New User of CPAP

Greetings. I have found this board to be a very good source of information.

A little about myself. I have had a sleep study 20 years ago and determined that I had a moderate case of apnea. I had surgery then to correct a strong deviated septum and for the first time in my life after the surgery I rested well at night. I rested so well that in 3 hours I was ready and energized to go to work. I don't think I had ever gotten a good night sleep before. It took me a while to adjust to rem sleep as it felt as if I was dying. I guess because I had never really been on a deep sleep before the surgery. After the surgery, my sleep study showed that I was much better with a very low apnea results and required no more treatment.

As I got older, things started to go back to before. Specially when I have a cold and I can't breath through my nose, I wake up every 3 minutes and sometimes stay up 3 days until the cold gets better and I can breath through my nose again. Recently I went to see a ENT specialist and require another surgery to the septum again. I had another sleep study and it showed that I had a low case of apnea and that it was subjected to body position. I knew that already since I can only fall asleep when I am laying on the left side of my body. Because of my deviated septum, if I move, I can not pass any air through my nose and I stop breathing. . However, when I have even a slight cold, I can lay upside down and I still can't breath.

Because of my breathing issues, I have developed anxiety. To deal with colds until I decide to have the surgery again, I decided to purchase a CPAP machine. I purchased the Resmed S8 Autoset II. I have two questions.
1.- Can someone explain in laymen's terms what does AHI mean. Mine is 7.7. Also what does AI mean. Mine is 0.4 and what does HI mean. Mine is 7.3. My pressure, which I assume is the average pressure is 9.2 and I have the machine set to 5 to 17. I am considering bringing the 17 down to 13 or something.
2.- I also purchased the Swift LT. But it looks like the Resmed S8 Autoset II does not support the Swift LT. Does anyone use the Autoset II with the Swift LT pillow mask?.

Thank you in advance.

Just use the Swift mask setting ... the machine works with any mask type.

AHI = apnea, hyponea index = sum of apneas and hypopneas divided by time (ie. rate of events per hour)
AI = apnea index = number of apneas per hour
HI = hyponea index - number of hypopneas per hour
Pressure = if read from LED screen is the 95% value = pressure value at which you spent 95% of the time at or below ... you spent 5% of the time at a pressure above that value and the rest of the time at or below.

Welcome to the forum ... visit often as there are many experienced users here to help you get your equipment optimized for your specific needs. Best wishes!

deleted

Hello,
Since the subject has been brought up, I would like an opinion from someone. I'm still getting used to my Resmed.
I've been tweaking the settings some, but my results are not very good, so far. At the moment I have:
EPR = 1; for week's average I have: AHI=4.5; leak = .08; pressure= 8.4; max/min: 6 - 20
Not sure what I'll do next. Should I up the min, should I change the EPR to 2, should I use Smartstart?
I realize that one should only change one thing at a time and check the results, which is what I do.
But one night, I couldn't get to sleep and lay there over an hour, with just "tolerating" the cpap, and not worrying about leaks or if the mask was adjusted. I think I finally took it off and never used it, and I "think" I turned the machine off before I fell off to sleep without it. But I think it messed up my week's readings. My ave. hours of use per night is 4.5 for the last 10 days. Not good, I know. Any help would be appreciated.
Jay

Thank you for all the answers. I have a follow up question.

Given that my pressure is 9.2 and that I spent 95% of the time at that pressure, what would be the proper pressure to set for maximum. Also, is there a way to see what the highest pressure was used to resolve the AI and the HI?

Thanks

JohnR wrote:Thank you for all the answers. I have a follow up question.

Given that my pressure is 9.2 and that I spent 95% of the time at that pressure, what would be the proper pressure to set for maximum. Also, is there a way to see what the highest pressure was used to resolve the AI and the HI?

Thanks

I would set the min pressure to 8 or 9 (at or just below your 95% value) ... however if you are using exhalation relief, I would set it at or just above the 95% value.

The maximum pressure does not realy matter unless you are sensitive to central or mixed apneas (your PSG lab study will indicate if you are). If your PSG does show you to be sensitve to centrals, then you want a very narrow range between min and max setting (~ 3 or 4 cm) .... possibly even going to straight CPAP set at your lab titrated pressure.

ResMeds are generally more agressive at counting hyponeas making it more difficult to reach zero AHI or HI ... so you should concern yourself more with trying to zero out your AI number.

packitin wrote:Hello,
Since the subject has been brought up, I would like an opinion from someone. I'm still getting used to my Resmed.
I've been tweaking the settings some, but my results are not very good, so far. At the moment I have:
EPR = 1; for week's average I have: AHI=4.5; leak = .08; pressure= 8.4; max/min: 6 - 20
Not sure what I'll do next. Should I up the min, should I change the EPR to 2, should I use Smartstart?
I realize that one should only change one thing at a time and check the results, which is what I do.
But one night, I couldn't get to sleep and lay there over an hour, with just "tolerating" the cpap, and not worrying about leaks or if the mask was adjusted. I think I finally took it off and never used it, and I "think" I turned the machine off before I fell off to sleep without it. But I think it messed up my week's readings. My ave. hours of use per night is 4.5 for the last 10 days. Not good, I know. Any help would be appreciated.
Jay

You should probably start your own thread for this question so replies don't get all mixed up.

You are right. I was just hoping that some experienced Resmed users could help us both. And, in a way, I was hoping to give a subtle hint that JohnR would give us more of his setting numbers to work with. And your answer also helped me. Thanks,
Jay