How often do you check your data?

Maxie · Post by **Maxie** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:49 am

After I joined this forum and learned to check my own data I did it often and got great advice here on various issues. Now that I sleep through the night (which I consider to be a small, or maybe large, miracle) and I feel great so I rarely check my data. It took me a while to get to this point but I now realize that it's been almost a month since I got my card out and read it and I wondered if it is a problem. What is your experience with this?

lazer · Post by **lazer** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:01 am

Note that I'm only about 6 weeks into this but I do check my data daily via "SleepyHead".

In my case since I never got titrated during a sleep study and am kinda at the mercy of my DME which has been very understanding and helpful in his own way with my circumstances albeit with the usual attitude of "hands off" regarding the patient and "clinical setup", I have received great advise on this board and most notably from Pugsy so have been still in the process of getting my pressure set to optimum treatment and the data is obviously very important in accomplishing this.

MaxDarkside · Post by **MaxDarkside** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:05 am

Daily. I'm still learning and "dialing-in" my sleep though now I'm probably near the best I can do, if I can stick to what I've learned

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:13 am

Six months was about the point I quit checking the data very often when I first started therapy.
It was boring. I think in all of 2010 I checked my reports maybe 3 or 4 times and that was when I got the new Swift FX mask and wanted to see how the leaks were.
I check data every 3 or 4 days now but that is because I am doing some experiments with position and in April I tried the Aloha. So if I try something new I might check the data a little more often.

I forget which machine you are using but if it is the S9 remember that after 7 nights some detailed hi def data gets written over on the SD card. Not a critical thing because AHI and summary stuff is still available...just thought I would mention it.
Respironics it doesn't matter. The machine just keeps adding the files and doesn't write over anything on the SD card.

There is no problem if you don't check your data often....if you feel great there is unlikely to be a problem and if you didn't feel good the first thing you would do would be check the reports.

Do whatever you are comfortable doing. You are the only person that it matters to what you do.
Not what I do or someone else does.

Suzjohnson · Post by **Suzjohnson** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:28 am

I check every morning because my numbers still swing around wildly. When I reach a point of relative stability, I can see checking only once a week.

Suz

notyorz · Post by **notyorz** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:31 am

I also check daily. I just had my 21st night of APAP.

I've accepted and adjusted well to my APAP therapy and the mask, even conquering leak issues in a semi-awake state - woohoo!, but I only have had 1 night of 8 hour sleep so far. The rest of the nights have averaged 4-5 hours (I also averaged that way before xPAP).

Since starting therapy, I had my worst night of sleep on Thursday night and reached my breaking point. I NEED to find what will correct my problems with sleep. I will be as patient and persistent as I have to be and OSA can bet on a long hard fight from me. It messed me up for years, but it will not win. I see the numbers on my data and they are very respectable for such short periods of sleep. That data is what keeps me going every single day. I know progress in how I feel will come, eventually. All good things in time...

My main 4 sleep issues are: 1. Longevity. I'm fighting something that has affected me for 42 years. That's a long time for all the damage to get to extreme levels and APAP will not change that overnight, 2. OSA & very shallow breathing hypopneas, 3. severely low oxygen desat levels, and 4. highly fragmented sleep. The OSA events now are well below 5 per hr now that I'm on APAP. The oxygen desats, well, I'm not so sure that's controlled yet. Have to talk to my sleep doc about adding the oximeter to check that - that won't be a struggle since he's been awesome so far. Highly fragmented sleep? That's my biggest struggle right now. I have practiced healthy sleep hygiene for years now, yet it remains a mystery to me why I can't sleep past 2 hours without wakening.

What I hope to accomplish is to fine tune my sleep to a somewhat "normal" length of time and increase the quality. IMO, the only way I can do that is through analyzing the data. The benefit of seeing the acceptable numbers each morning reinforces my gratitude that xPAP therapy is non-invasive and works... and that puts a smile on my face even through the exhaustion...

BasementDwellingGeek · Post by **BasementDwellingGeek** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:37 am

Eight months in, I still check daily.

mnfe · Post by **mnfe** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:45 am

I checked daily for the first month or so, then weekly. Now it's probably about once a month or if I think I need to (like when I changed pillow size, I wanted to see if it helped leak rate). My AHI is very consistent and I am on straight CPAP. If I was on auto I might check it more just to see what my pressures are doing.

HoseCrusher · Post by **HoseCrusher** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:57 am

Twice a week for me.

jlklinko · Post by **jlklinko** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:07 pm

Hi there
1) I check daily!
2) I don't see that changing anytime soon.

jilliansue · Post by **jilliansue** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:39 pm

I check the little screen on my machine every morning when I de-mask. It shows me leaks, AHI and AI. I haven't checked more than that for awhile because my computer was on the blink and I had to do a wipe of it. Now it is working so I will load on the Sleepyhead software at some point and do a more thorough check. I have been on the hose since September 2010.

My AHI is always below 5, usually in the 2 to 3 range. And my AI is usually sub-1. What I like to check on are the leaks, which vary quite a bit and which mostly seem to come down to my chinstrap and how well I have (or have not) positioned it before going to bed.

Jill

jen4700 · Post by **jen4700** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:26 pm

On june 20 it will be two full months on vpap. I'm still checking everyday! I'm sure that will taper off after awhile.

ekubaskie · Post by **ekubaskie** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:39 pm

A couple times weekly. I figure every time the card comes out of the machine is a chance to mess up somehow, so I'm experimenting this weekend with a wifi equipped SD card that will never need to be pulled out. We'll see how it goes!

big_dave · Post by **big_dave** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:09 pm

I have been on CPAP for two months, and I check my data daily. I think I've found my ideal pressure setting (a range of 10-16) and I have discussed this with my doctor's RT. If the next week goes well, I expect to drop down to once or twice a week, or anytime I have a bad night.

DiverCTHunter · Post by **DiverCTHunter** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:43 pm

Two or three times a week - still trying to dial-in.

As soon as the new DME calls me back (they were supposed to yesterday) and the neck-cricker Quattro goes in the supplies drawer, it'll be daily...

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