Am I on the right path?

Hello - First let me start by saying Thank You to the members on this forum for providing a great environment for learning and information gathering related to OSA and CPAP therapy. I stared on CPAP Feb 26th and from what I have read, I seem to be taking to it quite easily. I do feel much better, sleep through the night and apparently have stopped snoring entirely - this makes my wife much happier.

I have been spending a lot of time here and have learned a great deal about a condition that I knew nothing about a little over 90 days ago - having said that, I am committed to the therapy and really want to get the most out of it. I learned how to manage my DME to get what I need and I think I have the best equipment available and am some what proficient with using Sleepy Head. I would really appreciate some feed back from some of the resident experts here so I can fine tune my therapy and maximize the benefits.

I have attached a few screen shots to show the status (good night and an average night). My Rx was written for straight CPAP pressure of 10. Based on reading on this forum, I have made a few changes over time and seem to have improved my AHI and it is not uncommon to have some nights with a 1.xx or 2.xx. Please take a look and let me know if I am on the right path or if there is anything that could be recommended to improve my results. I am concerned with the ups / downs in the pressure and want to understand the difference between the types of events OA - pretty simple / H and CA and how they are detected seems to be a mystery to me.

Thanks - Tom

To me it mostly looks like a good path you're on. AHI is good, leak lines are good. I guess I can't speak to the pressure graph, it doesn't look like it's following the path it needs to. Pressure levels go up when the machine senses events to ward them off, and I usually look at where the pressure is in relation to the events, but it doesn't look like it on your pressure graph. I'm not an expert on this, but surely someone will be along who has more knowledge than I. Your AHI numbers are good, and since you're getting good sleep now with a spouse happy that you're not snoring, then I'd say things are good!

Hey Tom,

Looks like you're doing well. The ups and downs in your pressure are normal. If you look at the flow graph and the pressure graph you can see how the machine is increasing pressure when it detects flow limitation (airway getting compromised). It looks more subtle in your graphs so I'm pasting a screenshot here where you can see it clearly:


You see in your screenshots, too, that your snore graph looks very much like your flow limitation graph. Pressure responds to both.