Ready to go postal

rested gal wrote: . . . I'm lucky that any type or brand can treat me equally well.

And we are all glad that you treat us so well with your patience in explaining such things so accurately and so understandably!

Thanks, Rested Gal.

Ditto!
Thanks, RG!

jnk wrote:

rested gal wrote: . . . I'm lucky that any type or brand can treat me equally well.

And we are all glad that you treat us so well with your patience in explaining such things so accurately and so understandably!

Thanks, Rested Gal.

JNK, well said!

Thanks! RG, you have helped me so much with my cpap education.

Thanks so much RestedGal for your information. If I can ask, how did you get so smart?

tvmangum wrote:Thanks so much RestedGal for your information. If I can ask, how did you get so smart?

It seems that she knows, from experience, how to see right through the tricks of any dog and pony show!



( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictiona ... +pony+show )

Thanks for stating that so clearly, Rested Gal.

Carbonman, I just took a peek at this old thread of yours:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33553&p=285032#p285032

It looks like you didn't have any residual full-blown apneas above 10 cm. Rather, above 10 cm your "left-over" events were the kinds of things that Resmed would have recognized and probably worked with about as well as Respironics.

Last nights numbers were much better than the previous night. Here they are: (Saturday night is first, then Sunday night)

Pressure: 10.40, 11.40;
Leak rate: .02, .02;
AHI: 36.00, 11.40;
AI: 11.10, 2.10; and
HI: 24.90, 9.30.

It looks like maybe we are heading in the right directions?

tvmangum wrote:Last nights numbers were much better than the previous night.
---
It looks like maybe we are heading in the right directions?

Sure does. No "maybe" to it.

I take back the "no 'maybe' to it."

Maybe there is a "maybe".

Look like there may be another direction to be explored with your cardiologist/sleep doctor...

-SWS wrote:What I have highlighted in red above can cause episodic spikes in central dysregulation. If that's what's happening, then you may actually be experiencing central apneas and/or periodic breathing on those nights when your home-measured AHI happens to spike. And if a central problem of that nature happens to be inherently episodic (even episodic as a matter of progressive/transitional heart disease) then that issue may not have conveniently manifested during your PSG.

If that's really what's happening in your case, then an ordinary CPAP or APAP machine may not be the best machine for you. You may be better off with one of the adaptive/auto servo ventilation type machines.

rested gal wrote:Thanks, Den, for looking that up...about snores being reported with ResScan. I'm glad to know that, now.

Just to clarify, Resmeds do record snores and flattening, but unless you have a Reslink you will not see them on the report. The smart card and the USB link do not transfer that type of detailed data. On an Autoset, you see apnea, length of apnea, hypopnea, leak, and pressure, all in enough detail to tell how they relate. You do not see snore, flow limitations, or O2 sats. For those, you need a Reslink, and in the case of the O2, an attached oximeter.

I am still on the RedMed APAP and have not made any adjustments to the machine . . . yet. The pressure is set for 5-20 cm. I feel like I need a couple more days worth of data to start "tinkering" with the settings. My EPR is set to 3 just like on my CPAP.

tvmangum wrote:I am still on the RedMed APAP and have not made any adjustments to the machine . . . yet. The pressure is set for 5-20 cm. I feel like I need a couple more days worth of data to start "tinkering" with the settings. My EPR is set to 3 just like on my CPAP.

Your high spikes in AHI seem to occur in episodes.

So have you ever shown symptoms of episodic disorders----such as vocal chord dysfunction, acid reflux disease, asthma, or COPD----that might account for for your inconsistent AHI spikes?

http://cantbreathesuspectvcd.com/
http://www.nationaljewish.org/healthinf ... tment.aspx

I only linked VCD because the others are more commonly recognized, and easily searched.

I've never been diagnosed with any of those disorders. Probably 7 years ago the doctor thought I had GERD but later tests revealed that I do not have that condition.

I am wondering if this has something to do with my heart defect. In case I've never mentioned it, I have a congenital heart defect (bicuspid aortic valve), left bundle branch block and aortic insufficiency. BTW, my "sleep doc" is a cardiologist within the local cardiology practice that I go to. It was my cardiologist at Duke that pushed me to get the original titration study pushed up several weeks to get the benefits of CPAP.

It does appear that the spikes do sometimes occur in cycles. The spikes are one of the reasons that I am pushing the doctor to get this situation figured out. I'm still waiting for my "miracle" of feeling better. I do my best to stay awake prior to going to bed but sometime still drift off to sleep and I was thinking that was impacting my numbers but it really does not seem to make a difference.

tvmangum wrote:I am wondering if this has something to do with my heart defect. In case I've never mentioned it, I have a congenital heart defect (bicuspid aortic valve), left bundle branch block and aortic insufficiency. BTW, my "sleep doc" is a cardiologist within the local cardiology practice that I go to. It was my cardiologist at Duke that pushed me to get the original titration study pushed up several weeks to get the benefits of CPAP.

It does appear that the spikes do sometimes occur in cycles.

What I have highlighted in red above can cause episodic spikes in central dysregulation. If that's what's happening, then you may actually be experiencing central apneas and/or periodic breathing on those nights when your home-measured AHI happens to spike. And if a central problem of that nature happens to be inherently episodic (even episodic as a matter of progressive/transitional heart disease) then that issue may not have conveniently manifested during your PSG.

If that's really what's happening in your case, then an ordinary CPAP or APAP machine may not be the best machine for you. You may be better off with one of the adaptive/auto servo ventilation type machines.

http://newsletters.resmed.com/Newslette ... 0911r1.pdf

Above Resmedica article wrote: Patients in advanced stage of left heart insufficiency frequently have central disturbances of respiratory regulation during sleep.

Please don't interpret that as a scare tactic from me. Only to say that your suspicions may be warranted. Perhaps you have episodic central dysregulation because of that congenital left heart insufficiency.

riverdreamer wrote:

rested gal wrote:Thanks, Den, for looking that up...about snores being reported with ResScan. I'm glad to know that, now.

Just to clarify, Resmeds do record snores and flattening, but unless you have a Reslink you will not see them on the report. The smart card and the USB link do not transfer that type of detailed data. On an Autoset, you see apnea, length of apnea, hypopnea, leak, and pressure, all in enough detail to tell how they relate. You do not see snore, flow limitations, or O2 sats. For those, you need a Reslink, and in the case of the O2, an attached oximeter.

Thanks, riverdreamer. Got it now, if I can just remember it! Appreciate the clarification.