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Coach wrote:I went for titration, wore a full mask most of the night, and with CPAP at about 11 (again, I don't know 11 what, don't yet have the lingo) and some O2 my number was cut to about 4.5.

Lori, I think the 11 mentioned above is 11 cm of H2O -- that is, the pressure he was titrated at.

Re-read Coach's sentence as "with CPAP at about 11 cm of H2O and some O2 my AHI was cut to about 4.5" and it all makes sense (to me).

Coach, there's really little I can add to Lori's wonderful advice at this time. IMHO attitude is the greatest component of success with this treatment, immediately followed the by fit/design/quality of the mask used.

Keep thinking "out loud" here on the forum and we'll all pitch in with suggestions based on our experiences to help you.

Let's see if you have an AHI of 25 and let's say an average episode duration of 20 seconds, then you have about 8 minutes of poor sleep per hour. With the cpap you may have a lot more, maybe even most of every hour. This would be why you feel better without cpap. IF you can get used to cpap you MAY have less than 8 minutes per hour of poor sleep and you MAY feel better with it.

Sleepless,

I talked to Doc One today. He spoke well of Doc Two and we agreed I need CPAP if I can tolerate it and that I should give it time. He said I should know more about my tolerance after a month. He didn't think eventually abandoning it in six weeks if nothing gets better would necessarily be wrong but it would leave me at serious risk and, too, neither of us thinks I'll still be having this much trouble then. (Okay okay, I think it, but one of my specialty's is discounting my own often ill-founded beliefs, so it's almost as though I don't.) If my trouble continues he suggested lowering the pressure, at least for now, from 11, where it is, to say 9, and see if I do better.

Also, my present machine begins at 4 and ramps to 11 in 20 minutes, which so far hasn't usually given me time to fall asleep. He said some machines have a 40 minute ramp schedule, which I think might give me a better chance of easing into sleep.

George, 25 events per hour could result in a lot more than 8 minutes of disturbed sleep! I had an RDI of 37 (not quite the same as AHI, but similar) and my sleep study showed that I was only getting less than 30 minutes of meaningful sleep per hour. This was because I would pretty much wake up to a Stage 1 sleep, spend close to a minute getting back into a deeper stage, sleep for almost a minute, then have another event.

The duration of the event was much shorter than the amount of sleep it disrupted.

Coach, some (many?) people find that ramp starting at 4 is too low; 6 might be better. And most machines can have the ramp time extended longer than 20 minutes IIRC.

WAFlowers wrote:

Coach wrote:I went for titration, wore a full mask most of the night, and with CPAP at about 11 (again, I don't know 11 what, don't yet have the lingo) and some O2 my number was cut to about 4.5.

Lori, I think the 11 mentioned above is 11 cm of H2O -- that is, the pressure he was titrated at.

As usual, thanks, Bill. Good catch. I was so caught up in this poor man's dilemma that I misread some of the info, but didn't change the thought behind the post regardless. I appreciate your clarification, though, oh Mr. Sharp One!!! This therapy certainly is helping you, Bill!!!

My CPAP attitude's bad but I am working on it and actually do expect to look forward to sleep again. I agree with everyone on the Board and both my docs that it will not only prolong but ultimately enhance my life. I admit it's hard to imagine liking having a cold wind (I've a heater but warm the wind ain't) blowing on the back of my throat and swirling through my sinuses, but as an old (and ex) cannabite (pothead) I've long rather liked dry mouth and some skunk smell in the air, so who knows? Sleep well. I expect to again, some day, and I'm counting on you guys to do it for me till I join you.

Hello Coach


I know that I sleep and nap whist my cpap is running.....As I often feel worse without it. I sleep sounder on cpap then without. From what you tell about your dr diagnoising sleep apeona without sleep study been done first, he is a QUACK!!!!!

The other dr is assumming or guessing you have sleep apeona. I think to see another gp as you may need a second opinon......

Coach,

You at least have retained your sense of humour, which is a great thing. By the way, who said I sleep well??? LOL! The results I have reaped are wonderful, but I'm not one of the luckier ones on this site that sleeps through a night still. But I wouldn't trade how I feel now for going back to the old days of sleeping through the night if it mean giving up all the benefits I have gotten from CPAP therapy.

Good luck tonight. I try to always look at it as, tonight is another chance for sleeping well. If it doesn't happen, there's hopefully always tomorrow and I"ll get another chance again!

Coach,
See if you can preheat the humidifier before you start using it. Some of them take quite a whille to warm up, so you actually start with the air less pleasant than it can be.

And the Australian heated hose http://www.sleepzone.com.au also does wonders to the air coming in, especially if you preheat that at the same time you preheat the humidifier.

O.

For what its worth - I stopped using the Ramp feature after a week because it interfered with me going to sleep. The Ramp helped in the beginning, just as the CFlex did, but after awhile I found that it wasn't needed.

[quote="cat-a-tonic"]For what its worth - I stopped using the Ramp feature after a week because it interfered with me going to sleep. The Ramp helped in the beginning, just as the CFlex did, but after awhile I found that it wasn't needed.

ozij wrote:And the Australian heated hose http://www.sleepzone.com.au also does wonders to the air coming in, especially if you preheat that at the same time you preheat the humidifier.

I've had the Aussie heated hose for a week now and it has made the single greatest change in my condition since starting CPAP treatment! Not only was I finally able to turn up the humidifier enough that I was no longer getting dry air blown into me, but the air no longer felt like an arctic blast despite having a heated humidifier!

I'm actually sleeping more soundly and less restless, according to SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed).

Right now I think the air is perhaps too warm, so I'm going to try a lower-powered wall wart tonight and see what happens.

WAFlowers wrote:Right now I think the air is perhaps too warm, so I'm going to try a lower-powered wall wart tonight and see what happens.

What is a lower-powered wall wart???

A wall wart is the nickname for those power supplies that plug into the wall and have a cord coming out of them. They look like a wart growing on your wall!

I'm going to try one that delivers less power tonight to have a slightly cooler hose and cooler air. At some point I'll get the right balance between enough heat to be comfortable and not have rainout, and too little where I'm uncomfortable and/or have rainout.

Thanks, Bill...