sleep-medicine department and tells them how you're doing. But not every clinic in the NHS does this.
You can tell you have the chip in, and broadcasting, by looking at the front of the machine. The word 'Air' is lit up.
