monica4patience wrote:My numbers were quite good (well except VS on Friday). But I'm just not sure how accurate they are. Can the cloth mask liner interfere with how the machine is working? How it reads the apnea episodes? I guess I'm just not trusting that these numbers are a true reflection of what happened.
I'd trust the numbers -- insofar as data numbers from our machines can be trusted at all. Data from our machines isn't as much "a true reflection of what happened" as the data from a sleep study PSG would be. Best to regard our machine data as useful for trending purposes mainly. But I digress! I suppose you're talking about comparing numbers you got when using the cloth liner you made (the two graphs you posted) to numbers you've previously gotten without the cloth liner.
I assume the liner was cut out in the middle in the shape of the mask opening, and the cloth was cut to line the area where the silicone of the mask cushion touches your skin. I'd say your CPAP sensed the airflow just as well as it did without the liner. Sounds like what you made worked fine.
Regarding the increase of events your data shows in the last hours before morning... apneas are most apt to happen for most people when the person is in REM (rapid eye movement -- "dreaming") sleep. REM cycles usually get increasingly longer as the night goes on.
With that in mind, I'd probably try a few nights using a little more pressure, as Kathy (mayondair) suggested. If it were me, I'd raise the pressure (currently set at 8 ) up to 9 or 10. There's nothing wrong with a more conservative change like .5 cm. I just prefer to make my changes in whole cm's -- either direction -- when I'm tweaking my own therapy.
Even if you don't make any pressure change, you're lookin' good, Monica. What a bee-yoo-tee-ful low leak line! Lucky you!
