AHI jumped to 22

I have been on CPAP therapy since august. Using a Reed Airsense 10 CPAP with a respironics amara view mask. My AHI number has always been below 5 usually around 2-3. I recently came down with a cold/sinus and chest congestion. My AHI jumped to 10-14 4 nights in a row. I called the medical vendor I use and they recommended increasing humidity and tube temp. I changed the setting from auto to manual and raised the humidity to 6 and temp to 84. My AHI number dropped to 3. However I got a bunch of moisture build up in my mask. With the same setting last night my AHI was 22! I could live with the moisture but the high AHI number is really freaking me out. I am also wondering if I could be breathing through my mouth since I am all stuffed up. Would this make an artificially high AHI number? I was doing really well and not having any problems with the equipment I'm frustrated that 3 months in and now I am having issues I would have thought they would have showed up in the beginning. My doctor is less than helpful as far as the CPAP therapy goes. Please help!

You didn't say what type of mask you use - a nasal or full face, so if it's not a full face one you very likely lost lots of Cpap air out of your mouth. Colds are a good reason to have at least one FFM on hand! You also may not need a hum. setting of 6 (that can backfire and increase congestion), so experiment with diff. settings.

Does your machine give you a leak number in the data you are looking at?
If it does....what is that number?
The AirSesne 10 CPAP only gives limited data so we can't see what that AHI is made up of.

But ...in general when we have a cold and are ill we pretty much expect weird AHI numbers for any number of reasons but we just bear with it and wait to see if they return to normal once the illness has passed.
You very well could be doing some mouth breathing or the congestion itself is causing the machine to think there are some apnea flow reductions going on when it's the congestion that is the problem.
You are using a full face mask

Tformhals wrote:with a respironics amara view mask

so even if you are mouth breathing your therapy pressure isn't going to be lost.

I wouldn't worry about the AHI until the cold symptoms have thoroughly gone away.

For the moisture in the mask...try just a little more hose air temp. I think your machine will go to 86 degrees.
The moisture is annoying but one hurt you. There are ways to reduce it if you are preferring the higher humidity after the cold as gone away..
If more warmth doesn't help there are still some other options.

My leak rate shows 0 for the last few nights.

It may do that if they're SO large it can't register them properly... doesn't mean they didn't occur.

I wouldn't worry about the AHI right now. When we are ill (cold, flu, whatever) our breathing simply gets all irregular and the machine often misinterprets these irregularities as some sort of apnea event. It doesn't know you have a cold and your breathing is messed up because of coughing or nasal congestion or drainage or even medications to lessen the cold symptoms.

Deal with your cold symptoms as best you can.
You are already using a full face mask so even if you do end up doing some mouth breathing you aren't losing therapy pressure out the mouth.
Your leak numbers aren't showing excessive leaking.
Don't worry about the AHI right now. Wait to see if things go back to the way it was before the cold came on once you are free of the cold symptoms.

I may bump the humidity setting back to 5. I have been trying to talk my doctor and medical vendor into trading for an auto set but they don't want to. It seems the ResMed Airsense 10 CPAP is not well liked.

Julie wrote:It may do that if they're SO large it can't register them properly... doesn't mean they didn't occur.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, since you didn't quote what you're responding to, but if you're implying a leak so large the machine wouldn't notice.... eh, no, doesn't work like that.

Really? I didn't say the machine 'wouldn't notice', but I've definitely read (from authoritative others here) that extra large leaks don't register properly whether or not I'm expressing it perfectly.

I decided to register an account since it said I had posted as other users also. Anyhow I am going to bump the humidity down to 5 tonight and see how it goes. Has anyone tried the insulated sleeve that goes over the tubing to help with he moisture issue?

I have used one of those hose cozies (covers) with my heated hose. It's worth trying but when you use the heated hose it's main function is simply going to keep the heated hose at whatever temperature you select without having to use as much electricity. It won't/can't make it any warmer than the heated hose air temperature selected.
Its most usefulness in terms of help keep the air warm is when a heated hose isn't used.

Instead of spending money for maybe a short term need (and without knowing how much it helps or not) why not do what I did first...cut some toes out of some old socks and run them over the hose and secure with bread ties or scotch tape.

Should you decide that you like having the heated hose covered then you can spend the money and buy a hose cover or make your own if you are so inclined.

I like having a hose cozy on the heated hose simply because it feels better against my skin than that plastic.
So I often use a hose cozy just for that reason.

Pugsy wrote:I have used one of those hose cozies (covers) with my heated hose. It's worth trying but when you use the heated hose it's main function is simply going to keep the heated hose at whatever temperature you select without having to use as much electricity. It won't/can't make it any warmer than the heated hose air temperature selected.
Its most usefulness in terms of help keep the air warm is when a heated hose isn't used.

Instead of spending money for maybe a short term need (and without knowing how much it helps or not) why not do what I did first...cut some toes out of some old socks and run them over the hose and secure with bread ties or scotch tape.

Should you decide that you like having the heated hose covered then you can spend the money and buy a hose cover or make your own if you are so inclined.

I like having a hose cozy on the heated hose simply because it feels better against my skin than that plastic.
So I often use a hose cozy just for that reason.

That's a great idea with the socks! I don't like the plastic feel against my skin either.

Been doing some more reading and would love to have the Autoset for the improved data collection. I have asked my medical vendor twice about switching out to the autoset and both times they have said they won't but would be happy to adjust my pressure. I'm not sure at this point if my insurance will pay for one.

After this amount of time getting the supplier or insurance to go for the AutoSet is probably going to be an impossible chore.
The only possible way around it now would be if your doctor would say you needed auto adjusting mode for some reason...like if you need a significant pressure change during REM sleep or if you end up on your back.
The problem being you would likely need to prove the need with software reports and your machine can't provide the necessary proof.

What you might do is keep an eye out for an AutoSet that is priced so you can afford it and just buy it out of your own money and to heck with the DME, doctor or insurance.
Most of us like to keep a spare machine anyway just in case our primary machine up and dies. Murphy's Law means if it does up and die it's going to happen over a weekend or holiday when it is going to be impossible to even contact the DME to get a loaner while the broken machine gets evaluated.

Or if money permits you can just go ahead and buy one from cpap.com or secondwindcpap.com. Your current cpap RX will get you an apap like the AutoSet with either place.
If you want one right now and money is too tight to get one from cpap.com or secondwind you might contact forum member grayghost4...he has some AutoSets...new and gently used and I think he has both the S9 AutoSet model and the latest AirSense AutoSet. If at all possible I would suggest trying to stay in the AirSense line..that way the hose will work with either. The heated hose on the AirSense won't work on the S9.

So you have some options... just depends on your financial situation and how bad you want the AutoSet and how much patience you have.

Julie wrote:Really? I didn't say the machine 'wouldn't notice', but I've definitely read (from authoritative others here) that extra large leaks don't register properly whether or not I'm expressing it perfectly.

events during extra large leaks may not register properly.

the leaks themselves register fine.