AHI creeping up

[bayourest]

HI
after tweaking my settings etc for some time I was reliably getting AI below 2 and often below 1. I thought I had arrived!!
But lately it has been creeping up into the 2s and 3s. I have raised my minimum from 11 to 12 and I 'll see what happens. (My apap is set now to 12-20. I rarely see max pressures above 13 or 14. I am working on the premise that minimum setting is the crucial one). Has anyone else noticed this type of tendency? could it be a seasonal effect? I am not really too concerned about it but I am just wondering if I should expect to periodically raise the minimum pressure.....
thanks

[HoseCrusher]

On the off chance that your machine may be in "seeking" mode, try setting the maximum to 15. I don't know if that will help, and the lower pressure is the more important one, but on occasion it will help.

[bayourest]

Hose Crusher, do you mean set it 11-15 or 12 -15? I haven't heard of seeking mode before!! many thanks

[tbone421998]

bayourest, I think he means 20-15.

[robysue]

HI
after tweaking my settings etc for some time I was reliably getting AI below 2 and often below 1. I thought I had arrived!!
But lately it has been creeping up into the 2s and 3s.

The actual numbers are only part of the story. It's just as important to ask: Are you feeling any worse with the (slightly) higher AHIs than you were when they were consistently below 2? Sometimes some people actually feel better with "good enough" AHI numbers than they feel with "fantastic" AHI numbers. But sometimes some people don't.

I have raised my minimum from 11 to 12 and I 'll see what happens. (My apap is set now to 12-20. I rarely see max pressures above 13 or 14. I am working on the premise that minimum setting is the crucial one). Has anyone else noticed this type of tendency? could it be a seasonal effect? I am not really too concerned about it but I am just wondering if I should expect to periodically raise the minimum pressure.....
thanks

Certainly when my seasonal allergies kicked in, there was a slight rise in the pressure numbers on my Bi-PAP Auto. And a rise in AHI. At one point in early May, the rise in AHI was even alarmingly into the near 5.0 range AND I was not feeling as well. So I even tried increasing the pressure, which didn't actually make as big of a difference in AHI as I had hoped, but did make a huge NEGATIVE difference in how I felt due to aggravating the aerophagia. So I went back to square one, reduced the pressure settings back down to my prescribed pressures, and started tackling the nasal congestion from the allergies even more stringently.

The result? Well, since starting on Flonase in early June and continuing with the neti-pot (most nights) and the zyrtex during the day, my AHIs have been bouncing around all summer from 0.5 (rare nights) to 1.0--2.8 range (most nights) to 2.9--3.8 range (more nights than I care to think about). I've tried tracking the AHI with pollen count (so far a weak correlation at best). And the only other thing I can say is that I'm noticing a lot LESS of a difference in how I feel after a night with an AHI near 3.0 and a night with an AHI below 1 than I was back in the winter time.

And for what it's worth, since starting the Flonase, the thing most strongly correlated to my higher than desirable AHIs (i.e. AHI >= 3.0) seems to be travel: We were on a cross country trip visiting relatives from June 24 to July 7.

The AHIs for the two weeks prior to the trip (nights of June 9 - June 23) were:

• 1.3, 3.1, 1.3, 1.3, 0.9, 0.6, 1.8, 1.5, 1.3, 1.9, 1.5, 2.0, 1.0, 1.0, 3.0
  So there are 2/15 nights with AHI >= 3.0 before the trip

The AHI's for June 24 to July 5 (nights away from home) were:

• 3.8, 0.6, 1.0, 3.3, 3.2, 2.1, 2.7, 1.7, 3.0, 1.8, 0.7, 1.3(with HORRIBLE INSOMNIA)
  So there are 3/12 nights with AHI >= 3.0 when away from home

And the AHIs since getting home (nights of July 6 to July 11) have been:

• 2.8, 2.6, 0.6, 3.4, 0.5, 1.7
  So there's been 1/6 nights with AHI >= 3.0 so far since coming home

[robysue]

bayourest, I think he means 20-15.

tbone, I beg to differ: HoseCrusher clearly says:

On the off chance that your machine may be in "seeking" mode, try setting the maximum to 15. (emphasis added).

I believe that HoseCrusher really did mean to say maximum here. Some machines are slower to respond when the upper limit on pressure is set way, way above what's actually needed and ever reached in practice.

[Bobby269]

I also use the Quatro FX mask and have two. One is new and the other is 4 months old. In the last week while using the older one my AHI's went from 0.2 to
0.7 up into the 1.5 to 2.0. My cushion on the older mask appeared to be worn out. Once replaced I was back to my regular AHI's.

In my second month of Cpap I found why it's nice to have an Uncle_BOB.( ResScan software download is under his signatute) and was then able to download the ResScan software. Being able to check for leaks and fixing them allowed me to finally go below 5.0 and ultimately lower.

Hopefully that might be your problem.

[HoseCrusher]

Hose Crusher, do you mean set it 11-15 or 12 -15? I haven't heard of seeking mode before!! many thanks

I believe you stated that you had raised the minimum from 11 to 12, but your maximum was at 20. My suggestion was to lower the maximum from 20 down to something like 15. Keep your minimum at what you have found that works best, in this case you are at 12. That gives you the range from 12 - 15.

[bayourest]

thanks everyone
I use flonase and neti pot and my quattro fx is almost 4 mos old. all of these responses are helpful. I dont actually feel worse but noticed the numbers bouncing around.

[robysue]

thanks everyone
I use flonase and neti pot and my quattro fx is almost 4 mos old. all of these responses are helpful. I dont actually feel worse but noticed the numbers bouncing around.

Try replacing the mask cushion if it's almost four months old. Easy thing to try and it might be the source of the problem.