Newbie Self Diagnosis - In Denial - AHI Question

[marktheshark]

I read people saying they need to be at 10-12 which feels like it would blow my head off.

Yet, it won't even inflate a balloon. Stick a straw 4 inches into a glass of water, blow bubbles... That 4 inches is 10 cm/h2o... That pressure you're afraid of.

so then I think well, I don't have sleep apnea because the machine isn't raising the pressure very high. But my wife tells me I lay there and stop breathing for a second, then move around and start again.

Your wife needs to slap you upside the head.

You got me laughing out loud now, I'll definitely tell her!

[jnk...]

Response-to-therapy is often a valid diagnostic indicator; whereas, home-treatment-machine numbers on their own generally are not. So as has been said, get the machine-reported AHI as low as you can by optimizing therapy, then see how you feel.

The one source of diagnostic and evaluation data that one should NEVER ignore, if one hopes to live a long and prosperous life, is one's wife. For one thing, she is likely a better judge of whether your sleep is being helped by the machine than you are. Second, if she's anything like my wife, she is rarely wrong on matters of health and well-being. Third, she has the power to take it all away from you and get away with it, assuming she watches Forensic Files as faithfully as my wife does.

Listen to her.

No, really, man, listen to her.

[Lucyhere]

The one source of diagnostic and evaluation data that one should NEVER ignore, if one hopes to live a long and prosperous life, is one's wife. For one thing, she is likely a better judge of whether your sleep is being helped by the machine than you are. Second, if she's anything like my wife, she is rarely wrong on matters of health and well-being. Third, she has the power to take it all away from you and get away with it, assuming she watches Forensic Files as faithfully as my wife does.

Listen to her.

No, really, man, listen to her.

[Jas_williams]

I show an AHI of 3.0 per hour sleeping 7.5 hours, which totals 22.5 apneas for the night.

You're having that many events.... while being treated.. it's worse without treatment.

Post some charts, let's get your ahi lower, and see if you don't start feeling better... (And stop having to get up and pee so often at night.)

haha you called it on the bathroom trips!

More bathroom trips at night is a good sign you have sleep apnoea if you don’t have othe medical issues causing it. With correct cpap treatment you will start sleeping the night through again

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

she has the power to take it all away from you and get away with it, assuming she watches Forensic Files as faithfully as my wife does.

My wife told me that one time and I spit out my water.

She may WATCH forensic files...but I DO forensic files. Won't work with meeeeeeeee, I have safeguards in place.

[palerider]

she has the power to take it all away from you and get away with it, assuming she watches Forensic Files as faithfully as my wife does.

My wife told me that one time and I spit out my water.

She may WATCH forensic files...but I DO forensic files. Won't work with meeeeeeeee, I have safeguards in place.

(creepy voice) she knows where you sleeeep!

[jnk...]

Wife and I have a running joke. Every time I see her watching the show, I ask, "So, learning more ways to kill me?" I never know what her response will be: "Not today." "This one's too messy." "That depends." "Why, what have you done?" "I'm only thinking about it, at this point." "Now, why would I ever do that? [Looking away nervously]" "No, the Feds at the NSA already know I've watched this one." Etc. So far she has never given me the same answer twice.

[palerider]

Wife and I have a running joke. Every time I see her watching the show, I ask, "So, learning more ways to kill me?" I never know what her response will be: "Not today." "This one's too messy." "That depends." "Why, what have you done?" "I'm only thinking about it, at this point." "Now, why would I ever do that? [Looking away nervously]" "No, the Feds at the NSA already know I've watched this one." Etc. So far she has never given me the same answer twice.

And we thought it was your sleep apnea that kept you from sleeping soundly...

[jnk...]

I may need a consultation with the nonsleeper from the midwest to find out what safeguards he recommends.

[marktheshark]

Thanks for all the feedback! I will get to work using the machine for a few months and see how I feel, I will also get the software.

Thanks again!

[jnk...]

Thanks for all the feedback! I will get to work using the machine for a few months and see how I feel, I will also get the software.

Thanks again!

Please keep us informed. We love hearing success stories of self-diagnosis and self-treatment. Well, at least, I know I do.

If I had my druthers, they'd be selling these things cheap as dirt, over the counter, so that anyone could try one.

But I'm a dreamer. Especially now that I can actually get some REM.

Hope it goes well, Mr. Shark.

[palerider]

Thanks for all the feedback! I will get to work using the machine for a few months and see how I feel, I will also get the software.

Thanks again!

Please keep us informed. We love hearing success stories of self-diagnosis and self-treatment. Well, at least, I know I do.

If I had my druthers, they'd be selling these things cheap as dirt, over the counter, so that anyone could try one.

But I'm a dreamer. Especially now that I can actually get some REM.

Hope it goes well, Mr. Shark.

Last I saw a count (and that was in the s9 times) there's about 160$ worth of components in those little boxes. so, maybe not plain dirt

[jnk...]

If production increased by a factor of 50, depending on prevailing trade wars being resolved, I think we might get that down to about 80 bucks a pop for parts.

[marktheshark]

I just had a thought, how does a CPAP machine measure events per hour? I thought I read somewhere that if you stop breathing for 10 seconds it counts that as an apnea, does that sound right?

[Pugsy]

apnea events...all have to have a duration of at least 10 seconds to earn a flag.
In addition there is other criteria that also needs to be met.

Hyponea....at least a 40% to 79% flow reduction that lasts at least 10 seconds will earn a flag
Obstructive apnea....at least 80% to 100% flow reduction that lasts at least 10 seconds will earn a flag
Central apnea.....a cessation of breathing but the airway is open that lasts at least 10 seconds will earn a flag. Hold your breath for 10 seconds...that's essentially a 10 second central apnea.

AHI is an hourly average of the entire night....total number of flagged events divided by the hours of use of the machine.
A person might have periods of time during the night with not much going on and then maybe have a dense cluster of events for some reason (maybe REM sleep or they ended up on their back) and while the overall AHI might be low that dense cluster might be a problem.
This is why we like to see the detailed reports so we can make sure there are no clustering of events that might be a problem but the overall AHI isn't all that remarkable because of the long periods during the night when nothing much happened.

In addition there are other data points involved that aren't part of the AHI that are still important in terms of therapy. Stuff like snores and flow limitations are also important.