I got graphs! (smartcard print outs)

I was hoping someone who has seen these graphs and such before could take a gander and let me know what I'm missing. Probably a lot! I had the DME print out my data on the Smartcard and unfortunately I only got 5 days printed out of 14 that I've been on CPAP so far. But still I'm really confused about the leaks and stuff.

This is the overall chart: http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j250/ ... edacte.jpg

(I didn't know how to post the pictures here without them being huge, hope a link is okay.) It seems like the Hypopnea Index correlates with bad days I've had lately. Otherwise I have no idea what any of it means, especially the leaks.

Here's a scan of the report for last Tuesday night: http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j250/ ... edacte.jpg

This is Friday night: http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j250/ ... edacte.jpg

This is last night: http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j250/ ... edacte.jpg

Since I don't have any reports from "good" days except for last night (today is a good day so far) I can't make any comparisons, although it seems like hypopneas and snoring are affecting me the most. What do you think? Can you tell anything from these charts?

you don't want to have large leaks as your machine won't record when you do.

check your leak level against your mask documentation... if you have some, otherwise there's an internetage site somewhere with the info.

The best I can tell from the chart in the booklet, the leak rate is about 25. The RT at the DME said that they want leaks below 40, so I guess that means my leaks are okay.

I think your leaks are too high. If the chart says the leak should be 25, you need to try to get as close to that as possible. If the 'last nights' chart is what you see most of the time, I wouldn't worry too much. It doesn't look bad. But if the other charts are what you see most of the time,I think that you need to raise your pressure by 1cm to start and see where that leaves you.

Brenda

According to what the lady at the DME said, it looks like the results on "last night's" chart is about 2/3 of the time, and what's on the other charts the other 1/3.

I think my leaks must have been too high, too. For 2 nights I've had the mask tighter than normal and my leaks are down to 29.5, and my AHI is back down to 3.2 (it was at 4.2-4.5 for a few days prior to this.) The downside to that is my face has a couple of sore spots and I have pretty bad mask marks when I wake up, but I'm going to try some of those face pads.

There's an error rate mentioned many of the masks' leak charts - they'll say + or - 5, so you're probably well within what's reasonable.

Last night's data was excellent - I hope you can get more of those nights without that much mask pressure.
http://comfortgelfull.respironics.com/rightfit.aspx
O

You need to increase your pressure to 8.0 cm.

Use the reports as your guide, get OA down to 1, then get HI's down and finally any snore.

Setup and use a Ramp if you wish, set it starting at 6.0 and 30 minutes, use at beginning of therapy, if still awake hit it again.

Your current pressure of 7.0 is not high enough to eliminate the events seen. Controlling leak helps.

I probably do, Snoredog. I saw the doctor yesterday and he wants me back in 2 months, and he said the AHI of 4.5 (which is what my charts say, the machine LCD says 3.2) is good but it's not as low as he'd like to see it. Since I'm already in the middle of playing around with the C-Flex options I'm going to wait to change the pressure, since I only want to fiddle with one thing at a time.

Your reports are very similar to my own. Lately, I've been using KY jelly to create a good seal on the mask. Aside from mouth taping, this has proven effective for lowering leaks.

Having my side of street clean, so to speak, I can work with the Sleep Doc on what he can do for me

Take care,

SG