Maximizing my CPAP effort

[orangegrower]

After learning how to download my data I am still trying to evaluate what is good and bad. I do understand that perfection can not be obtained. Having said that if we go through this CPAP process we all want to come as close to no events as possible. I am averaging between 4 and 5 AHI's an hour and they appear to be trending down. My sleep study before treatment showed me with 21 AHI's per hour. 80 to 90% of these events are hypopnea's. Am I correct in my understanding that a hypopnia event is not as serious as a clear airway or obstructive apnea event? I would like to gauge my success by the way I feel after waking up but honestly I have never felt all that bad. The reason I am on CPAP is to try to lower my chronic elevated red cell blood count and that is working. Anybody else diagnosed with an elevated red cell count?

[sleepstar]

I really don't recommend following your data so closely.
Our head physician likens it to weighing yourself several times a day. There's no point.

An AHI of 5 is great.

Really, the only reason you would need to check your data is if you were feeling tired again. Or you suspected leak etc.

It's too easy to get too involved with it all.

Your mask should be the last thing you do at night. You put it on and get up in the morning. You shouldn't stress yourself too much about it

[sleepstar]

A hypopnea is just as serious as an apnea.
Your oxygen desaturation can drop just as low as an apnea, if not lower. Both also disturb your sleep by causing you to arouse.
There's basically no difference between them. Wouldn't be surprised if the scoring rules one day change to combine them into the same thing.

[Kitatonic]

Orange grower, how low we're your desats? If you suffered from hypoxia during the night, that might well lead to your high RBC. Most of us over monitor at first to understand and optimize therapy, but the bottom line is how you feel and all the other symptoms resolving like nocturia and fatigue.

[orangegrower]

Orange grower, how low we're your desats? If you suffered from hypoxia during the night, that might well lead to your high RBC. Most of us over monitor at first to understand and optimize therapy, but the bottom line is how you feel and all the other symptoms resolving like nocturia and fatigue.

I am not sure where my desats are. Since my major problem is my red cell count I was thinking about getting an oximeter and integrating it into my sleepyhead data. I did get a blood test after about 30 days of therapy and my blood numbers were in the normal range for the first time in 15 years. They were in the upper range of normal but I will take it. I have scheduled another blood test in 3 months.

[Kitatonic]

My hemocrit would always in the mid-40s, slightly high for a veggie woman, but never commented on. Now that you bring it up, I'm suspecting those desats into the low 60s became like training at altitude.