When a cpap experiment is a bomb

I haven't done any experimenting in a long time. So last week I decided to do an experiment to see if my AFlex setting of 2 was causing a very hard to perceive machine sound. On Aug 25 I decided to turn off AFlex. Horrible night's sleep. Woke often and next day bad aerophagia (which I never have). Concluded the sound that I could barely hear is probably related to AFlex but it is conductive noise.

So yesterday I was downloading my data and doing a quick glance at my reports. I really had to chuckle when I saw the Aug 25 report. Geez, no wonder I felt like total crap the next day and was a major belching and farting machine.
I will include that report and a report of one of my more normal night's so you all can see what happened and chuckle as well. Encore Pro report with leak set for unintentional leak. Obviously much more leaky than normal and I suspect some of the pressure increases were in response to leaks and maybe caused more leaks but on a whole the leaks weren't horrible and we can't blame the whole disaster on leaks. I tossed and turned a lot and woke often tossing and turning. Didn't notice the high pressure particularly, just that I was waking often.

My settings are 10 min and 20 max. Normally I rarely go above 12. When it does sometimes go to 16 or 18 I never know it and usually sleep with no wake ups until I see a report.

I am guessing that the turning off of AFlex made me more uncomfortable in my sleep and thus caused the tossing and turning and leaks. The long term elevated pressures were the cause of my aerophagia and likely added to some of those leaks and probably contributed to the wake ups. I don't know if I was opening my mouth any...I didn't notice it during nighttime wake ups and no dry mouth next day. Though I suppose it is possible that some of those leaks were mouth open leaks. Doesn't really matter. This report is an extreme rarity for me so I won't try to dissect it past what I have.

Of course I won't be turning AFlex off any more. So here is my bomb as well as a more normal night for me. For your viewing enjoyment and to let the newbies know that sometimes stuff happens that we don't know all the answers to.
Plus even though that AHI was only slightly over 5...I felt horrible the next day. I never feel great (other issues involved) but I now remember what horrible feels like.


and a more normal night for me.

interesting

Ditto to mrnetwurm's "interesting."

Boy, your mask sure did a heroic job trying its best to cope with the pressure climbs, Brenda!

Looks like you're a poster girl for "A-Flex" (I like that feature, too, very much.)

Thanks for the comparative look at your charts.

rested gal wrote:Boy, your mask sure did a heroic job trying its best to cope with the pressure climbs, Brenda!

It sure did. I might see 18 cm on occasion (short lived) and nary much of a blip on the leak line. I have never seen such consistent high pressures as these though. No doubt in my mind that it was a combination of tossing and turning mask dislodging and the leaks and the pressures creating a viscous circle. Just odd it all started with turning AFLex off.

In all my months on the machine I haven't had a report as ugly as this one. But even at its ugliest...still better than no cpap.

Guess the nasal pillows at 20 cm will work.. maybe not perfect but will work.

When I read the title, I thought maybe you had tried my "vodka in the humidifier" idea.

When I read the title, I thought maybe you had tried my "vodka in the humidifier" idea.

And I was thinking of what kind of experiment you could do to literally blow up your CPAP!

Wow, I have no idea what to make of that but having such a wild swing with APAP you are the MASTER of mask sealing! I do not think I could do that with a FFM as it would really dig in at low pressure to be able to seal properly at the maximum. I can see the Swift doing it though, great mask. If I tried 20cm with a nasal mask my wife would be able to blow dry her hair from the flow of air coming from my mouth! I hope I can get decent numbers around 10-12cm someday. Mask comfort seems to get more difficult for me above 12, just takes time I guess.

archangle wrote:When I read the title, I thought maybe you had tried my "vodka in the humidifier" idea.

Vodka doesn't tempt me but Kahlua might.

I couldn't decide on whether to call it a bomb or a dud...I guess not completely either as I did learn from it.

I learned I like AFlex correction I need Aflex. I learned while I might not feel great every morning I now remember what horrible feels like. I learned that increased pressures will sure increase aerophagia. I learned that a person can wear the nasal pillows and not have them fly out the nose and hit the wall with high pressures. I wear those things really loose, I can put my hand under that top strap. I changed nothing in my routine for that experiment except to turn off AFlex but boy did I have a snowball going downhill thing though.

What's really interesting is that we've been experimenting with an S9Autoset that we have on loan. Mike could never use the Flex feature with the M Series and doesn't even do as well with auto even at very narrow setting, but I thought EPR might be different for him with auto setting. Not so. He had a few miserable nights until I switched him to cpap mode and turned OFF EPR. These last few nights have been much better with better numbers. Everyone is so different.