New to this

Hello,

My name is Cory and I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea receiving my machine 7/2/18. I didn't have an in-lab sleep study because insurance wouldn't approve it so they gave me an auto cpap (dreamstation dsx500t11). I stumbled on this site with google searches for some of my initial questions and it seems like a great resource with mostly helpful users. They started me in auto mode with a range of 5 to 20, after a couple nights I felt like I wasn't getting enough air at 5 and figured out how to raise it to 6 and later 8. On the 25th the doctor changed my prescription to cpap mode with a pressure of 12 (after spending a night with an oximeter). I'm still struggling with wearing the mask the entire night, I have a tendency to wake up and be unable to go back to sleep with the mask on (and didn't feel like I was sleeping well with the mask on at all, waking up often). Since I'm still in the insurance compliance phase I'm only allowing myself to take it off if I've had it on for a minimum of 4 hours and intend to increase that minimum as time goes on until I'm keeping it on all night. My sleep with the mask seems to be getting better and I got 6 hours with the mask on last night. Last night the DME had me sleep with an oximeter per doctor's orders so we'll see if they adjust the settings again. My appointment with the sleep doctor isn't until 8/22 (I believe this is mostly for insurance when they check for compliance but not sure). I've attached a small snippet from last night where I turned the machine on and off since I woke up and someone here recommended doing that to help keep track of that. Looking at sleepyhead it shows an OA event just before that and was wondering if that was why I woke up. Like the heading says, I'm new to this and still trying to figure stuff out. I'm thinking I'll probably turn my machine back to auto mode after the doctor's appointment with a minimum around 12 and let the machine decide if it needs to go higher but I think I need to keep it as they set it for now. While that is almost a month out I'd appreciate any opinions on that as well. Thank you.

And the MD changed it to Cpap why?

Welcome to the forum.

Could that event perhaps have cause the wake up...most definitely. We can't really tell for sure but it's close enough to when you turned the machine off and the breathing after that event looks like post arousal or half awake breathing more than asleep breathing. Might have take a few minutes to be totally awakened but I think it likely caused the wake up.

coryw wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:16 am

I'm thinking I'll probably turn my machine back to auto mode after the doctor's appointment with a minimum around 12 and let the machine decide if it needs to go higher but I think I need to keep it as they set it for now.

Good plan. That's what I would do if that was my report.
There's no urgent reason to go changing things right now and maybe rocking the boat and getting the doctor's panties all in a wad.

Well I didn't follow my own advice and went back to APAP mode with a min of 12 and a max of 14. I had a night with an AHI of 8.1 and without it adjusting had no idea if additional pressure would help. Last night my AHI was 2.18 with a max pressure of 13.5 and it appears it stayed at 12 most of the night. I think I'll leave it like this for now (graph attached). One thing I don't have a good understanding of yet is leaks. Dreammapper indicates 100% mask fit every morning and sleepyhead says the large leak % is 0 every night but my time over leak redline varies from 0 to 19.181% (average of 6.58%) for the 9 days I was on a fixed pressure of 12. With the pressure allowed to rise to 14 my time over leak redline was 5.951% last night. I don't think anything is entered on my machine in regards to what mask I'm using is that why dreammapper and the large leak % report 0? I think I need to work on mask leaks but don't understand why dreammapper and the large leak both show good while time over leak redline doesn't. Is the default for the "redline" a good goal given the mask I'm using (airfit f20)? I just purchased an airtouch f20 cushion and will try that to see if it improves leaks but want to make sure I'm chasing something real. Thanks again for all the help (most of which has been reading through the great answers on previous threads) and the previous replies on this thread as well.

Forgot to mention I'm also using a mask liner. Not sure if it reduces the leaks or just spreads them out so they're less disruptive. Thanks again.

coryw wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 04, 2018 6:49 pm

I think I need to work on mask leaks

I don't.

If your machine isn't flagging any large leaks then you aren't having any despite what SH says. See the LL on the top of the Events graph...that's Large Leak and if don't see any flags up there then you aren't having any.

coryw wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 04, 2018 6:49 pm

default for the "redline" a good goal given the mask I'm using (airfit f20)?

No, that's a default red line for a ResMed machine and you are using a Respironics machine and it has a different threshold for its red line.
Actually Respironics doesn't have a fixed red line threshold instead the red line will vary with pressure and the mask used.
Just change that 24 L/min to something that is more close to where the Respironics red line is and with your mask at your pressures it's probably going to be up around 60 L/min excess leak and maybe 80 to 90 total leak.
Change it to 65 L/min and you will have a conservative number for that statistic that SH provides..or turn it off and just watch the Events graph for LL flags.

Quit trying to fix leaks as long as they aren't disturbing your sleep.

Welcome to forum.

I am a new user as well with a few months under my belt. I started with the Air Touch F20 and keep coming back to it for it comfort and leak control. I really like it. I bought a Air Fit cushion to try it, but prefer the Touch even though its life is not as long as the Fit. Check both Amazon and Ebay for new cushions if you have a insurance deductible issues. Typically you can find new cushions for $28-32. Also but sure you have the new Resmed quiet elbow. My initial mask did not have it and was getting lots of air on my face. Finally bought one from board owner, Cpap.com.

Good Luck.

Thank you so much Pugsy. You and this forum have been amazing. I'm not sure how long I would've lasted without being able to read all of the advice and success stories on this site. Riley, I actually did purchase an airtouch f20 cushion, it arrived yesterday and I used it for the first time last night. From what I've read there have been complaints about its longevity, I'm hoping a mask liner will help in that regard. I bought it because I thought it might do better with leaks but I thought it was pretty comfortable so I'll keep using it and if longevity does become an issue I've always got the airfit cushion now that I know the problem leaks I thought I had weren't really a problem. Thanks again.