The Daily Blowdown

[TalonNYC]

6/5/2011

AHI 2.2
Leak 0.0

Hmm, surprising leak number as it's been overing between 3 and 15 all week, but not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

What I learned: AHI seems to be settling down again, I guess Mother Nature must have given up her attempts to kill me with pollen =)

[TalonNYC]

5/6/2011

AHI: 2.4
Leak 0.0
Weight: 225

Good night's sleep, followed by the first day of WeightWatchers, so new metric in the blowdown stats for me, I'm adding current weight on Monday AM.

What I learned: I ordered the pulseox meter, so hopefully that will arrive on Tuesday. I'll keep everyone posted.

[Pugsy]

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 =(

The 24 L/min is ResMed number and really can't be used when comparing between different machines. Since Resmed subtracts a predetermined intentional vent/leak rate before reporting, what is seen is all excess leak.

Other machines seem to report total leak (vent rate plus excess leak) and they also might have a different line in the sand where they say that above so and so number therapy could be impaired.

F & P literature, that I have seen, actually has a very generous total leak allowance of around 95 L/min. Busylady's
74 L/min is actually within what is allowable overall average for her machine. While it is at the upper range of what I would personally want to see, it probably is not nearly as bad as it initially seems because it isn't an apples to apples comparison. One would have to look at her leak line itself to see if much of that average was because of leak spikes to see if there was really any time where leak was great enough to mess with therapy.

[HoseCrusher]

Mike, while exploring "toys" (oops I mean scientific measuring equipment to monitor health ) you may want to look at the fitbit.

With diet and exercise being important to health, the fitbit can aid in the exercise department. I shoot for walking 5 mines a day in the course of my normal activity and then go on from there.

In addition, they have a high sensitivity setting to allow you to monitor tossing and turning in your sleep. I have found this valuable while traveling because it serves as an early warning if the room noise or bed comfort (or lack thereof) are interfering with my quality sleep.

[TalonNYC]

A buddy of mine has FitBit, I'm just waiting for our insurance provider to cover the program (which is supposedly happening in the next few months). Otherwise, I'm getting it on my own =)

[#1 Jets Fan]

Hi there!

Been on therapy for 32 days. Average AHI is 3.8. I'm thrilled (my sleep study results averaged 67!).

No weight loss yet, but I am feeling better every day.

Thanks to everyone for being here for me!

[TalonNYC]

6/7/2011

AHI 4.1
Leak 6.0

Not entirely unexpected last night, as it was a bad allergy day, so I figured there would be some tossing and turning.

What I learned: Starting to sleep through the night!!!!

[máirtín]

Thanks Mike for this great thread.
It inspired me to post my own numbers every day.
I especially like the "What I learned" section.

[TalonNYC]

Thanks for the feedback, it's great to know I'm helping folks out there!

[TalonNYC]

6/8/2011

AHI 3.0
Leak 0.0

Hmm, not much tossing and turning, but did wake up once. I hate pollen =)

What I learned: air-drying pad-a-cheek things are easy to forget about for several days. They're safely put away now.

[TalonNYC]

5/9/2011

AHI: 2.1
Leak 0.0

Started withe the pulseOx last night. Looks like I never dipped below 90% all night, which is kind of cool to see.

What I learned: I need to tape down the meter a bit better, it was firmly in place (but not circulation-cutting) last night, but fell off halfway through. Not a major issue, I just noticed it when I half woke up and jammed it back on =)

[HoseCrusher]

Keep in mind that under "normal" use the pressure of the oximeter on the finger is not an issue. However, if you wear it every night you will develop pressure soars on your finger. The solution is to change fingers nightly when monitoring several nights in a row.

[TalonNYC]

Good to know. Right now I'm doing 1 night every month or so, just to spot check on things.

[TalonNYC]

5/10/2011

AHI 2.4
Leak 13.6

Hmm, leak burst somewhere along the night. Must have been tossing and turning again. Ah well, tonight is another night.

What I learned: Apria says the schedule for masks/parts is 1 month for maks seals, 3 months for nearly everything else except 6 months for headgear.

[TalonNYC]

6/11/2011

AHI and Leak Unknown

Alas, I woke up about an hour earlier than planned, and had a quick trip to the restroom. As it turns out, turning the unit off resets the tracker too LOL. No worries, the data is on the card, but not on the LCD display, so no update today.

What I learned: After crafting a crude harness out of tape to hold on the oximeter, I was able to get the thing to stay on all night. One dip to 90%, otherwise my SpO2 hovered between 95 and 99% all night. Very cool to see!