How would I know if new cpap isn't working properly?

Got a new Resmed Airsense 11, since my Airsense 10 was 5 years old and I'm allowed by insurance to get a new one at this point.

So far it seems fine, but I notice a difference: when I'm starting the night out (I think it's during the ramp-up phase), I noticed that if my breathing goes "out of sync" (i.e., interrupt pattern to clear my throat, etc), I feel like the pressure has lessened and I have to suddenly suck harder for a second or two before the machine kicks in better.

I don't remember my "10" doing this, or not as much. I'm also not enough of an expert to know whether the pressure tries to cycle in rhythm with the inhale/exhale cycle (and this is just a consequence of that).

I _seem_ to be sleeping pretty well. I haven't woken up feeling like complete crap unless I forget to put the mask on after waking up in the middle of the night (and thereby lose a couple hours treatment) or lose sleep for unrelated reasons. It's a little hard for me to tell in the finer sense (as opposed to the coarse, "I feel like total total garbage" sense) because my stress/anxiety is pretty high (which itself makes sleep bad), and I'm taking a couple drugs for benign prostatic hyperplasia (flomax/tamsulosin, cialis/tadalafil) which lower blood pressure and maybe can cause fatigue.

Find your machine on YouTube and learn to use the reports that are on the machine's display. Check the Daily report once per day. At the very least, look at your daily AHI and Leak statistics.

Come back to this thread and state what you are seeing.

dh37 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 21, 2023 10:55 am

Got a new Resmed Airsense 11, since my Airsense 10 was 5 years old and I'm allowed by insurance to get a new one at this point.

are you using software to track your sleep? there's a free program called oscar and it can help dial in your therapy.

good luck!

ChicagoGranny wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:30 am

Find your machine on YouTube and learn to use the reports that are on the machine's display. Check the Daily report once per day. At the very least, look at your daily AHI and Leak statistics.

Come back to this thread and state what you are seeing.

I look at the Resmed MyAir chart often, if not every day. I definitely pay attention to leak numbers.

I don't see AHI there, though I do see "events per hour". The MyAir doc (web page) makes it seem like it's the same thing

Last night, I had 2.5 events/hour, and an avg leak rate of 4 (L/min). Those numbers are pretty typical.

Usually my MyAir score is pretty good. "Events per hour" is almost never a problem, according to the way they score it (I usually get the maximum number of "MyAir points" for that subscore.) Sometimes but not often leaks are a problem---usually a sign that I need to readjust the mask, or the mask is getting old and needs replacement.

Mask on/off is usually poor, because I get up a couple times a night (to pee, etc). Not sure what I can conclude from that.

There are nights where I wake up, pee/whatever, then eat a small snack in bed, and then konk out again before putting the mask back on, and then sleep maskless for an hour or two, which is my own stupid fault for not doing the right thing. (Right thing means this rule: put mask on immediately when going to bed/getting back into bed.)

Most nights I wear the mask all night (i.e., except when I wake up to use the bathroom), but sometimes the MyAir subscore for total hours isn't great. I've never been a great sleeper, and while my habits are better than when I was young, some things are not under my direct control (I have school-age children; anxiety might cause early-morning awakening).

zonker wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 21, 2023 1:23 pm

are you using software to track your sleep? there's a free program called oscar and it can help dial in your therapy.

I looked at it once a couple years ago. Does it require using an sd card, or is there a way I can get the data off the machine via bluetooth or something?

dh37 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 26, 2023 10:59 am

zonker wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 21, 2023 1:23 pm

are you using software to track your sleep? there's a free program called oscar and it can help dial in your therapy.

I looked at it once a couple years ago. Does it require using an sd card, or is there a way I can get the data off the machine via bluetooth or something?

yeah, sd card.

dh37 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 26, 2023 10:41 am

Mask on/off is usually poor, because I get up a couple times a night (to pee, etc). Not sure what I can conclude from that.

That can be an indication that you're not sleeping as well as you think, depending on other medical issues that might be causing it. The docs will tell you that 2.5 events per hour is acceptable, but it means you're waking up every 24 minutes on average. You might be able to do better with optimized therapy, which people here can help you achieve. They'll need access to OSCAR charts to do it, though.

dh37 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 26, 2023 10:41 am

Does it require using an sd card, or is there a way I can get the data off the machine via bluetooth or something?

Yes. You can get an SD card with wifi that will talk to your laptop directly. Search the forum for instructions, but it's not trivial. It's easier just to pull out your SD card and import the data into OSCAR, particularly since you probably won't be doing it daily (or even weekly) once things are going well.

loggerhead12 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 26, 2023 1:09 pm

Yes. You can get an SD card with wifi that will talk to your laptop directly.

<smacks head> didn't think of that. and now that i AM thinking of it, i suppose that would be a good alternative for folks with no sd card slot on their computers.

thanks for making me think!

loggerhead12 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 26, 2023 1:09 pm

You can get an SD card with wifi that will talk to your laptop directly.

I discourage this. It's a complication of a process that is otherwise simple.

zonker wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 26, 2023 1:15 pm

making me think

Quit thinking.