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yaconsult wrote:

yaconsult wrote:

tedburnsIII wrote:I have yet to hear a single comment

You, Sir, are sadly lacking in people skills!

Please, folks - this thread is to support and help Holli and James. Snipes at other posters are really out of place here. Thank you!

I agree *completely!* what you said!

comic relief aside... I imagine Holli is either sitting there wide eyed with wonder, or cracking up at the hijinks going on in her thread...

or maybe pappyit is right and she's calling her congressman to get me extradited off to some third world country where there's no internet.

Holli - just a tip - you can always do a forum search for Dori and look at how things went over the years with her and Mike.

yaconsult wrote:Please, folks - this thread is to support and help Holli and James. Snipes at other posters are really out of place here. Thank you!

[ +1 ]

Amen. Thank you, yaconsult. Great comment. And I would add, stop the sniping not only on this thread, but the others as well. Almost everybody who's been to our forum has had glowing compliments about its quality and caring. Lately that quality and caring seems to have taken a turn for the worse, with some of us here using surprisingly vindictive if not flat out foul language.

So, indeed, let's now quit this out of place stuff and move on with more patience and respect for everybody.

Okie dokie... did James' equipment from the list (I think I did it right), asked him the main questions, got some stats and info, and the report from iCode.

Here is what he said:
What the APAP feels like to him: it feels like a lot of fresh air that he would expect to be warm because it's a mask but it's not that warm. The mask does not bother him, or is uncomfortable to wear and sleep in any way. It's not like a gas mask (lol). Now that he has adjusted his pressure the mask is a whole lot more comfy than it was at first, when the pressure was way off.
He also said: he is not tempted to take the mask off at all. He does not remember anything about how the strap came loose off the mask the night before last, nor how the mask ended up in his hand. That's just how he woke up.
He also said: He is not waking up several times or even a few times throughout the night except to take care of business (drinks too much water at night lol). He sleeps well now.
About the iCode software report and his machine: He said he does not care if it's a knockoff, as long as it helps his apnea and gives a report on how many events a night there are so he knows if he needs to fix his pressure or not.
(When I asked him if he would rather have a machine that has more detailed reporting software) - he said that no, he is fine with what he has, and that it doesn't matter to him to know the times of the apneas he just cares to know if there are any or not.
He said about last night's pressure increase by .5: it is a bit stronger but still fine to sleep with. After seeing the iCode report tonight about last night and that he had 2 apneas, he wants to adjust the pressure again to lower that 2 apneas but is not sure what he should try tonight.

He also said thank you for the bandaid suggestion. He does plan to get pads but in a pinch to get him til they come in, he thought that was a great idea because the bridge of his nose has a stripe that's getting redder and redder.

He got these numbers off the machine, and doesn't know fully what they mean:
Initial Pressure: 5
Treatment Pressure: 6
Max Pressure: 15
Mean P: 6.5
P95: 8.5
AHI: 1.7
SNI: 3.3
CAI: 0.9

He also said that Ever since the first pressure adjustment 2 nights ago he has slept fine. but the iCode shows data from before he got the machine so maybe someone else had it. Regardless, he is happy with it so far.

And here are the screenshots from the iCode software/site. If there is anything else he says or that we go over as we finish up these posts I'll post back. He says thank you too to everyone he really appreciates y'all working with us to help.

So basically last night was his best night so far so that's the one to look at to compare to what should happen tonight.

Holli, congratulations to you and your hubby. Sounds like you're off to a good start.

At this point, using the machine all the time is the biggest step. After that you can work on most problems at your leisure.

Here in the US, we have an internet saying of "Do not feed the troll."

The more you argue with the trolls, the happier he is. Just ignore him as much as possible and give him as little emotional joy as you can.

and as for the follow up question he does not have a follow up scheduled with his doctor but he does have one scheduled with his respiratory technician in a month who is going to look at the reports with him together to see how he is doing. we are guessing that the technician will report back to his doctor with any concerns or progress that he sees in those reports

Hi Holli, and thanks for the detailed report - it's appreciated! It sounds like James is doing fantastically! For a new user, that is really outstanding.

We can continue to tweak and adjust to make things even better. But be aware that changes to pressure can take a while to have an effect, so you don't want to be changing it too frequently.

The pdf quick reference chart that I linked to above explains what all those abbreviations mean. You may want to download and print it - it's only a couple or few pages.

Please keep us posted and let us know if you need any advice or information. You'll probably get some more suggestions about the nose issue. I see Lansinoh recommended a lot for skin problems - available at places like target and amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lansinoh-Lanolin- ... B005MI648C. I use nasal pillows because they work the best for me at my high pressure of 13.

Tell James that he can now officially call himself a "hosehead"!

Ack my nor James pc won't open the pdf. Computers have a mind of their own.

Holli wrote:Ack my nor James pc won't open the pdf. Computers have a mind of their own.

Ah, then you probably don't have a pdf reader installed. I can recommend this free one, but there are many others: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/

You should also be able to right-click on my link above and choose Save instead of open. But you will still need to have a pdf reader to view it after it is downloaded.

We will figure it out!

James try to get it to open on the Adobe Reader website and it would not open there nor on the Mac included PDF reader on his laptop. is this fox PDF different

Holli wrote:James try to get it to open on the Adobe Reader website and it would not open there nor on the Mac included PDF reader on his laptop. is this fox PDF different

Wait, now that I think about it, you download the report from the cpap site as a pdf file, don't you? And you can open and read that, right? Adobe reader needs to be installed, rather than using it on their site. But you probably already have it and use it for the reports for the machine.

Let me try uploading the quick reference pdf for you - see if you can download and open this pdf file: http://www.filedropper.com/quick-reference-sheet It is the same two page quick reference guide from that web page. If that doesn't work, we'll try something else. I don't give up easily!

Take your time - no hurry at all. The only important thing is that James is using his cpap and getting restful sleep. I hope you are feeling appropriately relieved now! Take a breath, relax - ya done good, real good!

After a short period of adjustment, James will have to place his hand near the mask exhaust to convince himself that it's still running.
Also, his nightly "taking care of business" trips will almost disappear.
In the last four and a half years, my total nighttime trips number about the same as the number of times I've seen snow fall.
Good luck, Earl

Holli wrote: He got these numbers off the machine, and doesn't know fully what they mean:
Initial Pressure: 5
Treatment Pressure: 6
Max Pressure: 15
Mean P: 6.5
P95: 8.5
AHI: 1.7
SNI: 3.3
CAI: 0.9

He also said that Ever since the first pressure adjustment 2 nights ago he has slept fine. but the iCode shows data from before he got the machine so maybe someone else had it. Regardless, he is happy with it so far.

Holli

Your reports show that the machine has been used 4 days in the last 182 days. I don't think that anyone else has had it. Pure speculation on my part, but I would guess the extra day shown on the 182 days (between 91 and 182 days ago) was a burn in day where they ran the machine to verify it works, and maintains proper pressure.

Mean P: Mean pressure was 6.5 for the time used
P95: Pressure was 8.5 OR BELOW for 95% of the time used
AHI 1.7: 1.7 Apneas PER HOUR. Anything below 5 is considered good therapy by the medical community.
SNI: 3.3: Something to do with snoring I believe. I believe someone has posted a link you can use to determine the meaning of this one
CAI: 0.9: .9 Clear Airway events per HOUR.

Someone else mentioned (and its true!) that within a week or two he won't even notice the 'wind' blowing. I believe you mentioned he was expecting something like warm air. The best way to have warm air is to use a heated hose. This hose is a generic hose which can be used by just about any CPAP device. https://www.cpap.com/productpage/comfor ... g-kit.html. I don't know if you can preheat your water in the humidifier before use or not. Some CPAP devices will let your preheat for like 1/2 hour.

Last but not least I did not have much opportunity to talk with Dori, but she is a wonderful and caring person who took excellent care and was a dedicated advocate for her husband. You're doing the same.

-Bill

Thank you so much, I have the link and post to James to try at work. Maybe he can open it there. I did not see a link for a SNI but perhaps I can find that online somewhere. You mentioned we could figure out the reason for these snores with it. Or maybe I'm way off. He and I both crashed last night although he woke up coughing a lot he has some terrible congestion he doesn't know if it's allergies or what. He had it before he got the apap. I can't wait to see him when he gets home to see how he slept last night. I definitely plan to look up posts by Dori when I can. It will be encouraging to read another's journey similar to my position.

Holli,

Best of luck to you and your Hubby.

And a big Happy Birthday to You!