The Daily Blowdown

[TalonNYC]

5/23/2011

Whoops, just realized I didn't post yesterday. Well, both nights were:
AHI 3.2
Leak 0.0

Not sure on the higher-than normal AHI, might just be the change in weather. Still under 5, so good enough =)

What I learned: The little forehead pad covers by PadACheek are really comfy. I'm sure other brands are too, but those were the ones I had on-hand to try.

[TalonNYC]

5/24/2011

AHI 3.1
Leak 3.0

My back has been acting up, I have a feeling that's helping contribute to the larger-than-usual AHI this week. Still quite good, and well below 5, so going to ride this out.

What I learned: Sleeping with CPAP is so much more comfortable when the air is very humid. The controlled humidity of filtered air seems to just feel better than the lower but uncontrolled humidity of a muggy night.

[TalonNYC]

5/25/2011

AHI 3.1
Leak 1.2

Slight leak last night, but I didn't feel it. Just going to keep an eye on that one.

What I learned: I'm definitely sticking with the FFM. Woke up this AM with my mouth open, drooling, whole nine yards. The leak number would have been off the charts with a nasal mask.

[TalonNYC]

5/26/2011

AHI 2.6
Leak 8.9

Bit of a leak spike there, but still under 10. I suspect my mask may be starting to wear out, as we're reaching the 3 month mark. Nothing to worry about just yet, but something to keep an eye on.

What I learned: CPAP machines, like any other tech gadget, need to be rebooted every once in a while. Mine was showing the same stats every morning this week, but after a reboot it showed that they data had indeed been correctly written to the card.

[TalonNYC]

5/27/2011
AHI 2.6
Leak 0.0

Hmm, maybe I was wrong about the mask beginning to wear out LOL.

What I learned: looks like the reboot worked, the AHI number was the same this AM, but the leak number had changed again.

[TalonNYC]

5/29/2011

AHI 4.1
Leak 1.2

Hmm, ok, bumping up the pressure made things a little bit worse. Back to 14.0 and maybe I'll try a different allergy medication =)

What I learned: Thanks, to EVERYONE who offered SPECTACULAR advice to my questions. This particular experiment didn't work, but the advice has been spot-on and extremely helpful. You were all indeed right that it hurt nothing, and did help me to narrow down what might be causing the events. 4.1 is not great, but still below the 5.0 and livable. Thanks again, the search continues, keep the ideas coming! I'd much rather see a jump to 4 when the expriment doesn't work than have treatment bonk out completely on me one night.

[Bodhi]

One day does not a trend make. (Yoda talk, sorry!)

[TalonNYC]

Call it a gut reaction, sometimes I can just feel when things worked and when they didn't. I woke up feeling worse, even though there was only a minor bump in pressure, to me that means I need to pull back a bit.

[TalonNYC]

5/30/2011

AHI 4.6
Leak 1.2

Rough week, for sure, not quite certain what is causing it, but I'm going to give it a few more days and see what happens. I typically have onset insomnia, but once I'm out, I'm out. Occasionally, thought, I will get bouts of maintenance insomnia where I wake up several times in the night, fall back asleep almost immediately, but wake up again later. This has been normal for me for as long as I can remember, and seems to be independent of the OSA. However, what I'm noticing is that this time, I'm staying asleep through the night, just having more AHI events. The good news is that these bouts have never lasted more than a week, and they seem to only hit a few times a year - though randomly. The better news is that - with the OSA being at least mostly tamed by the CPAP - I'm staying asleep through the night.

What I learned: My subconscious is sending me messages on this one. I had a really vivid dream last night (not an unusual occurrence for me, especially when my brain is trying to work something out) that was all about not being able to sleep, and how changing environment variables wasn't helping (hand to God, that's what the dream was about). Tried changing beds, noise, light, stayed awake. Apparently my brain hasn't yet incorporated the CPAP device (or an avatar for it) into my dreams, or that would probably have been there too LOL! There was, however, a computer prominently involved for some reason, could be a nascent avatar for the CPAP devices =)

[TalonNYC]

6/1/20011

AHI 2.1
Leak 18.2

Leak spike, but I'm chalking that up to the hotel pillow. Otherwise, AHI numbers are leveling out under 3 today.

What I learned: the cheaper hose stand I was using for travel isn't very sturdy. This one was one of the thinner tubed models, so it wasn't a shock. Was able to rig most of it back together to offer basic hose support =)

[TalonNYC]

6/2/2011

AHI 2.4
Leak 0.0

Looks like things are still stable, even with the hotel pillow =)

What I learned: Finally getting to the point where donning the mask takes just a few minutes now! Definitely a plus when you just want to get to sleep after a long day of work and a company dinner afterward.

[busylady]

Interesting discussion. Have done 7 nights so far. "Motor boating" has apparently become a habit during sleep, as well as mouth exhaling. Had a couple incidents 2 nights ago with really dry mouth and noise coming from machine/air, but I'd tried a different combination of pillows. Last night didn't have that problem and AHI was down. Have a ? on leak data. My machine says "/min" and my number last night was 74/min. Is that a percentage, or what? I'm assuming the number should be lower. My AHI last night was 8.6. Oxygen 90% was 19.5. Again, not sure what that means. Any advice?

[TalonNYC]

It's usually liters per minute, which makes that number a bit high for comfort. I'd encourage you to start a thread with that question, lots of folks will offer advice on how you can reduce the overall leak number. I believe anything over 24L/min is high enough to cause issues with therapy =(

[TalonNYC]

6/3/2011

AHI 4.2
Leak15.2

Rough night! I woke up several times, and felt like I was tossing and turning a lot. The numbers this AM (higher AHI and leaks from the bouncing around) bear out the suspicions.

What I learned: when I have "bad nights" the mask definitely leaks a lot more. It's still well controlled, but does indeed spike quite a bit when I'm tossing and turning.

[TalonNYC]

6/4/2011

AHI 2.2
Leak 3.8

Lots better on both the leak and AHI today, as I was back at home last night =)

What I learned: The ResMed S9 travels really well!