My AHI is VERY high

palerider wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:11 am

mattmceza wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 01, 2020 3:45 am

okay here are the results using the Mirage FX - which is nasal only.

Very different results. The AHI has come down a lot. But I woke up feeling tired.

Screenshot 2020-08-01 at 11.43.51.png

Why did you lower your min pressure? You should *raise* it! 13 would be a good starting point.

Wasn't something I suggested. I suspect it is because he had an in lab titration with a nasal mask and came away from it with a RX of 8.5 fixed cpap. Yeah, I know...we all know what those in lab studies are.

He did the one thing I always say NOT to do...changed 2 things at once....changed masks and changed his minimum pressure.

To the OP.....assuming you slept halfway decently last night....you need more minimum pressure....not less.
The reason I asked about sleep quality....it was a new mask and you did have enough leaks it could have impacted your sleep quality and if you had much awake time with mask on then we run the risk of some of that AHI being false positive flagging SWJ sleep/wake/junk muddying up the evaluation process. Remember the machine doesn't have any way at all to know if you are asleep or not. All it measures is air flow and it can and will flag and respond to awake breathing by mistake.

I slept soundly, did not wake up at all during the night which I havent done in a long time - but I still felt very tired when I woke up. Was nearly 10 hrs of solid sleep.

My mouth and lips were covered in dried saliva - all around my mouth was white when I woke up.

I dropped the pressure because I was changing to the nasal mask and when I did the sleep study with the nasal mask they said I only needed 8 pressure. So wanted to just give it some range to see as was first time using the mask.

Im going to raise the minimum pressure to 13 and Im thinking of taping my mouth with the 3M micropore tape.

mattmceza wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:40 am

I slept soundly, did not wake up at all during the night which I havent done in a long time - but I still felt very tired when I woke up. Was nearly 10 hrs of solid sleep.

My mouth and lips were covered in dried saliva - all around my mouth was white when I woke up.

I dropped the pressure because I was changing to the nasal mask and when I did the sleep study with the nasal mask they said I only needed 8 pressure. So wanted to just give it some range to see as was first time using the mask.

Im going to raise the minimum pressure to 13 and Im thinking of taping my mouth with the 3M micropore tape.

As you can see by the excessively jagged pressure line, you spent the night having breathing event after event because the machine spent the whole night trying to get back down to your set minimum.

okay, I have been doing a lot of trial and error. The nasal mask was a total disaster, the air was going through my nose and out my mouth - woke up feeling like I was in a spaced out dream world - was horrible.

I figured out I had the wrong size for the F20 full mask, so I bought the replacement cushion but in small size. The seal is MUCH better now.

The problem is that as soon as it goes to 16+ pressure the air starts making loud farting noises on the sides and wakes me up every time and Im forced to bring the pressure down to 14. Iv been sleeping better with these settings but still getting a high AHI.

I just don't know what to do anymore. Should I raise the minimum pressure?

Sometimes increasing minimum pressure can prevent the need for device to use higher pressures. But when you're red-lining at your machines upper limit as you are, you can't expect it to drop much lower.

For therapy purposes, it looks like your pressure should be much higher that 10. I believe you were advised to increase your minimum to 13, by pr.

To help with the mask farting notes, consider a mask liner. I've seen people successfully make liners from old shirts.

mattmceza wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 06, 2020 12:45 pm

okay, I have been doing a lot of trial and error. The nasal mask was a total disaster, the air was going through my nose and out my mouth - woke up feeling like I was in a spaced out dream world - was horrible.

I figured out I had the wrong size for the F20 full mask, so I bought the replacement cushion but in small size. The seal is MUCH better now.

The problem is that as soon as it goes to 16+ pressure the air starts making loud farting noises on the sides and wakes me up every time and Im forced to bring the pressure down to 14. Iv been sleeping better with these settings but still getting a high AHI.

I just don't know what to do anymore. Should I raise the minimum pressure?

Screenshot 2020-08-06 at 20.38.31.png

Did you do a mask fit test with the new cushion prior to setting the max pressure down? You'd be able to adjust your straps to stop the leaks.

You can also get a mask liner to eliminate the farting noises.

You *have* to set the max pressure to 20, get a mask liner from padacheek.com to tame the farts.

Okay so I have been doing lots of trial and error. I moved the max pressure back to 20 and did mask fits to ensure its sealed properly before going to sleep.

Managed to get my AHI down to 12 and seems like Im needing less pressure. How do I get it even lower?

You have been told numerous times by numerous people to raise your minimum pressure, instead you lowered it from 10 to 8.

You were then asked again to increase your minimum pressure, you said you would. You didn't.

mattmceza wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 13, 2020 12:52 am

Okay so I have been doing lots of trial and error.

Why haven't you just done what you were told to do instead?
Min 16, max 20. Less trial, much less error.

mattmceza wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 13, 2020 12:52 am

Managed to get my AHI down to 12 and seems like Im needing less pressure. How do I get it even lower?

Have mma surgery. (Google it)

I do!

Everytime I change my pressure the company I bought it from changes it themselves the next day after seeing the reports.

I had it at min 13 and max 20 and they changed it to minimum 8 again.

Put the machine in airplane mode so it can't communicate with anyone.
That way the place you bought the machine from can't see what you are doing and go changing things.

Or tell them to go to hell and quit messing with your settings...which is what I would do. It's your therapy after all.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:42 am

Put the machine in airplane mode so it can't communicate with anyone.
That way the place you bought the machine from can't see what you are doing and go changing things.

Call them up and tell them that they *do not* have your permission to make any changes to your machine. Be *firm*.

Okay Iv been sleeping much better lately. My AHI is ranging between 10-15 each night now. Here is the screenshot from last night. Should I maybe increase the minimum to 17? I dont know how I can get it any lower, Iv tried everything.

There are other things to try but I don't think you will like your options.

Setting the minimum to 17...won't fix the problem. Your EPAP was at 18 and IPAP was 20 when the ugly clusters are happening.
I am not sure fixed pressure of 20 with EPR at 2 would fix your problem. Heck I am not sure that fixed at 20 without any EPR will solve the problem.

You are most likely going to need a machine that will go above 20 and I know you didn't want to hear that.

I do realize that at these pressures you probably need some exhale relief. I know I would.

Try minimum of 18 and see if that helps much. I have my doubts but you are fast running out of options.