My HI is 26.8, how do i get it down??

[spottydogspot]

My hi is consistently in the mid to high 20's, with my ai being under 1, and my leak rate being .26 thereabouts. so what am I doing wrong?

I am at a 12 pressure, with a ramp of 30 mintutes, and I use the liberty mirage mask. I am really happy with my machine, but i am still not feeling great or even better, but i can tell if I don't use cpap for one night. I had mask issues, trying to replace an old liberty, since it broke in two places.

Anyway, I am so frustrated, but I don't know if this number is worth worrying about.

Oh, a tip for mask marks. I was in Walmart and looking at foot stuff, and they have these really soft socks with aloe in them, little footies, for $3.00 bucks, so I bought one pair, and cut them up and sewed the edges togehter to make a tube to put over my hard straps on my mask, they are wonderful and cheap and I have not found anything softer ever!!

Just a tip for a quick fix...

Thanks for your advice guys!!

[OutaSync]

Have you tried using your machine in "auto" so you can see what your average pressures are for the night. If I were you I would set it for 11-20 for a few nights and see what it says your average is. Do you have the software so you can see what is happening during the night, or are you reading from your screen?

Bev

[spottydogspot]

Ummm, i don't think my machine is an "auto". It is the elite SII cpap. I don't have the software, I am reading it off the screen every am. I can take the card it to have it printed out, but I had done that just before I switched masks, and he said to wait a month to do it again. maybe trying to save paper or time? Does anyone know if i can switch it? I know that I can get into the clinical menu and switch the pressure....

thanks

[Gerald]

Spotty.........

Job One is to find out if your machine is fully data capable....and if there is software for it that will allow you to generate reports for yourself.

if you find that your machine is a "budget" model that won't allow you to generate the reports that you need, it's imperative that you get a machine that will do so.

To succeed, you must take charge of your therapy. You need an auto CPAP that is fully data capable (not just "compliance" data), software to go with it, and a card reader....so that you can read your own card. Depending solely on others to tell you what to do is a recipe for failure. They don't care about your health like you do.

Sorry to be so blunt, but you need to learn early....and quickly....what to do.

Because you have at least found this forum, your prognosis is good......because there are many caring people here who will do all they can to help. We have all been helped by others....and we "pay back" by helping those just getting started.

Gerald

[OutaSync]

Sorry, I wasn't familiar with your machine. I did check and you are right. It is straight CPAP. In that case, I would try upping the pressure by .5 and running it that way for a few days to see if your Hi gets any better. If it does, you know you are going in the right direction. Let us know how it goes. If you have had tha tmachine for less than a month, you may still be able to take it back and get an auto.

Bev

[dsm]

Hi Spottydogspot

Your S8 Elite is a cpap and it is fully data capable. There are 2 ways to get your data - 1 I am sure you have already been using & that is to read the data off the lcd (AI & HI ). 2 is to get the software and a card reader & download the data off the small datacard you should have got with the machine.

Actually if you were able to locate another member nearby who has the data reader they could download 5 nights detailed data for you to help get you started.
With the nights data you can hopefully work out what part of the night is when the hypopneas occur.

But that HI number is on the high side & if you can get it down below 4 that would be good.

Do you sleep on your back at all ?

Good luck

DSM

[Sleepy Boy]

Gerald: I was wondering if you have your machine set on Auto? Thanks, Larry.. Spotty-sorry to interfere with your thread..

[spottydogspot]

thanks guys, i didn't know if that number was high, but if i want to get it down to under 4 then it must be! I can't get another machine, well, actually, maybe.....i seem to remember that my insurance is actually renting it for the first month or two....anyway, I am ggoing to go back to my dme to get the results and go from there.

i do sleep on my back, or at least that is where i wake up. i know that i don't breath as well, its just how it goes. I start off on my side, but i have hip issues so that is why i end up on my back, but my head is somewhat propped up. Is it bad to sleep on my back?

last night i only got 4.75 hours on, and my hi was 41. i don't get that. What is happening when my HI is that high, what does that mean?

Sorry, I'm just trying to figure this out. I so want to be complient, but waking up with my nares whistling doesn't help. I am done with school in a couple weeks for the summer, so then I will have time to deal more with this. Right now I just try to get through my classes without sleeping through them....

thanks for the help, and oh, i will up my pressure, i know how to do that at least!!

[Froro]

I had to stop in at my supplier on Monday (to finish paying them) and I asked about my HI numbers (I have the same machine). They told me not to worry about anything under 10 as the resmeds record HI higher and can reflect a variety of things. Yours seem quite high though. Have you talked to an RT?

[rested gal]

spot, if it were me (I'm not a doctor or anything in the health care field) I'd raise the pressure. And I'd raise it in full cms, not just part cms. I'd try 13, 14, 15...each one for at least three nights.

Another thought...if you're using EPR, it might be that the drop in pressure that continues to be held down at the end of exhaling with EPR, is not enough to keep your airway open in order to get another inhalation started when you're ready to breathe in again. Having EPR turned on is yet another reason, imho, to raise your cpap pressure to compensate for that particular exhalation relief feature.

If I didn't see improvement in getting the HI down with more pressure, I'd see if I could find a way to try a different machine, a bilevel machine preferably. Easier said than done, I know...trying a new machine.

I'm betting that raising the pressure will be the ticket.

[Wulfman]

thanks guys, i didn't know if that number was high, but if i want to get it down to under 4 then it must be! I can't get another machine, well, actually, maybe.....i seem to remember that my insurance is actually renting it for the first month or two....anyway, I am ggoing to go back to my dme to get the results and go from there.

i do sleep on my back, or at least that is where i wake up. i know that i don't breath as well, its just how it goes. I start off on my side, but i have hip issues so that is why i end up on my back, but my head is somewhat propped up. Is it bad to sleep on my back?

last night i only got 4.75 hours on, and my hi was 41. i don't get that. What is happening when my HI is that high, what does that mean?

Sorry, I'm just trying to figure this out. I so want to be complient, but waking up with my nares whistling doesn't help. I am done with school in a couple weeks for the summer, so then I will have time to deal more with this. Right now I just try to get through my classes without sleeping through them....

thanks for the help, and oh, i will up my pressure, i know how to do that at least!!

HI includes Flow Limitations on the ResMed machines. If you're sleeping on your back (theoretically the worst position) and your head is raised (putting a "kink" in your neck), that could explain a good deal of the higher numbers. It would really be helpful for you to have the software so you could seen WHEN these events are occurring. Could be a "positional" thing or your pressure isn't right.

Do you have a copy of your sleep study? It would be helpful to know if they noted any Central Apneas on it. If none were noted, you could probably take your pressure up a ways further to see if that would help.

You didn't say where your Ramp pressure started. You could also be having a lot of events taking place at lower pressures in that 30 minutes.

(and, upon reading rested gal's post......what EPR setting are you using?)

Den

[ColinP]

It's late and I'm skim reading so excuse me if someone else already brought this up.

With Resmed's you set up the mask type and it compensates for leaks, and assuming yours is set for the correct mask, I'd say your leaks are a bit high, so I'd address that before raising the pressure, cos if you are leaking, it's going to get worse with higher pressure.

Cheers,

Colin