Not breathing again after a year...

[bri127]

My mask has been wonderful to me since last February. Suddenly the past 3 nights I have been feeling myself fall asleep and wake up again in a jolt to catch my breath over and over again. And once I fall asleep I am moving around and snoring a little (as told by my boyfriend), when I haven't been moving or snoring while I sleep since I got my mask. I have no idea why this is happening, but I want it fixed soon! I miss my sleep.

I thought about it being the equipment being old, and I got a new mask, but that didn't work.

I wondered if it could be that I need a new pressure, but I have only lost about 10 ibs, and not that recently. I don't know of any other reason the pressure would need to be changed.

I was wondering also if its possible that the machine stopped giving me the correct pressure. Such as, it still reads that it is giving me 12, but it actually isn't. Does that ever happen?

I set up an appointment with the sleep doctor, but I am not sure how he is going to be able to help me by asking me questions. I don't know what to ask him or how to make sure this gets fixed.
Anyone else have these problems or know what may be causing the sudden change?

[Wulfman...]

My mask has been wonderful to me since last February. Suddenly the past 3 nights I have been feeling myself fall asleep and wake up again in a jolt to catch my breath over and over again. And once I fall asleep I am moving around and snoring a little (as told by my boyfriend), when I haven't been moving or snoring while I sleep since I got my mask. I have no idea why this is happening, but I want it fixed soon! I miss my sleep.

I thought about it being the equipment being old, and I got a new mask, but that didn't work.

I wondered if it could be that I need a new pressure, but I have only lost about 10 ibs, and not that recently. I don't know of any other reason the pressure would need to be changed.

I was wondering also if its possible that the machine stopped giving me the correct pressure. Such as, it still reads that it is giving me 12, but it actually isn't. Does that ever happen?

I set up an appointment with the sleep doctor, but I am not sure how he is going to be able to help me by asking me questions. I don't know what to ask him or how to make sure this gets fixed.
Anyone else have these problems or know what may be causing the sudden change?

Are you looking at your nightly data using software.......like Sleepyhead?
If you were, I doubt that you'd be asking these questions........you'd already know the answers.

You can have your DME check the output of your machine......with a manometer.
You can also check your own machine with simple items. Go up to the Search line and put in "homemade manometer" and start reading. There's one by the forum member "tomjax" which is very simple to do and only requires a ruler marked in centimeters and a bucket of water.


Den

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[bri127]

I would not already know the answers. I have not checked them myself but that is because I don't remember how to sign in. I have called my homecare provider and she looked at my numbers and told me that my numbers have not changed much. She said my leaking has not gone up. And even if my leaking did go up, I still am not sure how to fix it since I already have a new mask. I don't feel it leaking, and my leaking hasn't gone up according to my numbers. I don't know what other numbers would help me solve this problem.

[bri127]

You can have your DME check the output of your machine......with a manometer.
You can also check your own machine with simple items. Go up to the Search line and put in "homemade manometer" and start reading. There's one by the forum member "tomjax" which is very simple to do and only requires a ruler marked in centimeters and a bucket of water.


Den

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By this you mean, I can check if my machine is still giving out the correct air pressure? I will look that up, thank you.

[Wulfman...]

I would not already know the answers. I have not checked them myself but that is because I don't remember how to sign in. I have called my homecare provider and she looked at my numbers and told me that my numbers have not changed much. She said my leaking has not gone up. And even if my leaking did go up, I still am not sure how to fix it since I already have a new mask. I don't feel it leaking, and my leaking hasn't gone up according to my numbers. I don't know what other numbers would help me solve this problem.

I (and most of the forum members) would highly recommend you take control of your own therapy with software you can use.
The software will tell you how it's working. And, it's free.

viewtopic/t88983/Pugsys-PointersSleepyH ... Hints.html

In all probability, all your medical and homecare providers will only look at your "hours used"......that's how they get paid.

YOU need to know how YOUR therapy is working and should know how to tweak it......to optimize it.


Den

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[bri127]

I would not already know the answers. I have not checked them myself but that is because I don't remember how to sign in. I have called my homecare provider and she looked at my numbers and told me that my numbers have not changed much. She said my leaking has not gone up. And even if my leaking did go up, I still am not sure how to fix it since I already have a new mask. I don't feel it leaking, and my leaking hasn't gone up according to my numbers. I don't know what other numbers would help me solve this problem.

I (and most of the forum members) would highly recommend you take control of your own therapy with software you can use.
The software will tell you how it's working. And, it's free.

viewtopic/t88983/Pugsys-PointersSleepyH ... Hints.html

In all probability, all your medical and homecare providers will only look at your "hours used"......that's how they get paid.

YOU need to know how YOUR therapy is working and should know how to tweak it......to optimize it.


Den

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I have only ever heard of U-sleep to see my numbers. And I asked them specifically what my numbers were for my leak percentage and she said it did not go up. Would she lie? I have no problem looking at my own data, but I don't know how that will help me. At this point I don't know much. I know that if it was leaking I would have to stop it from leaking in order to get the full air pressure to keep my breathing right. If I see that my leak is correct, then
the only other major thing I can think of is that my pressure is wrong, but I have no way of changing my own pressure. (If I do, I had no idea!) I will look at the link you provided and try to figure some things out. I guess I never had to look into this because I have been sleeping perfectly until now. It seems weird that it would suddenly stop working. I used to go onto U-sleep and see how much leaking I had and how many times I stopped breathing every single night, but eventually I stopped looking because it was perfect every night. Now its been so long I am locked out of my account and I have requested a new password/account but haven't received one yet. I still wouldn't know what to do with the information on there.

[OkyDoky]

Here is the clinical guide to your machine which tells you how to access the settings and other options. https://sleep.tnet.com/home/files/resme ... -guide.pdf
This site helps you learn about and download Sleepyhead so you can take your SD card and read all the graphs and data your machine records. https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead
Those graphs might show you what is happening that is different.

[bri127]

Here is the clinical guide to your machine which tells you how to access the settings and other options. https://sleep.tnet.com/home/files/resme ... -guide.pdf
This site helps you learn about and download Sleepyhead so you can take your SD card and read all the graphs and data your machine records. https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead
Those graphs might show you what is happening that is different.

I looked at my graphs and there is nothing significantly different. 3 days ago I appeared to have many more AHIs, but not the other two days where I still felt like my machine wasn't working. It shows a constant level 12 air pressure throughout my entire time of owning the machine. It shows low major leakage, and the total leakage is all of the place with no patterns that I can tell. It isn't worse than before on the 3 days that I have not slept well. So the only problem is the AHIs which is something I felt, so I am left knowing nothing more than I started with. I can't see anything else different. Well my snoring was up a bit. But those are the obvious because I already knew those problems. I don't know how to solve them now. I'm sorry if I sound really stupid. I was able to download sleepyhead and will continue to research all about the terms, graphs, and meanings. In the meantime, I can't figure anything out.

[zoocrewphoto]

Upload a graph showing a night before the problem started and one after. We like to see events, leak, flow limitation. It sounds like your pressure isn't quite enough.

Are you taking a new medication? Sleeping in a different position? Once we see the graphs we will be able to give better advice. Unfortunately, most DME employees don't care about real data, just compliance. They may lie to you. They may not even know much about events or leak.

[OkyDoky]

If your major concern is the machine not working check the pressure like Wulfman suggested by taking to DME or homemade device.
If you are seeing increasing AHI's and they are obstructives or hypopneas and NOT CA's you may need a pressure increase. You could post a couple of your screenshots and people will help.
These are links to help you do that.
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepy ... screenshot
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur
It is a learning process but we need information to help you. And your therapy will be better when you understand what is happening.

[bri127]

I will take some screen shots and post some of them tomorrow. Thank you for the references. I will work on figuring them out.

[bri127]

[bri127]

[bri127]

I appreciate anyone who is willing to help me with this. I posted Nov.1st and Nov.14th as two days where I felt like things were normal, and the last three days were the days I was having the trouble.

[Wulfman...]

I appreciate anyone who is willing to help me with this. I posted Nov.1st and Nov.14th as two days where I felt like things were normal, and the last three days were the days I was having the trouble.

Those reports look really good to me. I don't see anything in them that really needs "fixing".

I don't have any ideas at the moment on what could have been causing you problems.
Maybe it's something unrelated to CPAP.


Den

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