Helping Son With Cpap

[Sheriff Buford]

For the last few years, my 27 year old son has been complaining about all the typical sleep apnea symptoms, snoring, headaches, fatigue, etc... He lost his insurance... thank you "you can keep your insurance" and "you can keep your doctor" Obama-care. Anyway, he is visiting for a couple weeks. I have my spare machine: S9 Vpap. I cranked it down, so it performs like an autoset. I have spare Resmed F20 cushions and frame, so I bought the headgear from CPAP.com, and some strap covers from Karen. He has no titration test results, so I set the pressures at 8 - 20. I initially set the minimum at 7, but he said he felt that wasn't enough air for him. I sat with him and showed him everything I know and learned in the last 8 years. All the tips and pitfalls he may or may not encounter.
The first morning, I snuck in his room to see if he had taken the mask off during the night..... and he was wearing it!!! When he got up, he said he wore the mask all night, and he felt better (refreshed) than he had in years! The second and third night were identical. His AHI's were 2.9, 2.5 and 2.2. His centrals were around a .9. I'm anxious to get him on sleepy head. I bought a memory card, but the machine is not taking it. It keeps telling to remove it, then reinsert it. I'll tinker with it today.

Unlike the real Sheriff Buford.... I'm proud of my boy..... pardon me while I brag.....

Sheriff

[Pad A Cheek]

You are a great DAD. Your son is lucky to have such a caring father that has the ability and the desire to help him sleep better. Way to go.

Karen

[Arlene1963]

I agree with Pad-a-Cheek.

Way to go!

[ChicagoGranny]

Unlike the real Sheriff Buford.... I'm proud of my boy..... pardon me while I brag.....

Yessir! And while you are at it, brag on yourself. You da man, Pops!

[Jack Burton]

Good on you and your son.

[Snoregone Conclusion]

You fulfill your fatherly duties admirably of providing for and protecting your family, and your son clearly can see the truth and deal with it in a self-serving protective manner that's not foolish pride!

[chunkyfrog]

So doggone proud of YOU.

[nanwilson]

Way to go Sherriff … I did the same thing with my son a few years ago and he has used his machine nightly ever since .
Didn't you set up your daughter recently too???

You are the best damn Dad around!!!!!!
Cheers
Nan

[palerider]

Based on what you're saying about the ahi, I'd say raise the min a bit... Good job sheriff!

As to the card, try erasing it in your computer and let the vpap format it.

[prodigyplace]

Great job!

[Sheriff Buford]

Based on what you're saying about the ahi, I'd say raise the min a bit... Good job sheriff!

As to the card, try erasing it in your computer and let the vpap format it.

Yea... ok.... I thought the "lock" slot was engaged. But when I put it the machine, the screen says "error - locked card" (or something like that). I'll try the puter' thang.... or I may have another memory card.... somewhere.

Sheriff

[Sheriff Buford]

Way to go Sherriff … I did the same thing with my son a few years ago and he has used his machine nightly ever since .
Didn't you set up your daughter recently too???

You are the best damn Dad around!!!!!!
Cheers
Nan

Not as successful with her. She's going thru a bad job and a divorce. She had been only using the mask 3 or 4 hours a night. She says she doesn't put it back on after getting up for the kids. I say why? She shrugs her shoulders. I ask her does she do it when she doesn't have the kids.... she says yes . She said last night she only takes it off maybe once a week. I need to follow up on her more.....

Sheriff

[Sheriff Buford]

Based on what you're saying about the ahi, I'd say raise the min a bit...

Think that'll drop the AHI a bit??

Sheriff

[Pugsy]

The locked card message that the machine is giving you means that the SD card is still locked or write protected...it's telling you that it can't write the date to the card when that little lock tab is in the lock position.
If you can't slide that little tab and unlock the card...it's stuck and you need a new card.
The lock SD card warning is to prevent Windows 8.xxx and higher from writing a little text file to the SD card that the S9 (only machine that cares about that text file) doesn't like and makes it not accept the card.
If your computer is Windows 7....you don't need to lock the card.

And yes...more pressure will usually lower the AHI ...assuming the AHI is primarily either OAs or hyponeas. If primarily central in nature...won't help and I wouldn't do it without more investigation.

Example....
AHI 2.9 and 0.9 of that is central...that means 2.0 is a combination of OAs and hyponeas...so more pressure might help assuming not SWJ.
Now if the AHI was. 2.9 and 2.0 of it was centrals/CAs....that means only 0.9 of that AHI is obstructive and more pressure probably wouldn't help.

Base your thinking on an overall average and not just one bad night.
Especially when someone is brand new to therapy and they might have a lot of SWJ flagged stuff messing with that AHI.
SWJ awake stuff doesn't count. And it's common to not sleep so great at first with all this crap on our face blowing air up our nose or into our mouths. If most of his flagged events aren't real and are SWJ...more pressure won't help and could make sleep quality worse.
Not long ago I had a night with AHI of nearly 4.0...nice mixture of centrals, OAs and hyponeas...unusually high for me so I went and looked at each flagged event up close and not a single flagged event was the real deal. They were all SWJ flagged events. More pressure wouldn't have fixed things. It was just a crappy night of sleep secondary to worse than usual back pain. Lots of tossing and turning and brief little arousals.

If you want to learn how to figure out awake flagged events and asleep flagged events...watch the videos here
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software
Don't assume that the machine can't miss flag something....I know first hand it can.

If just looking at the numbers....points to maybe needing more pressure and probably wouldn't hurt anything to just do it but I don't like to do things without a good reason and I would first want to know if what I was wanting to kill with more pressure is something that can be killed with more pressure.
I am kinda anal about that sort of thing.
I won't advise an increase without either the person complaining of "not enough air" or a documented proven need for more pressure.
And just an AHI number that is a bit too high isn't enough proof for me. I would want to know if it was real or not before I go firing more pressure at it and trying to kill it.
Especially when someone is so new to therapy and they might not be sleeping so soundly anyway. There's a potential for a lot of SWJ to happen.
Hell...I had a bad night of sleep and a high AHI not long ago...crap happens. But they weren't real because I wasn't asleep and more pressure wouldn't have reduced them. They wouldn't be killed by more pressure because those flagged events didn't really happen because of sleep apnea...they were just a symptom of a poor quality night's sleep.

[palerider]

Based on what you're saying about the ahi, I'd say raise the min a bit...

Think that'll drop the AHI a bit??

Sheriff

It *should*... Since the central AI is low, it's most made up of obstructives, and the answer for that almost always is 'more pressure', or in this case, more minimum.