Newbie with more questions

Hi all!

I am pretty new (3 weeks now) with the cpap, and not quite doing as well as I had hoped. I feel marginally better but I am still very tired during the day.

Here is what is going on -

My mask has been a struggle, I wake up several times a night because it has slipped or decided to leak. Anyhow, I went back to DME on Monday, and they sent me a new mask, Mirage Activa LT - that I will try tonight for the first time. Hopefully that will help some.

When I made my DME appt, I thought that the mask & leakage was the problem. However, you folks taught me how to get into clinical menu to see the efficacy data. What I discovered is that the leakage is fairly low. AI is also fairly low, but HI looks high to me, making AHI high. Here are my weekly stats:

Leakage .2
AHI 8.6
AI .6
HI 8.1

I really don't know how to interpret this. I have read about hypopnea, but I don't understand how it may apply to my situation.

I downloaded my data onto my datacard before I visited my DME, hoping they would consider what was really happening. All that happened with that is they kept the card and said they would upload and fax the results to my Dr. then mail the card back to me. So I called my Dr (family practice Dr) and told them to watch out for the fax and have the Dr call me. The Dr called me later, and said that I should try the new mask and see if that solves the problems. If so, then good. If not, then I should go back to him to investigate dental splints. I asked him about my data, and basically he said that how I feel is the real test, and the data does not necessarily mean all that much.

I can see that I will need to take charge of my treatment!

I ordered card reader and software from Australia, but it has not arrived yet. My card has not come back from DME yet, either.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations for being determined to take charge of your own therapy.

Your numbers don't seem to be all that bad.
Are you using EPR? (if so, what setting?) That can have some effect on the numbers.
Are you taking any precautions against mouth-leaking? (taping or chinstrap)

The "recovery" process varies from person to person as does repaying the "sleep debt".

Hang in there and don't be afraid to experiment.


Den

Thanks, Wulfman, for your response.

I had my first night with my new mask last night, and it went much better, so I am hopeful. The reported leakage was very low (0.02).

My pressure is set at 8, and my EPR level is 3. I don't tape or wear chin strap because I don't think I have mouth breathing issues. Generally I am a nose breather, and I don't have the feeling that I have been breathing through my mouth like I used to get pre cpap.

My HI was about the same, and that seems high to me, even though Resmed reports higher HI. Live & learn!

Lila919 wrote:Thanks, Wulfman, for your response.

I had my first night with my new mask last night, and it went much better, so I am hopeful. The reported leakage was very low (0.02).

My pressure is set at 8, and my EPR level is 3. I don't tape or wear chin strap because I don't think I have mouth breathing issues. Generally I am a nose breather, and I don't have the feeling that I have been breathing through my mouth like I used to get pre cpap.

My HI was about the same, and that seems high to me, even though Resmed reports higher HI. Live & learn!

With a pressure of 8 cm. and an EPR setting of 3, you're only having an effective pressure of 5 cm. on exhale. If you want to try to improve your numbers, you could try either raising your pressure or changing your EPR setting to 2 or 1.

EPR drops the pressure by the number that is selected.

Den

Wulfman,

I *thought* the EPR only applied to exhale pressure. That on the inhale the pressure is the set number, but on exhale it goes down by 3 points. I do like it that the pressure lowers on exhale - during my sleep study I struggled to exhale without the EPR.

The Resmed's let you change pressure settings in 0.2 steps.
You could try to leave your EPR at 3, and raise the pressure 0.2 to see how that affects you hypopneas.

Something else worth considering it the amount of humidifcation. Sometimes, a bit less makes the results better too.

O.