I need your opinions on pressures...

[jsmythe]

OK, I have been reading a lot of posts on changing pressures, and I decided to experiment with mine. I couldnt get my AHIs down below 1.4, and that was only twice, rest of time, it has been 1.8 to 2.5. I lowered it to 15 for a week, nothing changed. Put it back to 17(original script.). Still same. I raised it to 18...voila! for 3 nights-NO apneas ! 4 Hyps the first night, 1 the second night-0 Aps, and 4 Hyps last night-0 Aps.

[6PtStar]

Never can tell. This is why the folks on this board push for Autos so hard. With an Auto it will find the spot where the apneas go away on its own and record it for you. There is a "Sweet Spot" where everything works. If you go below or above for most folks they will come back. You can find it by changing a bit at a time and watching the results. You most likely should not change more than once every week or two so that you get a real trend. We all have nights when it goes up for no reason. I will run in auto mode for a week once every 2 or 3 months just to check. I do however respond better to straight pressure than to the Auto cycle. I can say I actually found my "Sweet Spot" with the same machine that you have, before I bought the Auto by moving the pressure a half a cm/h20 (once I get close move it 1 cm/h20) and running at least a week. It is not a fast process but it works. Good luck, I know it will help because it already looks better on the limited data that you have.

Jerry

[ozij]

[quote="6PtStar"]Never can tell. This is why the folks on this board push for Autos so hard. With an Auto it will find the spot where the apneas go away on its own and record it for you. There is a "Sweet Spot" where everything works. If you go below or above for most folks they will come back. You can find it by changing a bit at a time and watching the results. You most likely should not change more than once every week or two so that you get a real trend. We all have nights when it goes up for no reason. I will run in auto mode for a week once every 2 or 3 months just to check. I do however respond better to straight pressure than to the Auto cycle. I can say I actually found my "Sweet Spot" with the same machine that you have, before I bought the Auto by moving the pressure a half a cm/h20 (once I get close move it 1 cm/h20) and running at least a week. It is not a fast process but it works. Good luck, I know it will help because it already looks better on the limited data that you have.

Jerry

[jsmythe]

Thanks Ozi and Jerry, guess I should try only 1/2 instead of a full cm. I will leave it on 18 for another couple days, see what happens.

For some reason, the data on Analyzer from Oct. until a few days ago, disappeared! Was there, then when I started it up, it was gone. Don't have a clue what happened. I haven't changed anything on it and I don't know how to put it back... Refresh does not work to replace the data.

[engrdad]

I couldnt get my AHIs down below 1.4, and that was only twice, rest of time, it has been 1.8 to 2.5.

Quick question... I thought that if the AHI was below 5 then this is normal. Mine was over 70 prior to getting my APAP machine last week. It has been around 1.8 - 2.1 since starting therapy. I assumed that this was great. Should I be worried about getting it to Zero?

[jsmythe]

I couldnt get my AHIs down below 1.4, and that was only twice, rest of time, it has been 1.8 to 2.5.

Quick question... I thought that if the AHI was below 5 then this is normal. Mine was over 70 prior to getting my APAP machine last week. It has been around 1.8 - 2.1 since starting therapy. I assumed that this was great. Should I be worried about getting it to Zero?

[engrdad]

Joyce.... thanks for the input. My wife just told me that my original reply to your post sounded 'snarky'. Not sure exactly what 'snarky' means but I did not mean it that way. I am just really new to all this CPAP stuff and trying to learn all I can. Also, new to posting on internet forums so I will get some internet etiquete from my better half.

[ratkinson]

Didn't sound SNARKY to me......welcome aboard.

Richard

[jskinner]

I thought that if the AHI was below 5 then this is normal. Mine was over 70 prior to getting my APAP machine last week. It has been around 1.8 - 2.1 since starting therapy. I assumed that this was great. Should I be worried about getting it to Zero?

If you have your AHI down to 5 or below *AND* are feeling ok there is little reason to try to get a lower number. However well all try to get to the lowest possible number possible since the less trouble you have breathing during the night the better you will likely feel in the morning...

Getting to zero is unrealistic for most people. While 5 is the magic decided upon by the medical community I personally can notice a difference in how I feel between an AHI of 5 and 3. Again its important to realize that AHI doesn't give the complete picture since it doesn't account for length of each apnea and total time slept.

[ozij]

I thought that if the AHI was below 5 then this is normal. Mine was over 70 prior to getting my APAP machine last week. It has been around 1.8 - 2.1 since starting therapy. I assumed that this was great. Should I be worried about getting it to Zero?

If you have your AHI down to 5 or below *AND* are feeling ok there is little reason to try to get a lower number. However well all try to get to the lowest possible number possible since the less trouble you have breathing during the night the better you will likely feel in the morning...

Getting to zero is unrealistic for most people. While 5 is the magic decided upon by the medical community I personally can notice a difference in how I feel between an AHI of 5 and 3. Again its important that AHI doesn't give the complete picture since it doesn't account for length of each apnea and total time slept.

[jsmythe]

[quote="engrdad"]Joyce.... thanks for the input. My wife just told me that my original reply to your post sounded 'snarky'. Not sure exactly what 'snarky' means but I did not mean it that way. I am just really new to all this CPAP stuff and trying to learn all I can. Also, new to posting on internet forums so I will get some internet etiquete from my better half.

[6PtStar]

My pressure has been on 18 for 4 days now, I had one Ob.apnea last night that was 6 sec., and 3 hyps. Was the first Ap. in those 4 days. It occurred in the wee morning hours shortly before I woke up. I actually feel great this morning for a change...

GREAT!! It looks like you are on the right tract. It's always good to hear success stories. I am happy for you!

Jerry

[jsmythe]

My pressure has been on 18 for 4 days now, I had one Ob.apnea last night that was 6 sec., and 3 hyps. Was the first Ap. in those 4 days. It occurred in the wee morning hours shortly before I woke up. I actually feel great this morning for a change...

GREAT!! It looks like you are on the right tract. It's always good to hear success stories. I am happy for you!

Jerry

Thanks so much! But I could not do it without your help and the help of everyone here! All of my cpap knowledge, I got right here on this forum. And I mean ALL of it. I am beginning to better understand that this didn't happen overnight, was more like over 20 or 30 years, so therefore, it is not going to get better overnight. And to quote someone else, I am learning "patience and perseverance". Hard though...

Like you said, I am going to leave the pressure on 18 for a couple of weeks and see how I do with it there. So far, it looks good.

I got a question, where did the information go on my Analyzer from Oct. until Dec.22? It just disappeared! It shows the leaks and pressures, but that is all for that time period.

[jskinner]

I got a question, where did the information go on my Analyzer from Oct. until Dec.22? It just disappeared! It shows the leaks and pressures, but that is all for that time period.

EPA reads directly from the Encore pro database so it should be the same. Is the missing information still showing up in Encore Pro?