PR Series 60 data help, and why is it smothering me?

[SpineInSecurity]

I'm pretty new to living with CPAP - about two months ago, my sleep doctor (oh yay, a new specialist in my rolodex...) said I was pretty severely apneic with an AHI of about 35. Five weeks ago, the DME delivers a spiffy new Philips Respironics System One Series 60 REMStar Auto A-Flex machine. (Could they make the name any more cumbersome?)

I've got two questions about this thing - the first, I suspect can be answered with a wink and a nudge. I tried using Sleepyhead, and even with the Series 60 patch, it works rather poorly and I can't even get it to save data - each time I fire it up, it's like Day One. I asked my DME rep about the Encore software, and he didn't know about it, but said there was a free iPhone app. Yes, there is, but calling it simplistic is a cruel understatement. So, I'm looking for some software that actually works. A huge plus would be for software that works on a Mac, but that''s not critical.

The next question may be a bit harder. Every so often, I wake up fighting the machine. It's pushing air at me while I'm trying to exhale. I can only liken the sensation to being on a ventilator and trying to breathe against it. I've learned that turning the machine off and back on will reset it and I can drop right back to sleep with the ramp-up starting at 4" - the last time this happened, the next morning, I was able to see on the machine's display that the 90% pressure for the night was 11. My 90% is usually between 8 and 9, so I can only imagine what sort of short-term over-pressure I was being hit with. Once I have the Encore app, I'll at least have better ability to see just what the machine was doing.

Overall, I seem to be doing OK with CPAP. My 7-day average AHI is 1.9, and 90% is 8.8.

[robysue]

Welcome to the forum.

I've got two questions about this thing - the first, I suspect can be answered with a wink and a nudge. I tried using Sleepyhead, and even with the Series 60 patch, it works rather poorly and I can't even get it to save data - each time I fire it up, it's like Day One. I asked my DME rep about the Encore software, and he didn't know about it, but said there was a free iPhone app. Yes, there is, but calling it simplistic is a cruel understatement. So, I'm looking for some software that actually works. A huge plus would be for software that works on a Mac, but that''s not critical.

To find out where to get Encore (for free), pm a poster here named pugsy. She's the one who will give you a link to Encore.

But, alas, Encore does not run natively on a Mac.

As a Mac user myself, I've appreciated the Mac port of SleepyHead. But I use a Series 50 machine, and so the patch is not needed. I'm told that SleepyHead 0.9.3 for the PCs works well with the Series 60 machines.

One potentially crazy sounding solution is to get software that allows you to run windows on the mac. I use Parallels and rather like it. But Parallels does require that you have a valid copy of Windows to install. That said, Encore runs in Parallels just fine for me. I've not tried running SleepyHead 0.9.3 in Parallels, but way back when I was using Parallels to run SleepyHead 0.8 (before a Mac port became available.)

And easier solution, and a potentially cheaper solution, is to simply buy a cheap PC netbook and run Encore or SleepHead 0.9.3 on that. I also did that before I had the chance to buy a used Mac that already had Parallels installed when I was upgrading the old mac.

The next question may be a bit harder. Every so often, I wake up fighting the machine. It's pushing air at me while I'm trying to exhale. I can only liken the sensation to being on a ventilator and trying to breathe against it.

Are you using A-Flex by chance??? While A-Flex does provide exhalation relief at the start of the exhale, it also increases the pressure back up to "normal" during the second half of the exhalation. So if you are using A-Flex, that's what you might be noticing. I can't stand Bi-Flex (the BiPAP equivalent of A-Flex) for that very reason.

So you might try seeing if you prefer turning A-Flex down or off to its current setting if you are using it.

[Pugsy]

The Mac version of SleepyHead with the 60 series machine should work and not give you trouble.
You would need to get Jimbo's Mac Build and then do the Patch for the Mac.
Page 3 or 4 here in this thread is the Patch for Macs.
viewtopic/t83551/SleepyHead-Series-60-Patch-Avail.html

Instead of trying the Patch with the Windows version of SleepyHead just install version 0.9.3 as it includes the Patch fix along with some other bug fixes.
Uninstall the current SleepyHead and also go into the MyDocuments folder and manually remove the SleepyApp folder. It is untouched by the uninstall process. Don't worry about losing the data that you do have that isn't working right...your SD card has all the files you need and SH will pick them up.
Go here and make sure you get the 9.3 version dated May 19, 2013.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sleepyhead/files/

Finally I will send you a private message in just a bit with some information about the Encore software. There is no Mac version for it though. Must use a Windows PC or put Windows on the Mac.

Depending on what your settings are in APAP mode the experience you are having in the middle of the night could be that the machine is really blowing a lot of pressure for some reason and the higher pressures are waking you up.
Once you get your software reports you should be able to see if the pressures are indeed pretty high or they just seem like they are for some other reason.

Maybe it isn't the pressure...maybe it is apnea events and the machine is trying to fix them and can't because of perhaps a sub optimal minimum pressure on your machine.
If we could see a nice detailed report we could then see what you are seeing and offer ideas.
How to post images of reports explained here
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81072&p=737779#p737779

Check out my signature line for other hints on understanding the software reports.

[SpineInSecurity]

There's nothing crazy about Parallels. I've been using it for the past three to four years. It's just more convenient to have a native Mac app than to have to fire up Parallels, then Windows, and wait for it to come alive and stop bugging me about updating antivirus or doing Windows updates.

Perfect example... I've been killing the past 25 minutes with needing "critical" Windows updates, then rebooting, then installing .Net 3.5, and rebooting, then updating .Net 3.5 and 4.0, and ugh! I tolerate Windows at work, but do everything I can to resist it at home.

Good to know about what A-Flex actually does. Think I'll try turning it off tonight. I'd like to think if my pressure is "only" 9 that I don't really need it, but the proof is in the sleeping.

[robysue]

There's nothing crazy about Parallels. I've been using it for the past three to four years. It's just more convenient to have a native Mac app than to have to fire up Parallels, then Windows, and wait for it to come alive and stop bugging me about updating antivirus or doing Windows updates.

Agreed.

But it sure is nice to have Parallels there for when something just won't run on the mac. Encore will install and run in Parallels without any problem. As pugsy puts it, Encore is a PITA piece of software, but it's no worse under Parallels than is it on PC.

And until that patch for the Mac version of SH is better able to do what you need it to do, it may be easier to install SH 0.9.3 under Parallels and then go back to the Mac version of SH once they release 0.9.3 for the Mac.

[forthguy]

There's nothing crazy about Parallels. I've been using it for the past three to four years. It's just more convenient to have a native Mac app than to have to fire up Parallels, then Windows, and wait for it to come alive and stop bugging me about updating antivirus or doing Windows updates.

Perfect example... I've been killing the past 25 minutes with needing "critical" Windows updates, then rebooting, then installing .Net 3.5, and rebooting, then updating .Net 3.5 and 4.0, and ugh! I tolerate Windows at work, but do everything I can to resist it at home.

Well, I hate to recommend all of this, and while I'm a pretty hefty (in multiple ways) Mac devotee, it just seemed easier when I started a month ago to use SleepyHead for Windows. I have a VM for SleepyHead in which I've turned off Windows Update; it's a risk, but I only use this VM image for 3 things: SleepyHead, uploading to the worthless MySleepManager, and downloading from my CMS-50D+. Then, I never shut it down. RAMs pretty cheap these days, and that's about all Parallels consumes on an otherwise idle Windows VM. So, I can get up in the morning, bring in my pulse oximeter and SD card, switch to the VM window, and stick in the SD card and hook up the pulse oximeter and do the downloads. Keeps things pretty quick.