Air Pressure question with Apap

[archangle]

I agree that sometimes an APAP will go to a higher pressure than what is best for the patient. Yet another reason everyone needs a data capable machine and should monitor the results.

[Sheriff Buford]

Thank You Sherriff I will set it for 11. Im in Houston, I attempted to drive through Kingwood yesterday omg..crazy traffic!! I think they were all headed to the mall for the sales. We were headed to Lake Livingston taking the boys fishing. Anyhoo, I wil up the pressure to 11 tonight and see what happens. thanks.

Traffic is always like this... I'm fixin' to retire. The wife wants to retire in Kingwood, I was sayin' the other day that I wasn't going to retire here because of the traffic... who knows? I don't think I'll win the argument anyway...

You do know that cpap.com is in Stafford. I good distance away, but if I'm in the area on bitness' and I need something... I'll stop.

Sheriff

[Izzman]

Rather than making a new thread, I thought I would post here since my question semi-relates to this prior discussion.

Background history: I've been 'using' a Apap/Cpap machine since August 2012 (I have mixed apneas) with little compliance due to various reasons any typical beginner has (wrong mask, wrong pressure, getting adjusted to sleeping on back, getting used to having air blown at your face, etc). I'm in medical school and my studies force me to only get 5-6 hours of sleep a night.

More recently: I've used the Apap setting to find my 90% which varied from 7.5-8.5cm so I threw it back onto the Cpap setting two nights ago since I've found Cpap to be most cooperative with me, and I started it at 8cm. My AHI was 0.6 with total therapy hours of 6.9. In the past my AHI was roughly 2-3 with a 3-4 therapy hour. However, even with this 0.6 AHI, I was extremely exhausted, and had to take two naps throughout the day (without cpap). Last night, I bumped it up to 8.2cm and had a 7.6 therapy hour with 1.6 AHI. And yet again, I'm exhausted.

My questions are:
1) did I just induce an increase in my central apneas from increasing my pressure from 8 to 8.2cm?
2) why was I exhausted the first night with a AHI of 0.6 and a therapy hour of 6.9.? (Since I normally sleep less than this)
3) should I move it back down to 8cm and just see what happens? Or even lower than 8cm?

Thank you for reading my post and I am completely open to any help.

[cosmo]

1) did I just induce an increase in my central apneas from increasing my pressure from 8 to 8.2cm?

I bumped the pressure of my machine to 16cm one day. I'm normally at 12.5cm. It didn't harm me. Then the next night I went to 18cm. Still alive and with no induced centrals

viewtopic/t88247/Any-harm-in-using-too- ... ssure.html

[Pugsy]

Rather than making a new thread,

Your questions may get lost in this thread so might want to consider a new one if you don't get the help you need here.

1) did I just induce an increase in my central apneas from increasing my pressure from 8 to 8.2cm?

Not likely. Did you see a marked increase in the number of centrals? That amount of change is really insignificant.
More pressure doesn't automatically mean more centrals in the entire population anyway. Not nearly as common as people think.

2) why was I exhausted the first night with a AHI of 0.6 and a therapy hour of 6.9.? (Since I normally sleep less than this)

Don't know. Though I will share this....it isn't all about the AHI that dictates how we feel the next day. Low numbers don't guarantee anything.
Often there are other things going on that impact how we feel the next day...leaks, bed comfort, sleep quality along with sleep quantity, meds, general health issues and so on and so on...long list.
We see it often..people get a low AHI and wonder why they don't have the "miracle".
Sometimes its a matter of just giving things time but sometimes there are other issues at work that are impacting how we feel.

3) should I move it back down to 8cm and just see what happens? Or even lower than 8cm?

From 8.2 down to 8.0? That's a very minor change. It's doubtful one would even see or feel a change that small.

How about sharing your reports so we can see what you are seeing on your reports. Maybe something will stand out screaming "fix me".... I would suggest starting a new thread if you do that.

Don't know how to post images of reports? We talk about it in this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81072&p=737779#p737779

Don't know about software? We need to know exactly which machine make and model you are using and then we can point you to the software.

[Izzman]

Thank you Cosmo and Pugsy. Not sure why my machine isn't popping up with my Mask type under my post. Anyways, I'm using a ResMed S8 AutoSet Vantage EPR Auto Cpap Machine. From what you are saying most likely my increase in AHI was/can be due to many many other factors and probably not the .2 increase in my pressure.

[Pugsy]

Thank you Cosmo and Pugsy. Not sure why my machine isn't popping with my Mask type up under my post. Anyways, I'm using a ResMed S8 AutoSet Vantage EPR Auto Cpap Machine. From what you are saying most likely my increase in AHI was/can be due to many many other factors and probably not the .2 increase in my pressure.

Your equipment is an older machine that the link to that machine is now broken. Yours isn't the only one and that's why it won't show up in your profile.
Just manually add it to your comments line...see mine where I have mentioned the other machine that I have and use.

Your machine doesn't flag centrals...so we have no idea if you are having any. Even if you were we would need to see 4 or 5 per hour, every hour all night long before we got alarmed about it. Changes in AHI from 0.9 to 0.4 are not significant changes....and really neither are AHI 0.8 to 2.8...now if your AHI went to 6.8 and stayed there (not just one night) then we might start looking harder.

We don't sleep the same every night and our AHI can vary wildly with no changes. I have been known to have an AHI of 0.3 one night and the very next night have AHI of 4.8 and not change anything at all that I was aware of. It just happens. One night not long ago I had AHI of 6.4 but it was a generally restless night due to back pain. Poor night in general but not really because of OSA...most of my "events" that got flagged were shown when I was awake tossing and turning due to the pain.
The machines don't know if we are asleep or not...they just record what they sense in regards to air flow and often our awake breathing is irregular and fools the machine.

Do you have ResScan so you can see what is going on during the night or are you just using the numbers off the machine?

[Izzman]

I am only reading off the machine unfortunately. I appreciate your helpful info and I keep the settings at their current level for a few more nights to see what happens. I can understand it all comes down to how rested I feel throughout the day rather than what my AHI is. Maybe since I haven't been very stable on my settings and sleep cycle, my body hasn't had time to adjust to the cpap and thus, not allow me to become well rested throughout the day.

[Pugsy]

I am only reading off the machine unfortunately

Understood. If you can ever get your hands on the smart card reader so you can use the software (I can get you the software no problem)

If the not so great feeling continues and you can't blame it on
Poor sleep (waking up often and stuff like that) or lack of hours of sleep or mask leaks or discomfort or something directly related to the equipment and the AHI is still nice and low then maybe we need to discuss other possible factors which might be impacting things.
Meds and their side effects...maybe other possible health conditions...stuff like that.

I wish that getting a nice low AHI was a guarantee for feeling awesome again. Unfortunately it isn't that simple.
Getting good numbers is the easy part.

[Izzman]

I can pop the ResMed card out of the back of the machine and I have an adaptor that will allow me to plug it into my laptop. Will this be of any help?

[Pugsy]

I can pop the ResMed card out of the back of the machine and I have an adaptor that will allow me to plug it into my laptop. Will this be of any help?

Adapter for the Smart card?
or Adapter to attach to the S8?

Normally there is only one adapter that works with the Smart card that can be used to transmit Smart card data to the computer. Only place I have seen it available is on EBay and from a seller in Israel and not cheap.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... -cpap.html

I haven't heard of any other adapters that will work with the smart card.

Now some of the older machines allowed for a transfer of data from machine to computer with some cables...I am unsure if your machine does that.

I will send you a link for ResScan and you can install it and try it with what you have...so check your PM box in a few minutes.

I would tell you to buy the card reader but in all honesty if you shop smart you can take the $100 the card reader might cost and put it with another $300 or so and get you the latest S9 model which flags centrals and has the latest technology and doesn't need the high dollar card reader because they use SD cards.
There's a guy on the forum yesterday..maybe...Has a low hour S9 Autoset with humidifier...I forget price. Let me see if I can find it.

[Izzman]

Sent you back a message regarding my machine. It actually is a S9. Sorry about that.

[Pugsy]

Okay, Izzman is good to go with ResScan link and SleepyHead software.

I do think that if we post images of reports...start a new thread so there is no confusion here and we get the full attention of all the members.
A lot of people don't bother to read the old threads or follow them.