Followed Board Advice - Please Compare 2 Days

[Pugsy]

I was wondering if the Darth Vadar inhale/exhale sounds you get with the Respironics machine would go away with the ResMed.
It does for a lot of people...myself included. Not 100% of the people but the majority.
I wasn't going to mention it just in case you weren't one of the lucky ones. Didn't want to jinx you.
And yeah, it is essentially silent. I have to put my ear right on the machine to even hear the motor noise.

You've been used to 10 cm and the drop to 8 wasn't comfortable. I should have anticipated that. I experienced similar sensations when I was experimenting and worked up to 13 cm for a week and then made a sudden drop back to 10 (long ago on my first Respironics APAP).

The for Her model has a second apap mode with a different algorithm. Target marketed for women and "more attuned to women's breathing" but I think that is just a marketing ploy to give us women a reason to think that someone actually wants to do something special besides a pink color or flowers. It's called the "for Her" mode.
So you have cpap mode, regular apap mode and the for her mode. Like 3 machines in one.

The for her algorithm is more designed to address flow limitations a little more aggressively. When I compared the flow limitation graphs in both modes the for her mode showed the FL graph as being a lot more active than the other apap mode. It's more sensitive in that regard. The increases in pressure might be a bit more gentle and if you have 2 OAs within a minute the machine establishes a new minimum so that it doesn't happen again. I have had that happen a few times.
I have used both algorithms just to test them out. I am currently using the for Her mode. It's working out well and I just never had a reason to want to go back to the regular mode.

There is no reason in the world that I can think of that the male of the species might also find this algorithm useful in some situations.

Is it absolutely critical...of course not but if the cost is the same get that special algorithm just in case you might like it and sleep better with it. It's just another tool to have in our tool belt to maybe help us out if maybe needed.
If the leaves bug a guy...for 20 bucks you can get a black or plain gray/silver face plate and it's easy to change out. I did it for a guy who just didn't want the leaves. BTW he loves the machine too. Says its worlds better than his PR S1 APAP....and silent too.

My own macho hubby ....he says he doesn't see the big deal...it's leaves and not flowers and he wouldn't be bothered by the leaves.

You can read up a bit about that extra mode in the clinical manual but it doesn't really explain it in much detail.
You may or may not need or like that extra mode but at least it would be available in your quest to improve your sleep quality.
We use all the tools available whenever we can.

[MurrayNevada]

Thanks Pugsy. The difference in inhale/exhale noise is amazing. I wear hearing aids in both ears (not at night) and as one who usually fails to hear things the Respironics Inhale/exhale noise is VERY annoying. Every breath is magnified and makes falling to sleep difficult. With the ResMed machine I hear nothing. I can't understand why there could be such a difference but am glad I am one of the people benefiting from it. The leaves don't bother me at all except for reminding me that I spent a good deal of my youth raking them at the direction of my parents. Still remember the blisters. No longer do we need to rake leaves. Only have the occasional palm frond or tumble weed to deal with. My grandson doesn't know how lucky he is.

I am going to order the "For Her" model tomorrow morning. They have next day delivery so I should have it Tuesday. I will copy the settings from your machine and use them on mine. I will get yours boxed up and off to UPS before the end of the week. I'm sure glad we tried this experiment. If not I would have always wondered if the Respironics machine was the best I could do. Now I know and you made that possible. Your kindness and generosity amaze me. Thanks so much. I will send you some reports from the new machine for your review and fine tuning.
Mike

[palerider]

The machine itself is silent as far as I can tell. The best part is that I cannot hear my inhale/exhale. With the Respironics DreamStation Auto CPAP I can hear every inhale/exhale and it is very annoying. That makes it difficult to fall asleep. For me, even with no other reason, that issue is enough to buy an AirSense 10 AutoSet.

Good to know that one of my minor reasons for preferring the S9 resmed over the System one 60 respironics still holds true on the airsense/dreamstation comparison.

Now Pugsy could you explain again for me why ordering the “For Her” model makes sense for me. I know you say having something and not needing it is better than needing something and not having it.

Would you do better on the 'for her' mode with it's differences (slower pressure changes, raised minimum pressure if there's too many events, etc) who knows... but if you don't have the chance to try that mode, you'll never know.

It's good to have options.

[MurrayNevada]

Great second night with the AirSense 10 AutoSet. Although I slept less total hours than other nights (babysitting grandkids) I only remember waking twice for short bathroom breaks. The rest on the night was comfortable sleep. I think my SleepyHead results, below, are the cleanest and best I have seen since starting a few weeks ago. What do you think? Love the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet and will order the AirSense 10 AutoSet For Her this morning. The Respironics DreamStation Auto will go to backup duty. I am very happy to see things going in the right direction.
Mike

[Pugsy]

Looking good and another happy convert.

Are you of an age where the prostate might be a factor in the bathroom breaks? Do you have to go pee often during the day too?

What does your flow limitation graph look like for last night?
The machine is wanting to go higher and that's most likely from flow limitations and it's funny but the higher pressure coincide with the bathroom breaks. Did you wake up because of a full bladder or just wake up and decide "I am awake I might as well go pee".
Meaning I am wondering if the higher pressure woke you up and not a full bladder.

[MurrayNevada]

Are you of an age where the prostate might be a factor in the bathroom breaks? Do you have to go pee often during the day too? YES

What does your flow limitation graph look like for last night? See Below

The machine is wanting to go higher and that's most likely from flow limitations and it's funny but the higher pressure coincide with the bathroom breaks. Did you wake up because of a full bladder or just wake up and decide "I am awake I might as well go pee". Yes, just woke up and decided to pee'

I just finished ordering the ResMed and some accessories. Will have everything tomorrow. From SleepyHead I was able to print out the machine settings you set. This will make things easier in setting up mine.
Mike

[Pugsy]

I think you can easily see the increases in the flow limitations coincide with the increases in pressure. It's just what these apaps do because flow limitations is part of the "let's kill them" algorithm because flow limitations are an early warning sign that the airway is trying to collapse.
The exception being if you are having a lot of nasal congestion that is causing flow limitations. The machine won't know what is the cause and will still try to kill it but more pressure won't kill nasal congestion.
There may come a point where you have to decide which devil is the worse devil...FLs or pressure increases. But that's a down the road evaluation once you have more experience with the machine.

Not sure if it is all that critical to kill more FLs if it is the pressure increase itself that is maybe causing the wake up. Just something to watch and think about and maybe make a compromise so that there are fewer wake ups. That's a tweak further down the road.
The pattern looks a lot like REM sleep pattern both in the timing and the duration. Your OSA probably is worse in REM...it's common enough.

It will be interesting to see what the for Her mode wants to do with those FLs.
I have never really had all that much in terms of FLs myself to make much of a comparison.

[MurrayNevada]

Another good night last night. I'm loving the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet.

[palerider]

Another good night last night. I'm loving the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet.

I'm tempted to say "I told you so" but I can't remember now if I actually said that

[MurrayNevada]

I know you are a fan of this machine. Pugsy recommending this to me was a godsend.

[MurrayNevada]

Pugsy I just sent you a PM. Let me know if you received it. It shows in my outbox but not in my sent mail. Not sure if it worked. I'm not too good at these kinds of things. I don't use a heated tube and have the humidifier turned off so these issues may not pertain to me but I would like to know.
Thanks,
Mike

[Pugsy]

Got the PM and responded. While it may show me as logged in...I am sort of not sitting right on my computer and instead doing some house work. I am here but not here.

Just now read the PM and now it should move to the sent box. PMs stay in the outbox until opened by the receiver. It's your way of knowing if they have read it or not.

[palerider]

Pugsy I just sent you a PM. Let me know if you received it. It shows in my outbox but not in my sent mail. Not sure if it worked. I'm not too good at these kinds of things.

When a message is in your 'outbox' that means that it hasn't been read yet.

[MurrayNevada]

Thanks Palerider.

Pugsy: I've set my machine to the same settings you had. There is one area where I am having a problem. In SleepyHead "machine settings" you have a temperature setting of 25C and "Temperature Enable" of 1. My machine in SleepyHead "machine settings" has a temperature setting of 27C and a "Temperature Enable" of 2. I would like to have the same settings as you but cannot find a way to reset those things. Can you tell me a way to do that? I don't use a heated tube and I have the humidifier turned off. These issues may not pertain to me but I would like to know about this.
Thank you,
Mike

[Pugsy]

Disregard what SleepyHead is saying your temperature settings are. It's a bug in SleepyHead.
You don't/can't have temperature settings without a heated hose. It's a known bug in SleepyHead sometimes. It tells me that I have my humidifier disconnected...and obviously I don't.
SleepyHead sometimes gets those little settings details wrong.