Newbie trying to understand data

I am fairly new to clap. Started at the end of October. I started with full face mask, hated it!! Then used Mirage Liberty hybrid, not too bad. Now I am using Swift FX for her. Love the mask and don't feel I have one on. But am wondering how I am doing. Not sure how to post a screenshot so here are the stats that I copied and pasted.
I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and require O2 at night. I live in Wyoming where I do not have a sleep doctor just my regular primary care physician. Feel like I was diagnosed, given equipment and set adrift. My DME is not helpful just said here you go pretty much. They did not recommend the Swift FX but I like it and am willing to persevere. May be a mouth breather, but seem to be doing ok with it. Sorry for rambling, just trying to figure it all out.


CPAP Statistics as of March 12, 2014
133 days of CPAP Data, between 10/30/13 and 3/12/14
Details Most Recent Last 7 Days Last 30 Days Last 6 months Last Year
AHI 2.10 1.73 1.74 1.37 1.37
Hours per Night 08:34 08:39 08:37 08:24 08:24
Average Pressure 9.03 9.73 10.27 2.62 2.62
95% Pressure 11.24 12.94 14.06 14.02 14.02
Average Leaks 0.21 0.87 1.50 0.37 0.37
95% Leaks 0.00 6.00 9.60 9.60 9.60

Changes to Prescription Settings
First Last Days AHI Machine Mode Pr. Rel. Min Pres. Max Pres.
10/30/13 3/12/14 133 1.37 ResMed Auto EPR x3 6.00 20.00
The above has a threshold which excludes day counts less than 5 from the best/worst highlighting

Machine Information

Check out my tutorial for understanding what you see...it's at the top of the Announcement page on the main forum page.

Your data looks good.
If you are mouth breathing it sure isn't very much and I wouldn't worry about it if you are sleeping well.

The 95% leak number just means for 95% of the night the leaks were at OR below that number and they are in single digits and that's awesome good. Even when higher that doesn't mean bad leaks all the time..people tend to forget the "or below" part of the diagnosis. Your leak number to avoid is 24 L/min...stay below that for the bulk of the night and you will be fine. Even brief trips above that line aren't the end of the world.

How are you sleeping? How are you feeling? Anything waking you up often?
With these numbers on this report...they look great and I don't see anything that needs work unless you are having some problems.

Any leaks, no matter the size, that wake us up need to be dealt with but if leaks are small and we are sleeping well...who cares.
Not all mouth breathing equals the entire night's worth of therapy going down the toilet. I mouth breath sometimes...I know it for a fact as I wake up doing it. Sometimes it's a big leak on the report and sometimes I can't even find it. It never lasts for very long even in big leak territory...and most of the time I sleep well and feel good...so I don't care if I spent 10 minutes out of 8 hours in big leak.

Don't understand why some DMEs diss the nasal pillow masks unless they just don't understand them or maybe had one person have a problem with them and think everyone does. When they work for people (and there are a LOT of people using them) it's almost like not having to wear a mask. Anyone who wants to try them should be encouraged to try them because they might just work.

Finally, some people (like me) thought they were mouth breathers but found out that the mouth breathing was mostly habit from gasping for air during the nights from the sleep apnea events. Fix the events and the mouth breathing goes away for the most part. Yeah, we might open our mouths ever now and then..I think I do most of mine when I am on my back..but it's not because we just HAVE to mouth breath.

Pugsy
" Don't understand why some DMEs diss the nasal pillow masks "

The DME's that I have been to believe. Using anything but a FFM mask over a certain pressure will be a problem. But it's not true. If I could keep my mouth shut I would use anything but a FFM.

Bobby269 wrote:The DME's that I have been to believe. Using anything but a FFM mask over a certain pressure will be a problem. But it's not true. If I could keep my mouth shut I would use anything but a FFM.

Some of the DMEs are simply still in the dark ages with their thinking. I see pressures of 20 cm all the time and I use (and have used nothing else but) a nasal pillow mask..and I sleep great doing it. Never know that they happen till I see the report.

I do understand that if a person simply can't keep their mouth shut for the bulk of the night...for whatever reason be it habit or a chronic nasal issue... that a full face mask is needed.
What I fail to understand is why they blow off someone who wants to at least give the nasal pillows a try. Just because one person fails with them doesn't mean the next person will fail.
It's no different than any other mask...gosh, if I had to use a full face mask I would likely fail cpap therapy...I tried on everyone my DME had when I was starting therapy...my issue wasn't with the mask as we never got to actually using one but my issue was with the straps..especially the lower strap. I have a really bad arthritic neck and have a metal plate in it.
The lower straps all were in a position to put torque on my neck and that created immediate pain even when straps were fairly loose.
My DME agreed with me...make the nasal pillow mask work because they don't need those lower straps to keep them stable.
So that's why I never use a full face mask. Don't even own one.
Even if I did mouth breath more than I do...I would still use the nasal pillows because some therapy is better than no therapy that I would be likely dealing with if I had to use a full face mask. There's not much sleep when the neck feels like there is a burning hot poke stuck in it.

jackliz0318 wrote:I am fairly new to clap."

Oh my! TMI!

Thanks for that.... I don'i usually get a good laugh from the CPAP forums.

I totally missed the typo. I think it is because my brain expects to see so and so spelling and so it doesn't catch the typos.
We see what we expect to see and not always what is shown.

Welcome to our community of hose-heads. As usual, I see our new user is in good hands with Pugsy. She is an incredible resource for the users of this forum. Despite the lack of support and education, and your feeling of being a but lost and overwhelmed, you are getting off to a great start. Pugsy hit a lot of good topics. I would only add two things...

First, I'm a numbers person and I need to know what they mean and what range they fall into. In case you are too, an AHI number is essentially just the average number of breathing disturbances recorded per hour. A 0 AHI is a rare "perfect" night. Routine things like rolling over, changing positions, or waking for a few seconds from a strange noise cause irregularity in your breathing patterns, and often they are significant enough to cause the machine to flag a disturbance. The machine doesn't know if your breathing is disturbed because you are tossing and turning or if you are sound asleep and having problems... it just knows there was an irregularity and it flags it. That means you are always going to have an average AHI above 0, and current medical guidelines consider an AHI below 5 to be normal. Your 1.37 to 2.10 AHIs fall well inside that range.

The other thing I would add is that some things only come with time. Adapting to the therapy, changing sleep habits, getting used to the mask on your face, not getting tangled in the hose, being able to predict how you will personally react to pressure changes, finding the most comfortable Flex or humidifier settings, finding your best mask... these all take time and patience and there just isn't any way to skip ahead to the end and bypass the "figuring it out" process. That frustrated me so much at first. If you stick with the therapy and keep reading these forums you will become something of an expert on this condition and its treatment. It happens gradually enough that you don't realize its until later, but you can and will learn a lot more than you think. A year ago I didn't know what an AHI was or that I even had severe obstructive sleep apnea. Yesterday I was re-reading the medical guidelines for establishing prescription settings during sleep studies and read recommendations I absolutely knew were wrong for me, personally, despite being the consensus of the leading experts in the field. The key is not letting yourself get too frustrated with the learning curve at the beginning.

You're off to a great start.

Oops! Darn autocorrect. I really did mean new to CPAP. Last night was a good night. Used the Swift FX and my AHI was 0.54 with 95% leaks at 6. My average pressure was 9.58. I think this is good. Did wake up once or twice with dry mouth but shut mouth and went back to sleep. I really like how unobtrusive the Swift FX is. I will keep working on keeping mouth closed.

jackliz0318 wrote:will keep working on keeping mouth closed.

Must have been the aliens again last night. I woke up a couple of times mouth open myself last night.
It doesn't happen often though. So don't worry too much unless it happens often because sometimes the aliens like to mess with us.

jackliz:

Screw the readings and stats. I've been a successful CPAP user for over 13 months and not once have I fretted about the numbers.

All that really counts is if one gets through the next day (after any CPAP usage) and has a productive and alert time.

Using a Quattro FX over the past 13 months, I have learned how to succeed and thrive with it after an awful first few weeks last year.

I was a lousy sleeper my entire adult life and began CPAP with high hopes. Right off the bat, I had many problems but have found nocturnal bliss as I adapted to the gear and the way it works.

I've now got a simple program that did wonders for my adaptation to assisted sleep. Here it is:

This is the four-step program I devised. I had a tremendous sleep study at the local hospital but ran into a granite roadblock as I attempted to get accustomed to masks on my own. You might want to give this a try:

My main advice is to back away from immediately trying to do all-nighters with your full-face equipment. Use my four-step weekly plan which has worked wonderfully for me:

1) During the first week sit, watch TV, or read with your equipment whirring away next to you. Get accustomed to the sounds, feelings of the moving air, and all the external trappings of the great chance at quality sleep you are nearing. Do NOT go to bed with the equipment.

2) Take the phone off the hook, draw the shades, evict everyone from the house, don't think about any nearby clock, and loosen your clothing as you lie on your bed in mid-afternoon. Turn on the CPAP gizmo, put the mask on your face, and close your eyes. Think peaceful thoughts, whatever they are to you. At some point in the week you WILL fall asleep. After you have this nap, you'll be amazed at what a refreshing experience it was.

3) During the third week have all your CPAP gear ready for action as you go to bed for the night. As you've done so many times throughout the years, you'll awaken far before morning. When you do, slap the mask on your face and turn on the CPAP gear before your groggy brain has any idea what's going on.

4) After successfully completing the first three steps at your pace, decide on a night (mine was March 3rd, 2013) when you have full confidence and will retire for the night WITH your mask on. You'll succeed!

My biggest mistake was expecting everything to go perfectly from the first night. It rarely occurs because the brain must be retrained after all those years of awakening in the middle of the night. One must be patient and keep anxiety as far away as possible. On March 3rd, I had a goofy sort of celebration to mark one year of refreshing sleep I never had - over four decades - before last year.

By the way, I went to bed last night 11:00 a few nights ago and awakened non-stop at - ready for this? - 7:00 this morning. For DECADES that never happened. It was only a dream but now it's a reality.

Be patient, best of luck and God bless