Help interpreting Encore info

[hegel]

o.k. so with I managed to download Encore Basic and get a working card reader. This, for me, is amazing. Now I'm reviewing Pugsy's indispensable tutorial and working through it. In the meantime, I have a few questions--many questions. sorry, I know that this has all been covered, but it's going to take some time to learn all of this and I hope to get an initial response.

So this is my report for a time period covering 12/22/12 to 10/3/13; a large survey.


Now the numbers:
Average 90% pressure: 8.8
Average cpap pressure: 7.5
Non responsive apnea: 0% (whoo-hooo!??)
obstructive airway:1.0
Average hypopnea index:1.4
Average ahi:2.4
vibratory snore index:1.5
Average 90% pressure:8.8
Average cpcp pressure: 7.5

When I get up to pee I leave the machine running (but not from now on!); also, I dry my humidifier and tubing by running the cpap machine with no water in it. I assume that this has wrecked my leak numbers, so I'm not including them. Is there a way to run my machine for 10-15 minutes to dry out the tubing without it ruining leak numbers?

thanks in advance for any comments, help in interpreting the numbers (until I can figure this out myself) and anything else. And a huge shout out to Pugsy for invaluable help and information.

EDIT: so my report starts with a long term trend graph--which includes the numbers that I've reported--and then gives the last five days....very very cool if I'm reading this right...

[ablong]

You could fill the info on the equipment you have in your profile otherwise we are guessing .
In my case I rinse out the hose and let air dry in the day hangin in the bathroom. I have two tanks and run one in the top of the dishwasher
while I use the other one about a week in the machine. The cleaned one goes in a freezer bag till change out. I have a tank machine which makes
this very easy to do.Hope this give you some Ideas.
Allen

[hegel]

o.k. done.
Sorry I'm a bit technically challenged.
Just curious if anything jumps out--or if there's something that I need to know, that I'm not seeing, etc.
I can figure the rest out over the next few days.

[Pugsy]

Nothing stands out as something horribly exciting needing work.

Unless you are having copious amounts of condensation (rain out) in the hose there is no real critical need to run the machine to dry out the humidifier and hose. If you did have large amounts of water in the hose 15 minutes wouldn't likely be enough anyway.
If you turn off the machine and then later turn it back on to dry the hose....are you seeing that time as big leak??
I can understand the pee breaks in the middle of the night because the machine wasn't turned off showing as big leak but I don't know if you have turned it off and then turn it on without mask breathing if it will register to affect leak numbers...I will test out my theory on my machine. I need to turn off the Auto off feature on my machine to test it.

[Pugsy]

Okay I did a little experiment to test if running the machine after turning it off would affect the leak numbers. It doesn't appear to.
Here is my leak graph from last night. The spike at the end of the night was the mask short hose coming off the long hose and it is easy to see the time where breathing was not detected. That short spike probably didn't affect leak numbers substantially because it was short but the next session where I turned off the Auto OFF so that when I started the machine without being attached to my face shows as breathing not detected....I don't think that time gets figured into the leak numbers since the machine never sensed breathing. My leak average should be much higher than it is if that second session got included.
It looks to me like you should be able to dry your hose (if you feel that is necessary) without it affecting numbers if you use the drying as a separate session.

If you are seeing much higher leak numbers..can you show us your leak graph to see if the drying session is affecting leak numbers?

[hegel]

I'm afraid that I don't know how to transfer my graph to this site...as I said, I'm technically challenged. (easily frustrated.) I'll figure this out too when I have a bit of time and post, if it's needed.

Meanwhile, the large numbers for the leaks are:
Avg. max leak: 118.1
avg. 90% leak: 40.9
avg. leak: 32.5
average large leak: 1 minute 8 secs.

HOWEVER; last night I turned off the machine during my pee break, and I simply took out the card when I did my little drying thing. Last night's report:
Large leak: 0.0%
0% of the night
average leak: 34

By the way I couldn't get the "help" function to work when I installed Encore; happily I don't seem to have wrecked anything; I unchecked the "erase report after download" box and so didn't erase my history; happy about that...anything else that I need to worry about? I'm just sort of winging it...

Thanks again for all of your help.

I do get rain in my hose, but not every night. People seem to think that I'm overdoing it with the whole drying thing; ya'll are probably right. It's just, when I hang the hose and mask up to dry by themselves there's still moisture in both 10 hours later. I did buy a So-Clean though and am happy with it. Obviously, I'm concerned with bacteria...I live in a high humidity town...

[Pugsy]

How to post images of reports is talked about in this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81072&p=737779#p737779

Meanwhile, the large numbers for the leaks are:
Avg. max leak: 118.1
avg. 90% leak: 40.9
avg. leak: 32.5
average large leak: 1 minute 8 secs.

HOWEVER; last night I turned off the machine during my pee break, and I simply took out the card when I did my little drying thing. Last night's report:
Large leak: 0.0%
0% of the night
average leak: 34

I suspect the large leak was the brief spike when you got up to go to the bathroom and let the machine run.
Last night you turned it off when you got up...so no big spike to the maximum.

Like I said...if it bugs you about the moisture in the hose..then go ahead and do what you are comfortable with doing to alleviate your concerns. It's a personal preference and hurts nothing so go ahead and do what you feel like works best for your situation.
Yeah, I don't think it is necessary but my opinion isn't the most important one in this situation...your opinion is the most important opinion and if it eases your mind to do the drying thing then go ahead and do it.
Cleaning and drying of equipment regiments differ widely among cpap users and that's just fine. There is no law that says everyone should follow one set of procedures.
If you sleep better following your own cleaning and drying regiment then by all means, do what you feel like suits your needs.
You are the only one you have to please. Not me or anyone else.
It just a matter of personal preference and it's okay for people to have different preferences.