Lurker/newb - intro, 4 month report, and a ?

[chinmullet]

Hi all, I have a learned a lot here, lurking for the last 6 months. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and knowledge. I would not be surprised if there are a lot of lurkers like me.

In my younger years, my ex-wife used to tell me that I stopped breathing in my sleep and woke up gasping many times a night. Being young, I felt invincible and shrugged off her words.

Many years have come and gone since then, and then last summer, I had the mid-40s "Time to see a doctor and see what all this cleaning living has done to my body" discussion with myself. Went to a doctor for the first time in 25 years. Got on high blood pressure medicine, told to go on a diet, told to quit smoking...the usual. (Done, not done, and done)

While there, I told doc that I might have sleep apnea. He sent me to a sleep doctor, who sent me to a sleep study. Sleep study sucked so bad. Very uncomfortable. Had to go twice. Expensive, about $4k each. Out-of-pocket was about $2k because of my high deductible. Sleep doctor sais study results indicate that I have sleep apnea, on the higher end of the mid range.

About 4 months ago, DME dropped off my new sleep mate - a REMstar PRO CPAP with C-Flex+, humidifier, and a Mirage Quattro mask. The first couple of weeks were a bit rough, but not nearly as bad as some stories I have read here. (Your stories were so bad that I felt fortunate and helped me stick to it...haha)

I could only tolerate the mask for a few hours a night at first. After the first week or so, I started to feel more alert during the day.

4 months later, my machine says that time used is consistently about 5.5 hours per night, which covers about 90% of my actual sleep time. I don't really mind the mask much, the noise from the cpap machine is tolerable. I don't suffer from any of the issues I read about here - skin irritation, etc. It's not that unpleasant for me.

HOWEVER, I am only very slightly less sleepy during the day. I continue on in the belief that this is having other positive effects on my health, even if I can't feel them.

I do have one question:

My machine's data for Large Leaks, AHI, and Periodic Breathing have been pegged at 0.0 for all four months straight, since day one with it. I check it regularly, but have never seen even a blip 0.1 in any of them. The machine is collecting data...it records time used, etc. Is this possible? Am I extremely lucky (again?) Is there a way to simulate any/all of the three to confirm the recording, maybe?

I don't have mch to give back to this community, but...

I did quit my two pack per day, 30 year smoking habit by using e-cigs. I got lucky with that too, skipping the junk e-cigs in the gas stations and malls, and bumping early into the Volt from smokelessimage.com. I weaned myself off the smokes and onto the e-cig over a two or three week period. Used the e-cig for about 6 months, and am now using lower nic juice to wean myself off the e-cig.

It's essentially flavored liquid with some nicotine in it, heated into steam by a small battery, but without the burnt carcinogens. Nicotine is apparently about as harmful as caffeine. It's best not to do either, but I'll take it in place of real cigs.

I do feel MUCH better from dropping the cigs. My lungs feel stronger, my sinuses are better, my oral hygiene rocks now, my hands are no longer numb when I wake up, and I don't smell like crap. My success has led to about 20 people using e-cigs at my work now. For once, I use my power for good instead of evil.

Thanks again all. Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite.

[Pugsy]

My machine's data for Large Leaks, AHI, and Periodic Breathing have been pegged at 0.0 for all four months straight, since day one with it. I check it regularly, but have never seen even a blip 0.1 in any of them. The machine is collecting data...it records time used, etc. Is this possible? Am I extremely lucky (again?) Is there a way to simulate any/all of the three to confirm the recording, maybe?

There is software available so you can confirm those numbers (which are really very limited).
Look on the bottom of your machine for a 3 digit number...should be either 450 or 460 for a PR System One Pro with CFlex.
The 460 has the heated hose option.
Check out this thread regarding SleepyHead software that will work with your machine.
viewtopic/t83551/SleepyHead-Series-60-Patch-Avail.html
If you have the 450 machine you don't need the patch file. If you have the 460 you will need the 60 series patch.

Check out my signature line for other options and some links to some terms that you will see in the reports.
You can also use Respironics software if you want but SleepyHead is easier, faster and smaller.
EncoreBasic is the Respironics software that will work with your machine.
Look in Uncle Bob's signature line for information on how to find EB
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=38643
Be sure to read the Help section because it tells you how to use the software.

EncoreGuide link this will show you examples of what you will see. For a different machine than yours but the basics are the same.
http://www.healthcare.philips.com/pwc_h ... _Guide.pdf

The numbers you are seeing on the machine's LCD screen are very limited in what they actually tell you. That large leak number is just a percent of time spent in large leak. That PB number is just the time spent in periodic breathing.
It is possible that those 2 numbers could be 0.0
but having an AHI of 0.0 for this length of time means you pretty much never had any events at all and that would be really unusual. Instead I bet they have "Show AHI" thing turned off in the clinical setup menu. There's a setting in the setup menu to block the patient from seeing the data that the machine does show on the LCD screen. Sounds like they blocked you.
Easy to unblock though.
This link shows a video on how to get to the menu area and turn that setting on so you can see the data on the machine's screen but to be honest...once you use the software you won't bother with the machine screen.
Scroll down just a bit to see the PR S1 video.
http://www.cpaplibrary.com/machines.html

[chinmullet]

Thank you so much Pugsy!!!

I will see what the software says