zonker's crib--somewhere over the rainbow

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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zonker
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zonker's crib--somewhere over the rainbow

Post by zonker » Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:58 pm

need help from you all in interpreting my sleepyhead graphs. i started out ignorant about sleepyhead and lo, three years later, i'm still fairly ignorant. :)

what i'm going to display here is seven nights of info. the only chart missing in order to make these "in a row" is 9-29. no data for that night as ii DID insert the data card, but didn't engage it fully into the slot.

now that i've been on my airsense 10 autoset for her machine for about two months, i feel that i should have the settings down pat. however, due to one week of out of town guests (translating as stuffing myself silly at dinner, etc.) and one week of back pain, i kept having to juggle settings to try to get good numbers and a good night of sleep.

one of the things i'm trying to do is utilize epr. this has not worked for me in the past. but i was more determined to try to make it work with my new machine. and i've had some success. i don't have huge bouts of aerophagia on a setting of 1. if i start pushing up, though, it will still increase with an increase in minimum pressure, until i reach a setting of 3, which is just to tolerable for me. despite what epr is meant to do, it still seams opposite for me.

there are more charts where i've played with epr and minimum settings. these are just what i've captured to show here-

1st up, min 8.8 epr 2
screenshot-9-25-18.png
next min 8.8 epr 2
screenshot-9-26-18.png
next min 8.8 epr 3
screenshot-9-27-18.png
seems i can only get three images here, so will try more in the next post!
Last edited by zonker on Sun Nov 10, 2019 6:00 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:02 pm

more images-

min 9.0 epr 2
screenshot-9-28-18.png
min 8.8 epr 2
screenshot-9-30-18.png
min 8.8 epr 2
screenshot-10-1-18.png
one more to go, stay with me here!
people say i'm self absorbed.
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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:12 pm

this is the one i like the best!

min 8.8 epr 1
screenshot-10-2-18.png
now, am i just going down the wrong path here? i know we sleep differently each night, but this is ridiculous. my experiment here, if it's not obvious, was to try to set my epr up as high as i could with my min pressure raised past 8.8. but at epr 3 and min 9, it was just too uncomfortable.

i would really like to get the lowest ahi i could get, without "chasing zero". and out of these nights, i truly felt better with the ahi at 1.49 and at 1.13. the other nights, i woke up feeling sluggish and remained that way for most of the day.

so, please, everyone...chip in and let me know what opinions you have.
people say i'm self absorbed.
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djams
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by djams » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:42 pm

zonker wrote:
Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:58 pm
i don't have huge bouts of aerophagia on a setting of 1.
EPR is for comfort, so if 1 feels best I think that's your magic number. I believe that the lower the better, since you don't get as much effective pressure decrease on exhale. If OFF feels better yet, that would be ideal, I think.

That's all I'll venture in the advice category - wait for confirmation for sure. :lol:

I'm impressed with your sleep schedule - Mr. Reliable! I wish I could work in 9 hours a night like you do. Jealous here. :)

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palerider
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by palerider » Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:47 pm

zonker wrote:
Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:58 pm
one of the things i'm trying to do is utilize epr. this has not worked for me in the past. but i was more determined to try to make it work with my new machine. and i've had some success. i don't have huge bouts of aerophagia on a setting of 1. if i start pushing up, though, it will still increase with an increase in minimum pressure, until i reach a setting of 3, which is just to tolerable for me. despite what epr is meant to do, it still seams opposite for me.
I'm a little unclear about exactly what you're saying, so I'll just start off with a generic clarification of exactly what EPR does.

EPR drops the pressure when you're not inhaling. so the greater the number of the EPR setting, the more pressure drops between inhales.

If your pressure is ... say, 13, then if you turn on EPR3, you pressure drops to 10 in between inhalations.

It looks like this:
Image

Other than "just because I wanna", why are you trying EPR? It's main purpose is just to *increase* comfort for those people that need it, by making it a little easier to exhale...

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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:03 pm

djams wrote:
Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:42 pm
zonker wrote:
Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:58 pm
i don't have huge bouts of aerophagia on a setting of 1.
EPR is for comfort, so if 1 feels best I think that's your magic number. I believe that the lower the better, since you don't get as much effective pressure decrease on exhale. If OFF feels better yet, that would be ideal, I think.

That's all I'll venture in the advice category - wait for confirmation for sure. :lol:

I'm impressed with your sleep schedule - Mr. Reliable! I wish I could work in 9 hours a night like you do. Jealous here. :)
what can i say, i'm very good at doing things by rote. :lol:

yeah, leaving it at an epr of 1 for tonight and see how it goes.
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:11 pm

palerider wrote:
Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:47 pm
Other than "just because I wanna", why are you trying EPR? It's main purpose is just to *increase* comfort for those people that need it, by making it a little easier to exhale...
my thinking is that if i could use an epr setting of three, i'd be more comfortable raising my minimum pressure. and if i raised my minimum pressure, my total ahi would thus be lowered. with my ahi lowered, i'd get a better (not best) night's sleep.

but as it turns out, only an epr of 1 SEEMS, at this time, to be effective in both delivering comfort and a low ahi.

i'm not wedded to the idea. i'm just sayin' that what i typed above makes sense to me. but i'm here, posting these charts to see if what i'm saying makes sense or not.

the real purpose of posting is to find out if i'm on the right path or if there is something else i should be trying to get my fluctuating ahi numbers under control and have them be more reliable.

zat make sense?
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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palerider
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by palerider » Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:00 am

Could you re-do your charts please?

The pressure line is very squished, too much to be able to see anything.

Since there's very little happening in the snore graph, remove that one, and expand the pressure and flow rate, please.

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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:50 am

palerider wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:00 am
Could you re-do your charts please?

The pressure line is very squished, too much to be able to see anything.

Since there's very little happening in the snore graph, remove that one, and expand the pressure and flow rate, please.
roger that! give me some time. editing and posting charts seems to take me far more time than i think it should, if that makes any sense.
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:51 am

zonker wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:50 am
palerider wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:00 am
Could you re-do your charts please?

The pressure line is very squished, too much to be able to see anything.

Since there's very little happening in the snore graph, remove that one, and expand the pressure and flow rate, please.
roger that! give me some time. editing and posting charts seems to take me far more time than i think it should, if that makes any sense.
okay, so rather than do all of the screenshots and find out i've not done it legibly, i'll post one and ask "is this okay?"-
screenshot-20181004-104307.png
then i'll have a template to do the remainder.

so, is this okay?
people say i'm self absorbed.
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palerider
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by palerider » Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:58 pm

zonker wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:50 am
editing and posting charts seems to take me far more time than i think it should, if that makes any sense.
It does make sense.. At first, it's very fiddly figuring out how to do it all, and get things lined up, etc but in time, it should become easier.

That's also why we have the "standard request" page format, because it gets all the needed data (with rare exceptions) in one screenshot that doesn't have to be fiddled with, other than clicking back and forth between the days, thus saving people time and effort.

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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by palerider » Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:01 pm

zonker wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:51 am
so, is this okay?
That's great! Normally we do like to see the snores, but yours is pretty insignificant. So by removing that, it made the flow and pressure much more detailed. Thank you.

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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:18 pm

palerider wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:01 pm
zonker wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:51 am
so, is this okay?
That's great! Normally we do like to see the snores, but yours is pretty insignificant. So by removing that, it made the flow and pressure much more detailed. Thank you.
here we go-
screenshot-9-26-18.png
screenshot-9-27-18.png
screenshot-9-28-18.png
ens of batch one
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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:21 pm

second batch-
screenshot-9-30-18.png
screenshot-10-1-18.png
screenshot-10-2-18.png
one more to come.
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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zonker
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Re: wide variances on AHI numbers

Post by zonker » Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:23 pm

finish-
screenshot-10-3-18.png
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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