Improving

[Jack o]

Hello - I hate CPAP.
Been using on/off for 7 years. Mouth breather - always swallow air - always gassed up - constipated - mask leaks - - dry mouth - wearing large mask for years as advised by Dr.
Tried mouth device and chin strap along the way - too claustrophobic. Tried different pillows too - high and low. Surprisingly low works better.

Just started a medium mask (Res Med F-30) and new Res-med Air Sense 10 machine. Also stopped drinking 3 cups of a.m. coffee.
Learned how on U-Tube and have changed CPAP pressure settings from Low 5, High 15 to Low 4, High 5. Been on new settings for 3 weeks and am averaging 4 AHI - My high being 9, most being 3 to 6 and a couple 1-2's. Increased humidity to 6 - but that puts water into the line and a gurgling noise. (without CPAP I am severe apnea - 30 episodes per hr.)

Overall now much better - Now go to bathroom almost daily vs. once every 4-5 days after drinking 8 cups of coffee to purge. Must have been dehydrated for years between swallowing air and just 3 cups of coffee. Maybe I can stop the expensive Uloric gout medicine too since gout is at least partially caused by dehydration.
It is interesting how going from 15 to 5 pressure had little affect on my AHI. Makes me wonder...

But still gassy = Is there any way to lower CPAP settings below 4 ?

Thanks - Lumpy

[LSAT]

You are shooting in the dark...your pressure settings make no sense...NO machines cannot go lower than 4. Why don't you read this and download the free sofware to really see what is happening. viewtopic/t172378/Sticky--Newbies-PLEAS ... STING.html

[zonker]

Hello - I hate CPAP.

this might be simply the best introductory sentence i've read on here!

but you've come to the right place. please do as lsat suggests for starters. why? we don't all have the same machine. we don't all have the same mask. nor combination of the two. there is just enough difference that the tweaks recommended could be different.

so, please tell us what machine and mask you have. if you go to the control panel and fill in your equipment, then it will appear at the bottom of each of your posts as it does on mine below.

one last request, if you would; for the next short while please keep your posts to this thread. it makes it much easier for us to keep track of your progress.

good luck!

[Jack o]

Thank you lsat and zonker. I updated my profile to include my equipment.
My pressure settings are as I said whether they make sense or not. That is what they are - maybe weird. Low is set at 4 which I brought down from 5. High is at 5 which I gradually brought down from 15 to 5 and still to reduce the swallowing of so much air. At 5 I receive acceptable results with AHI averaging 4. Thanks for letting me know that 4 is as low as it will go. I guess the humidifier cannot be set higher than 6 without water gurgling on thru the hose. I like the F 30 except that it is difficult to breath thru my nose with even when awake. But a lot better than all the full face large masks that the doctor had me using and leaking over the years.
Jack (Lumpy)

[TropicalDiver]

I guess the humidifier cannot be set higher than 6 without water gurgling on thru the hose. I like the F 30 except that it is difficult to breath thru my nose with even when awake. But a lot better than all the full face large masks that the doctor had me using and leaking over the years.
Jack (Lumpy)

Gurgling happens when condensate forms on the inside of the mask and/or (more likely) hose. There are four general approaches to resolve this:
a) Use a heated hose (and/or turn the hose temp up);
b) Insulate the hose using some sort of wrap (often made of fleece);
c) Increase the room temp;
d) Lower the height of the xpap unit relative to you (and/or some hose routing); or
e) Lower the humidity setting.

Where is the noise exactly coming from? What have you tried?

[zonker]

Thank you lsat and zonker. I updated my profile to include my equipment.
My pressure settings are as I said whether they make sense or not. That is what they are - maybe weird. Low is set at 4 which I brought down from 5. High is at 5 which I gradually brought down from 15 to 5 and still to reduce the swallowing of so much air. At 5 I receive acceptable results with AHI averaging 4. Thanks for letting me know that 4 is as low as it will go. I guess the humidifier cannot be set higher than 6 without water gurgling on thru the hose. I like the F 30 except that it is difficult to breath thru my nose with even when awake. But a lot better than all the full face large masks that the doctor had me using and leaking over the years.
Jack (Lumpy)

yer welcome. i see tropicaldiver is helping on the humidity. i'll try helping you on the settings.

i know that it makes perfect sense to you to lower that pressure. it made sense to me as well when i started. but this is yet another place where our massive brains are messing with us. believe it or not, you want that minimum pressure higher! yes, i know, i sound like a crazy man. but the pressure setting where you have it now isn't going to do doodley squat on helping your sleep apnea. there are many reasons for this but too much to go into now.

what you may want to try, to fight off aerophagia (gas to us common folk!) is to use a setting on your machine called EPR-Exhale Pressure Relief. this will help you breath easier against your higher pressure. now, i don't have the same machine as you. i have one with a slightly different name. so i'm hesitant to rattle off instructions to you as to HOW to get to this setting. but you've changed your pressure so i feel confident you can find the epr settings yourself.

you will have to experiment with the settings (1,2 or 3) to see which best suits you. but it's worth trying, imho.

keep at this. there is much more to learn. when you get the chance you are going to want to download the free software program, oscar. see my link below.

armed with this, we will see which events make up your ahi. and YOUR events are going to be different than someone else's. once the experts here can see the charts that oscar produces(you'll be able to display them here in your thread.), they can give you precise advice (i'm a poet!) to help you get your ahi under control and help you start to feeling better.

meanwhile, it's one step at a time.

good luck, you can DO this.

ETA: shoot, i meant to say that you are going to want the maximum set to much higher. all the way up to 20. all of this will help.

[Jack o]

Tropical Diver, Thanks for the humidification pointers. I will test/follow.

Zonker, I tried downloading. My PC virus protection will not allow. If I can somehow do it, how do I connect to the CPAP machine? But for now - With my high pressure setting at 5, the air swallowing is greatly reduced compared to when it is set between 10 and 15. I already have the EPR set at 3 which is best for me. Why am I not best off this way since my AHI is now at an average of 4? Isn't that what it is all about - Comfort and AHI below 5? Or am I missing something. I am not a computer savvy person. Thanks, Jack

[zonker]

Tropical Diver, Thanks for the humidification pointers. I will test/follow.

Zonker, I tried downloading. My PC virus protection will not allow. If I can somehow do it, how do I connect to the CPAP machine? But for now - With my high pressure setting at 5, the air swallowing is greatly reduced compared to when it is set between 10 and 15. I already have the EPR set at 3 which is best for me. Why am I not best off this way since my AHI is now at an average of 4? Isn't that what it is all about - Comfort and AHI below 5? Or am I missing something. I am not a computer savvy person. Thanks, Jack

first, check and see if you have an sd card slot in your cpap machine. if so, that's the connection. data is written to the sd card when one is inserted before going to sleep at night.

i'm sorry, i think i've confused myself and you. not unusual, me being confused. i thought you had your minimum set at 4. you are saying your ahi is 4 as well?

let me say this about that-an ahi of under 5 is an "industry standard". it's what lazy doctors have been told is an acceptable level and therefor, it's what to shoot for. but if i had an ahi of 4, i wouldn't feel treated at all! many of the forum members achieve ahi levels of 2 or less. myself, i'm averaging between 0.5 and 1 regularly. if i get above 1.5, i can feel the difference. i would feel slightly "headachy" and a touch foggy.

here, we feel that the lowest ahi one can reasonably achieve, while feeling well rested, is the goal. there is absolutely nothing wrong with you staying at an ahi of 4 if that works for you. i'm just offering you the opportunity, with the help of forum members, to get lower numbers.

but i'm by no means pushing it. to each their own.

continued good luck!

oh! and some smart ducky will be along to talk to you about not being able to load the software. i'm barely computer literate myself.

[Jack o]

Zonker,
Thanks - My old machine had a card. This one is a year old and communicates to the cloud. I don't know how to send the data from the phone. I can see my results every morning on my I-Phone - usage hrs., mask seal, events per hour, mask on/off and total score. Dr's office can see it too if they look. But they never look at it anyway because they don't get paid to. They only look once a year. (I went for 5 years with the wrong size masks too large with air blowing all over - so I have no respect for the Pulmonary Dr. at all. I only go 1 X per yr. so I can get a new mask every 3 months. I can get an AHI of zero to 2 when I set high pressure at 12- 13 - but then am full of gas for hours and totally constipated for days. Setting pressure at 5, which I have done now for 3 weeks, works best for comfort and an avg. AHI of 4 (Machine is currently set at EPR 3, Low Pres. 4 and High Pres 5.) I may bump it up to 6 and see what happens if anything. I really have no other side affects such as being sleepy whether I wear the mask or not, whether I have an AHI in the 30's without using it or a low AHI using it. EPR 3 and High setting at 5 allows me to exhale the best. Thanks for talking and helping. Jack

PS. I still hate the f'n machine. If I did not have build-up in the arteries, I probably would not even wear it. I only snore when I drink at night. But I have to drink, I'm Irish. Have a good weekend!

[TropicalDiver]

Zonker,
Thanks - My old machine had a card. This one is a year old and communicates to the cloud. I don't know how to send the data from the phone.

While you new machine has a modem (to the cloud and then the phone), your new machine still has that SD slot. You add a SD card, use the machine, take the SD card out and plug it into a SD card reader attached to a PC running OSCAR.

That gives you a ton more data than what you are seeing on your phone.

[Jack o]

Tropical Driver,
I checked again and there is an SD card in it. I just don't bring it to the doctor anymore because he gets all the info off the cloud. I will need to buy a reader unless there is someway for me to get from the cloud as the doctor does. Is there info other than AHI that I need to know about, if my AHI is below 5?
Thanks,
Jack

[Dog Slobber]

Just knowing the summary data such as AHI and averages is not much information, especially for tuning therapy.

Attached is the Summary data from MyAir and the Detail data from OSCAR.

Other than knowing it was a good night MyAir doesn't tell me much. OSCAR shows me when and what type of events I had, when and possibly why my pressure changed, when leaks occurred and a lot more information.

MyAir_OSCAR.png

[TropicalDiver]

I will need to buy a reader unless there is someway for me to get from the cloud as the doctor does.

Yes, you need to buy a reader -- fairly cheap (around $10).

[zonker]

Tropical Driver,
I checked again and there is an SD card in it. I just don't bring it to the doctor anymore because he gets all the info off the cloud. I will need to buy a reader unless there is someway for me to get from the cloud as the doctor does. Is there info other than AHI that I need to know about, if my AHI is below 5?
Thanks,
Jack

seriously, it's up to you. if you feel fine with an ahi below 5 instead of how low you could go, then don't worry about it.

but, if in the future, should you come back with some problem that only the data from the sd card provides, well then you'll want to get the sd card reader.

there is no way, as far as i know, to get that same info from the cloud via any free software program.

good luck!

[Jack o]

Tropical Diver, Zonker, Dog Slobber or LSAT,

Thanks for all the help. I got a reader and think I have it on my desk top but I am not able to copy and paste to this note. This is what pastes: . Any ideas?

Jack