Encouraging APAP progress so far...

Poppy wrote:Hi. I don't have a card reader yet and just brought my card to my doctor's office to see how I am doing with my new apap. I'm wondering, though, my apap has a cflex. What's the difference between a cflex and an aflex?
poppy

http://flexfamily.respironics.com/

http://aflex.respironics.com/

http://biflex.respironics.com/

http://cflex.respironics.com/

Den

Thanks!
poppy

jmaziarz wrote:Yes, I am currently using a 10 to 20 range. I was prescribed 4 to 20. My sleep doctor doctor admitted to not being familiar with APAP which is why it took almost 5-weeks for me to get the machine. My DME kept asking him for a "range" and he kept giving them my titrated CPAP pressure of 12. Pretty frustrating. I set my range at 10 to 20 based on advise from RestedGal.

What little I know tells me 4 is way too low and if RestedGal has experienced a need for a different range, I'd go with her suggestion too - she has great personal experience and feedback.

jmaziarz wrote:Will that work with EncoreViewer too?

You start each software separately. You start EncorePro (you called it EncoreViewer but I believe you probably mean EncorePro?) and look at the reports there the same as always, and then when you want to see James' EncorePro Analyzer reports, you open that software and view your reports there. I believe James uses the saved files from EncorePro as a data source for his reports. If you actually do have software called EncoreViewer, then the same would apply as if you had EncorePro - I think.

Actually, Encore Pro is the previous full-database version of the Respironics reporting software. Respironics pulled it off the market (now only available to DMEs and medical personnel) and created Encore Viewer (non-database version) for the end-users.

The report-enhancing software like MyEncore and Encore Pro Analyzer will not work with the Viewer version.

Den

Last night was a bust. I ended up going to bed very late and getting up early so was only on the hose for about four hours. I will be going to be early tonight for a full night sleep and will post my data tomorrow morning. Hopefully with good results.

That last post was me, I forgot to login in. See what lack of sleep can do!

Wulfman wrote:Actually, Encore Pro is the previous full-database version of the Respironics reporting software. Respironics pulled it off the market (now only available to DMEs and medical personnel) and created Encore Viewer (non-database version) for the end-users.

The report-enhancing software like MyEncore and Encore Pro Analyzer will not work with the Viewer version.

Den

Ah, I learned something here. There is a Encore Viewer and EncorePro - and then of course James' EncorePro Analyzer. Do I have that right? : )

I believe you are correct.

So here is my data from last night after raising my minimum pressure from 10 to 12 as recommended. Looks like it is a bit better. Should I stay at 12 for a few more days?

Looking better. I think I'd try a few more nights at these settings.

Den

Wulfman wrote:Looking better. I think I'd try a few more nights at these settings.

Den

Ditto. After a few nights, I'd try 13 - 20.

Wulfman wrote:

jmaziarz wrote:Should I stay on a minimum pressure of 11 for a while or will I start to see results after the first night? Also, can you explain why I would want to increase my pressure so I can understand? Thanks for your input.

Typically, you want to give yourself a few nights to adjust to a new/different pressure setting.......so I would say at least 3 nights.
If the minimum pressure on an Auto/APAP is too low, it has further to go to take care of the "events"......Autos move slowly and cautiously......and that allows too many events to take place if and when it finally gets there. It's ideal to get the minimum pressure up to where it would take care of almost all of those apneas, hypopneas, etc. If you continue to move your minimum pressure up and the events in the reports keep decreasing, you know you're going in the right direction.

Den

Yep......what RG said. And, to re-emphasize my previous comment/statement......

Den

I'd bump Minimum from 12 cm to 13 cm, leave everything else the same.

Snores are probably from the type of mask you are using, frequency of apnea seen probably the same reason. At 12 cm pressure, it is fairly stable until you get towards the end of the session then it finishes off higher, that is probably because you were in REM where more frank apnea is expected. Bumping to 13 cm should do the trick and should also reduce some of the snoring seen earlier.

You can see clearly the use of the Ramp at the start of the session, you started at 9 cm and it had 3 pressure increases by the time Ramp expired, you can also see it had virtually NO impact on the events seen. Snore doesn't really matter there.

You will also notice your leak rate jumped at the end of the Ramp period, this to be expected from the greater pressure and flow seen at the end of ramp.

AHI @ 13 cm pressure: If you observe your 90% pressure at 13 cm, you will see that the AHI at that pressure is 7.5, the AHI seen for the "session" of 2.8 is when other higher pressure is included, you actually went up to 15 cm pressure at the end of the session, that pressure going to 15 cm is what lowered the AHI from 7.5 to 2.8. But with your Max=20, the machine will still be able to move higher than 13 to address those events if needed.

I'm going to give it one more night at 12 before increasing to 13. I have been fidgety with my mask lately. Last night I scored an all-time low of 1.6 AHI! Seems my VS's are happening within the first hour of sleep. I'll post a new screenshot tomorrow morning.

Thanks everyone for the advise. I'm excited now that I am seeing results. Oh, and I do feel pretty good too!

jmaziarz wrote:I'm going to give it one more night at 12 before increasing to 13. I have been fidgety with my mask lately. Last night I scored an all-time low of 1.6 AHI! Seems my VS's are happening within the first hour of sleep. I'll post a new screenshot tomorrow morning.

Thanks everyone for the advise. I'm excited now that I am seeing results. Oh, and I do feel pretty good too!

Your AHI is 1.6! Woo hoo. I'm even more glad that you feel good!