AHI Gone to He-- in a handbasket

[Air Force Retired]

I will give straight CPAP at a pressure of 10 a spin and see what happens. Should I turn the flex off or at least set it at the lowest setting? As you well know, I can't use the prescribed A-Flex with CPAP.

[Pugsy]

Hmm... Do you like AFlex better than CFlex? I do. But that doesn't count.

I would use what feels best for you. If AFlex feels better you can use it.. Just set to APAP mode and then set your range real tight.. Like 10 min and 11 max. or 10 to 10.5 or heck 10 min and 10 max.. makes it a cpap but in auto mode.

Lots of way to get around stuff.

[Air Force Retired]

Good News----Last night I set my machine to straight CPAP, pressure of 10 and C-Flex of 3. Checked my AHI this morning and it was 3.17. I will leave the setup this way for about a week and see how the readings go. If they stay under 5 I will let a sleeping dog lie. Thanks for all your advise and help.

[Pugsy]

Good job. You very well could be a prime example of why APAP ranges don't work well for some people.

[Air Force Retired]

I like your idea of making the pressure range tight, and I do like A-Flex. I will still watch my present setting, which was very comfortable, but if the AHI starts to get close to 5 I will try and 10 to 11 pressure setting with A-Flex set to 3 as the doc suggested.

[Pugsy]

AFlex or CFlex setting is unlikely to affect AHI. Though some people do see a difference so not impossible. The drop in pressure per each setting is really insignificant.

You can make the APAP a CPAP (without changing to cpap mode) and still have AFlex available if you wish. Minimum of 10....maximum of 10.

or yes, keep it very tight range 10 min and 11 max. It is possible when you were using the much wider range that the pressure variations were disturbing your sleep more than you realized. Mini- arousals sort of and thus increasing the chance of sleep transition events which are normal to have. Just a thought. No way to know for sure.

[Air Force Retired]

Good Day Pugsy-----Last night I set my machine for APAP, pressure low 10/pressure high 11/A-Flex. Seemed like I had a great night's rest, then I checked my readings this morning and low and behold, my AHI was 13.25! Timeline said it went down the toilet at about 4:30AM. I recall waking up and looking at the clock about that time but otherwise no change to habits. Just for fun, I am going to change the setting back to what they were when I got the low reading, which was CPAP/pressure of 10/C-Flex of 3 and see what happens. If it drops to below 5 I will leave it that way for a while and watch the readings. Thanks for your inputs.

[Pugsy]

-Last night I set my machine for APAP, pressure low 10/pressure high 11/A-Flex. Seemed like I had a great night's rest, then I checked my readings this morning and low and behold, my AHI was 13.25! Timeline said it went down the toilet at about 4:30AM. I recall waking up and looking at the clock about that time but otherwise no change to habits.

Likely the events caused you to wake up and glance at the clock. You know there are some people who do get better results with the different flex settings and even with them off. In theory the minor change in pressure with each setting really shouldn't impact things but theories don't always work out like we think they will.

Want to see what I did one night when I turned my AFlex off?viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67883&p=631376&hili ... mb#p631376
Never in a million years did I expect that reaction. Goes against every bit of logic I can think of but there it is.
Some people say turning Flex off gives better results. Well sure didn't work that way for me.

I think you are wise to go back to what seemed to work best for you. Give it some time to see if it holds true.

[Air Force Retired]

Hi Again Pugsy,

Over the past several days I have noted something strange going on and I am not sure what the deal is, maybe you can shed some light on it. When looking at my data with sleephead I have noted that all my high AHI's appear to be caused by OA events that occur just about the time I wake up each day. Everything prior to those events is OK. If it will help you, I can send you the data sheets by email if you give me your address. If I can get rid of these events my AHI readings should be 1 to 3 or less.

By the way, I note you live in missouri. Anywhere near springfield or marshfield? My wife was born in marshfield and we will be passing through there in May on our way back home from the east coast.

[Pugsy]

When looking at my data with sleephead I have noted that all my high AHI's appear to be caused by OA events that occur just about the time I wake up each day. Everything prior to those events is OK.

I will send you a private message with my email just so I can see what you are seeing but I often will have a few little clusters of just about everything when it is close to my wake up time. I normally just mentally disregard them because they could be sleep transition events and not real. I know one morning I lay in bed sort of dozing in and out for about an hour and the last 30 minutes I had a bunch of centrals. Now I rarely have centrals during the night so this was way out of character for me and since I knew I had been dozing for a while...just not quite ready to get up I figured these were sleep transition centrals. Same thing with OA events sometimes. The machine doesn't know if you are awake or not so sometimes if will record things that it senses...and you are awake.

I am about 30 miles west of Springfield and about about 30 miles east of Joplin. So yeah, I know where Marshfield is. Been there lots of times. Nice little small town.

[Air Force Retired]

Great----This evening I will send you copies of my data and see what you think. I hope it is nothing to worry about, but if so, it would be nice to not mess up my AHI readings.

[Muse-Inc]

...last night that some air is escaping through the mouth, more like puffs rather than contineous...

Small little puffs of airs escaping via slightly loose lips...yup, that was me. Hadda give up my belove OptiLife pillow mask graduating to the the RespCare Hybrid FFM (pillows and oral cushion). Leaks just under max from those small puffs (I has a dataless CPAP at the time so no leak data), discovered when my sleep doc loaned me an APAP over a holiday to gather data. With the Hybrid FFM my leaks were OK; since getting an S9, leaks averaging 0 with occasional 1.somethings. Consider the mask I wear if your leaks are high. I slid all the way back into full-blown OSA thinking it was central nervous system side effects from a drug I started a few months earlier -- took finding this great place to learn about losing that precious therapy air & mask options...I was quite literally fat, dumb, and happy at the time

[Air Force Retired]

Hi Muse,Inc---After working with Pugsy we found that my high AHI was being caused by self induced CA's when turning over and first waking up. My chart showed that everything was good until just at wake arousal then my CA's would go down the toilet, almost solid purple on the chart until machine turn off. Take away those self induced CA's and my over night readings are very close to perfect, even with the little puffs of air that get away, mostly when I am on my back. At this point I don't want to give up my Swift FX, it is too light and comfortable. Wish I had found it a long time ago. It and my Easy-Life are working very well for me. Thanks for your input and have a wonderful day.

[Muse-Inc]

I'm glad you figured it out...marvelous help here.