Hypopneas

On a very sad note it seems after about a year and ½ my sleep machine is failing..

Last night all my gains fell away…and I know why…

First thing one has to get used to with one of these things is what I can a humping face hugger…As my machine is a by-flex machine which allow a large drop in pressure to allow me to exhale at 4.0 cmH2O and the on inhale jumps up to 12 cmH2O the face mask also pumps up and down from this pressure change…

So I KNOW how this feels.. and it no longer loves me as the humping is weak and ill regular a good hump for a couple of breaths and the weaker and weaker until it hardly moves. On and off all night…ever thou the readout said it is running at full and correct pressure..

Also at times it make sounds it has not done before, the most common is like a fuzz at the end of some of the week inhales…

This drop in power and pressure has happened all by its self…I have changed nothing…for three days it ran fine and the mask was happy humping away on my face, last night that became unreliable ..and all my problems came back:

I had 4.87 Hypopnea events, 2.56 Clear Airway Apnea events, and .59 Periodic Breathing events for a total AHI reading of 7.43.

And I fear that is a low reading as it is not working right so with underpowered pressure I bet it is unable to correctly read all the events.

Last night I woke up feeling how weak the machine was, and could even feel it changing, a couple of good powerful breaths then fade to some so week the mask did not more at all and I felt a little like I had to suck in the air. Then it would pick up again and go back up in pressure, and down and higher and so on all along…

It has a two year warrantee and I am praying they will give the same kind of treatment I have been getting for Epson projectors and send a replacement unit right out to me over night and the allow me to send in the bad unit in once I had received the new one…

I fear that will not be the case.

I will find out Monday…

I now think I have even more evidence of what happened last Tuesday night… I now suspect this kind of problem help cause my major event…

Also my recording O2 meter reports I hit some lows as well: My O2 dropped to a low of .86 and my heart beat to a low of 44 BPM.

The low O2 is the main concern.

Thanks for your great feedback, here is my final findings and what has happened:

I posted on a CPAP Forum about my problems and one of the answers was:

"The 950 series have a design flaw where the connectors to the pressure sensors can get loose. The 960 series put a big screw through the circuit board over the pressure sensors to hold it down tight."

I also got this feedback this evening (Monday)

I asked does the readout on the machine report real pressure of settings??

“It only reports the current machine pressure "setting". The only way to check the ACTUAL pressure coming from the hose would be with a manometer.”

So the readout on the machine is more or less worthless.

That makes total sense, but, being Sunday, all I could do was try a small change; I hoped that I could get the needed pressure by setting my base exhale setting up two cmH2O. But I also removed the humidifier and tried it without this unit on, just in case it was leaking. When it made no difference I put it back.

Note this snaps on to the main unit, so unlike my normal treatment, the unit was subjected to some handling and some sharp contact. This detail is important if there is indeed a problem with connections.

BECAUSE last night it worked like it used to, and as it should. When I got on my back it pushed air into me so much it hit 19cm and woke me up with my mask fluttering. I took a O2 reading right then of 98%. I got up and moved around a little and when back to bed, and the second time it was doing it again, big air flows and pressure, good O2 again of 97%. I was feeling so good I had a little trouble going back to sleep.

The last sleep cycle had no events, final AHI 1.24.

BUT I feel much better than those numbers say.

This morning I got up with a lot of energy and for about ¾ hours I was running at full speed, it did not last but even then I got a fair amount of work done.

I had lower AHIs last week and still felt bad, so there is something not reported, not read with this machine.

Although I seemed to have somehow caused a better connection, I cannot trust it to last. In face of that concern I am treating it with kid gloves and not even risking removing and refilling the water tank, just in case such action might break the connection. One night’s use on setting 1 only uses about a quarter of a tank so I will be fine.

The change to higher pressure - up from 4 cm to 6 cm which also raised the inhale equivalently from 12 cm to 14 cm - could not have caused the machine to respond so much more strongly to my breathing difficulty, as it did last night. Earlier it had barely changed at all.

It did not do such high pressures while reporting good low AHIs. So I do think it was not working correctly then, and thus was unable to respond correctly to any difficulty and due to that was unable to report results correctly.

Looking back I regret that this may have been happening for a few months. Unfortunately, one can believe the device is doing all it possibly can and yet not be delivering the help one really needs; the reports can look great yet you’re still diminished.

I now think I have even more evidence of what happened last Tuesday night (10/7/14)… I now suspect this kind of problem help cause my major event…

On a very sad note it seems after about a year and ½ my sleep machine is also failing..

Friday night all my gains fell away…and I think I know why…

First thing one has to get used to with one of these things is what I can a humping face hugger…As my machine is a by-flex machine which allow a large drop in pressure to allow me to exhale at 4.0 cmH2O and the on inhale jumps up to 12 cmH2O the face mask also pumps up and down from this pressure change…

So I KNOW how this feels.. and it no longer loves me: the humping is weak and ill regular a good hump for a couple of breaths and the weaker and weaker until it hardly moves. On and off all night…ever thou the readout said it is running at full and correct pressure.

Also at times it make sounds it has not done before, the most common is like a fuzz sound at the end of some of the week inhales…

This drop in power and pressure has happened all by its self…I have changed nothing…for three days it ran fine and the mask was happy humping away on my face, A little weakly I will find out Sunday night, read on..) last night that became unreliable ..and all my problems came back:

I had 4.87 Hypopnea events, 2.56 Clear Airway Apnea events, and .59 Periodic Breathing events for a total AHI reading of 7.43.

And I fear that is a low reading as it is not working right so with underpowered pressure I bet it is unable to correctly read all the events.

Last night I woke up feeling how weak the machine was, and could even feel it changing, a couple of good powerful breaths then fade to some so week the mask did not more at all and I felt a little like I had to suck in the air. Then it would pick up again and go back up in pressure, and down and higher and so on all along…

Also my recording O2 meter reports I hit some lows as well: My O2 dropped to a low of .86 and my heart bead to a low of 44BPM.

Sadly I am learning that we need to watch out of these machines going bad, and often in misleading ways, like my old Blood Pressure meter:

I had to replace my blood pressure tester when for months it kept showing good low readings. I got a little suspicious though, as it would show lower and lower readings every time I retested it one right after the other. I could start with a reading of 140/80 and retest and get 139/ 79 and then 135/76 and so on. I had my BP tested by a doctor and found my pressure does not keep going down as the tester would seem to indicate.

The newer and better machine does not drop like that and will show lower AND higher with retesting, a much truer testing. In fact it does a set of three and then averages the sum of all three.

This is not as farfetched as it sounds. A few years ago I was working on improving MPG in cars. One time I was getting a readout of 45 MPG running a device hooked up to the cars CPU. So to double check I drove it out on the freeway 1/2 the way the CA and back, and when I got back the gas pump I got a real reading of only 28 MPG. The readout was false. I found that it had fooled both the CPU and the MPG device.

Without my machine(s) pressure sensors working properly, it cannot report the true facts nor work correctly.

I am delighted to report that I am receiving great service from Secondwind CPAP.

Not only did Mark understand my problem and my findings, he then not only offered to replace my unit by overnight UPS, he also offered to upgrade my 950 for the newer upgraded 960 (with the reported improvement correcting the flaw).

In this cynical age of low quality customer service, I am VERY impressed by Mark’s genuine concern that I get a good machine. He says that he will be contacting Philips about these problems.

I have the highest praise for Secondwind CPAP and highly recommend them.


I just got up, (Tuseday 10/14/14)and so far not bad but not as good as yesterday's morning.

The $64,000 question today is: Was yesterday's sleep with the more dynamic behavior of the Machine the correct behavior or was it abnormal?

Last night it did a less dynamic.

I will only know once I start using the new machine.

Also I fear my efforts to adjust it to my needs may have been done with bad data...I like a saying I made up:

All decisions are made BADly. (BAD= Best Available Data)

I did my best based on the readings I was getting and by how well I felt.

I think I may have to do some readjustments with a now correctly working machine.

I will see.

exhale 6 cm, inhale 14 cm

Wow, you are writing a lot and I don't have time to follow it. I will say it seems an 8 cm pressure swing on each breathe would make sleeping very difficult.

Christine L wrote:

exhale 6 cm, inhale 14 cm

Wow, you are writing a lot and I don't have time to follow it. I will say it seems an 8 cm pressure swing on each breathe would make sleeping very difficult.

Oh very much the reverse, I have complex sleep apnea which means any back pressure stops me from exhaling...so the low exhale pressure make me very happy, but on the inhale I do like how it floods me with air...Which is why I HAD to have a ASV machine.

The higher exhaling pressure made me work and I did not like it...

Rich

Christine L wrote:

exhale 6 cm, inhale 14 cm

Wow, you are writing a lot and I don't have time to follow it. I will say it seems an 8 cm pressure swing on each breathe would make sleeping very difficult.

people with ASVs often have much more than that amount of PS.