Virgin Nights

Hi Kiralynx- i don't know exacty what setup you have , but you can buy external USB hubs and a USB extension cord for pretty cheap. Then you just make one connection between the USB hub and the laptop, and then you can plug in all your USB devices into the hub. Here's a nice cheap one from Belkin: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductP ... _Id=469617

So, two more nights. Again, sorry for the lack of graphs.



Event Tuesday, 28 Oct 2008 Wednesday, 29 Oct 2008 Thursday. 30 Oct 2008 Friday, 31 Oct 2008 Saturday, 1 Nov 2008
Time 10:28-10:29, 10:52p – 2:55a 10:11p – 9:55a 11:09a – 7:14p 11:58p-9:36a 12:41a – 9:08a
Hours 4h 3m 9h 44m 8h 5m 9h 38m 8h 27m
AHI 1A/17H 18 1A/7H 8.0 1A/6H 7.0 1A/10H 11 AHI 1A/ 7H 8AHI
Break 2:10a 3:30a 1:15a 6:15a 4:45a
Max Setting 14.0 14.0 14.0 14.0 14.0
Average Peak IPAP 13.9 13.7 14.0 14.0 13.9
Min Setting 10 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0
EPAP 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0
Periodic Breathing 0% 3% 2% 2% 1%
Average Tidal Vol 420.0 419.6 374.9 375.3 393.9ml
Average Peak Flow 19.2 21.2 18.6 18.0 19.3lpm
Avg Breaths/ Min 11.8 12.8 12.2 12.3 11.8
Back Up Rate Auto Auto Auto Auto Auto
Avg Patient Triggered Breaths 89.5 96.8% 95% 94.7 92.3
Large Leak 13.0 min
5.35% 0.0 min, 0% of night (200 on scale) 0% 0.0 0.0
Avg Leak 53.1 38.8 41.1 45.4 48.3
Mask Avg. @ 10 -15 cm H20 28-35 28-35 28-35 28-35 28-35

Last night, in an effort to see if I could reduce the leak rate, I switched to the medium size pillows for my Comfort Lite 2 mask. I had been using the small ones, and had no discernible leaks. The medium pillows were not at all comfortable. A humidity setting of 1 was too much and resulted in considerable nasal congestion. A humidity setting of 0 was too little, and I ended up with dry, painful sinuses. I think I will go back to the small ones. My nose is sore today, which it was not with the small pillows. With the small pillows, a humidity setting of 1 was just right.

The answer as to whether the pillow size would make a difference in the leak rate was, as you can see, not only no reduction on the leak rate, but in fact, my second highest leak rate for the five days.

However, I did determine one thing. Several nights ago, I reported "glue mouth." No, I'm not breathing IN through my mouth. But I am, at some points, although my jaw is closed tight, and my tongue is against the roof of my mouth, breathing out through my lips.

I have observed before that I was having trouble breathing out against the minimum setting of 10.0. It requires considerable physical effort to do so. Obviously, I am not making this effort when asleep, and my system is finding an alternate way of handling it... yet I'm fairly certain that this may be the source of the unacceptably high leak rate.

Keep in mind that my jaw is staying shut -- so a chin strap, even if I could tolerate it, is not the answer. I have considered the tape recommended by people here for mouth breathing and I start shaking. I'm having enough trouble having my nose "closed off" and being unable to breathe out through it comfortably. The idea of taping scares the h-ll out of me -- and besides that, I'm allergic to most tape glues.

I've reviewed the information on my machine, and it is stated that the mask leak rate must be kept within bounds, or the algorithms for handling my Complex Apnea won't work correctly. Respironics' sole suggestion is to switch the patient to a full face mask -- and I can't do that. Just typing this sets me shaking at the thought of being suffocated that way.

When I described what was happening to my husband (who is a piping design engineer, and hence familiar with flow rates), his immediate thought was that the EPAP is set too high.

I was titrated at 14/10, but I remember waking up at several points in the night with "glue mouth," which seems to indicate that I was having trouble breathing out against the 10.0 even then.

Any suggestions? I have a feeling that if I can get the leak rate down to within acceptable bounds, I may also see a reduction in the AHI.

echo wrote: ... you can buy external USB hubs and a USB extension cord for pretty cheap. Then you just make one connection between the USB hub and the laptop, and then you can plug in all your USB devices into the hub. Here's a nice cheap one from Belkin: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductP ... _Id=469617

Thanks, Echo. I have a hub for the lap top. But my desk top won't allow me to put anything between it and the printer, which I would have to do in order to have two computers plugged into the same printer. So it'd be back to the plugging and unplugging business again.

I was saving up for a new desk top when I got hit with the cancer diagnosis earlier this year, and I haven't worked since. Although I've been cleared to go back to work (four months ago!), the current GM keeps forgetting to put me on the schedule, so there are no $$ for the new set-up that I would like to get.

You have any kind of network with the computer? Back in our dial up days we used a "crossover" cable between two computer ethernet cards and did internet connection sharing. The man who made the cable for us at Radio Shack told us how to set it up.

Is the laptop able to get online? If so you can email the pictures to yourself, pick them up on the other computer or your FILs and then upload them.

jules wrote:You have any kind of network with the computer? Back in our dial up days we used a "crossover" cable between two computer ethernet cards and did internet connection sharing. The man who made the cable for us at Radio Shack told us how to set it up.

Yes, we used to have a set-up like that, but the router's not working because my provider changed some settings. It's one of their favorite tricks, because they don't want you buying a router for yourself -- they want you to rent one from them, and I'm not skilled enough to trouble shoot it. (There are drawbacks to living at one end of the Mississippi and having your trusted computer tech living at the other end.)

Is the laptop able to get online? If so you can email the pictures to yourself, pick them up on the other computer or your FILs and then upload them.

Not until I can get a chance to get somewhere and get a new splitter cable for the DSL modem. Apparently, when we took things apart for the Hurricane Gustav evacuation, we did something to the cable, as the laptop won't go online.

The last router I bought was around $40 at wally world a couple years ago - I am on cable internet not DSL, but the set up was plug and let it fly from there unless you wanted to be fancy or put in a new password (new password is suggested imho).

Cables are dirt cheap too. The router might include another ethernet cable in the box too. If all you need is another cable, lots of places to buy them - Walmart, Staples, Radio Shack, Computer stores and more.

BTW - my tech support is in Vancouver, BC Canada even though I live in the halfway down the state of WA so I know about long distance support. The local person who set us up for internet (hired by the cable company - not their employee) - well - I had to undo all the damage he did when he was here. I caught him screwing up my spouse's computer early so that wasn't hard but mine took a little longer to fix. I strongly suggest getting the stuff yourself, reading the directions, and doing it yourself.

You don't need any new hardware to create pictures out of your reports.

Step 1:
You can download a program that will create a PDF file out of anything you attempt to print. Two good programs are Primo PDF, and PDF Creator. I prefer the latter. All you do is download the program for free and install it. It adds a PDF printer to your printer list.

Step 2:
Print your Ecnore report to the PDF printer - take note of where you print it to, and what name you give it.

Step 3
Open the PDF file (Adobe Acrobat reader is free), copy the stuff you want to show using your mouse.

Step 4:
Open "Paint" and paste the copied chart, text or whatever into it.

Step 5:
Save as a picture with a JPG extension.

Absolutely no need at all to print to paper and then scan.

And if you've got Office 2003 installed (I don't remember if Office XP had it) you can print to the "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer" printer - and do the copying and pasting from the document image created (it has an mdi extension).

The mdi files are very nice when you want to copy and paste text from PDF's that are protected - since the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer has an OCR (optical charachter recognition) module that pick up text from the image and identify the letters in it - but that's an aside, you don't need that for posting the Encore charts.

O.

O,

The problem kira is reporting is that the computer that has Viewer on it, can't get online. It is leading a very sheltered life. I have made suggestions on how to remedy that. Once that laptop is online then all kinds of things can happen.

Jules

jules wrote:O,

The problem kira is reporting is that the computer that has Viewer on it, can't get online. It is leading a very sheltered life. I have made suggestions on how to remedy that. Once that laptop is online then all kinds of things can happen.

Jules

That was not the way I read the problem, Jules.

As a consequence, the lap top, which does have a working USB port (and Encore Viewer) installed on it, has no access to the Net and I have no way to transfer the data between the two machines except by writing it to a CD. Flash drives do not work on my desk top.

Encore Viewer, installed on my desk top and my lap top (since I can obviously only use one machine at a time) has one printer driver -- MSFax. I do not know how to add printers to Encore Viewer so that I can take the lap top over to my father's (he has a color printer; I do not) and print the data out, then scan it back in on my machine. [/color]

O.

Maybe I am still back on page 1 where I suggested doing screen shots and uploading them to a site such as photobucket. If the laptop can get online even temporarily, then the screen shots can be emailed to oneself, stored then on the desktop, and then they can be uploaded.

This would bypass the print on her FIL's computer, then scan before uploading them. Can you tell I hate my scanner? It is from Windows 98 era and I always end up reinstalling the drivers to use it.

If she wants to print off her FIL's computer then she should search for the driver for that printer and download it to the laptop (or ask him if he has the CD that came with the printer and see if that driver on the CD works). The first of these requires being able to get the laptop online and if she can, then why bother with printing and scanning, unless she can't get a screen shot to work.

Without knowing what printer it is hard to know what driver to install. Again, I was working on bypassing that process and going from the report to a jpg then uploading going to a process I could do in my sleep and one I could explain to my computer illiterate spouse.

Actually, we have the ethernet cable for both computers. What I need is an ethernet splitter to plug into the back of the DSL modem, and then plug both computers into it. My DSL modem only has a slot for one at a time. I haven't tried the lap top on-line without my machine -- which has the DSL company software on it. I had a sheet printed out which had what I needed on it, only I've put it in a SAFE place. So safe even I can't find it.

If I can get one, I should be able to reach the card reader from my machine through the lap top.

I was in Vancouver last year about this time, or, more correctly, Surrey. We flew into Seattle. Last trip I took before the cancer diagnosis. Haven't had $$ for one that didn't involve driving.

Between getting thrown for a loop with the surgery, and then having the Great Gustav Evacuation, there are a number of things which I have meant to try to fix and/or set up on the computers (insofar as my limited abilities allow), but haven't gotten A Round Tuit yet.

My scanner is one of the things which actually works extremely well on my computer! <g>

My Dad will have the CD for his printer because I installed it on his machine. If he's thrown the dratted thing out, I can hopefully get off on a charge of justifiable homicide.

Did some reading on my machine, and the cards store seven days of detailed information and 6 months of compliance info. Obviously, we want the detailed info. I have two more cards arriving tomorrow so that leaves a little bit of -- so to speak -- breathing room.

I'll drop by a Best Buy -- I know the Wally World doesn't have a splitter, 'cause I looked -- and see if I can find what's needed. If I can get the network back up and operational, that would solve the issues. Which doesn't do anything to give you all graphs for helping me NOW. <deep sigh>

If you have a "real" computer store, they might have what you need and tell you how to set it up. The kind of place I am thinking of is the old compusa or a place that builds or repairs computers. We actually have a place about 30 miles away and they are pricey but do carry more than other places.

You might ask if a "router" would be what you need (and if so Wally World might be the cheapest). Again, I am using cable internet but the cable internet plugs into the router with an ethernet cable (those bigger phone type cord connectors), then the computers are connected to the routerr with other ethernet cables. The router offers a 4 to 1 split of the signal but we normally only have 2 computers connected.

If you get to the printer and he tossed the CD, you can go to the manufacturer, look for support area and normally find up to date drivers.

ozij wrote:You can download a program that will create a PDF file out of anything you attempt to print. Two good programs are Primo PDF, and PDF Creator. I prefer the latter. All you do is download the program for free and install it. It adds a PDF printer to your printer list.

Noted. So, I DL this program to Wizard VII. Now how do I get it over to Athena IV? Remember: no working USB ports on Wizard. No internet connection on Athena.

Print your Ecnore report to the PDF printer - take note of where you print it to, and what name you give it.

Since Encore has no way of adding printers to its printer list (it can't find the LJ4 printer I installed on the laptop when we got it, and which should be available to it), that's not possible.

Open the PDF file (Adobe Acrobat reader is free), copy the stuff you want to show using your mouse.

I have and keep Acrobat Reader up to date, thanks.

Open "Paint" and paste the copied chart, text or whatever into it.

Photoshop Elements should do a slightly better job than "Paint." The version I have of Paint only saves to bitmaps.

Save as a picture with a JPG extension. Absolutely no need at all to print to paper and then scan.

Uh, see above.

And if you've got Office 2003 installed (I don't remember if Office XP had it)

I don't. I have exactly one printer installed, the B&W HP LJ 2300 PS.

I do thank you for trying to help, but I'm afraid my machines are connected only by a sneakerware network.

if you are only getting bitmap saves in paint, your registry needs to be fixed - I ran into this error myself before - google it

jules wrote:If you get to the printer and he tossed the CD, you can go to the manufacturer, look for support area and normally find up to date drivers.

It's an HP. Shouldn't be problem getting the drivers. I used to know of several computer stores. They all drowned during Hurricane Katrina.

Now, here's a question about Encore Viewer. I apparently have to reload the data from the smart card each morning. It then compiles it into a single report, as it won't let me change the starting and ending dates. If I switch to another smart card, will the data from it be added to what is already in Viewer, or will it overwrite what Viewer has already copied?