Turkey Calls: 4.5 months and back to dragging @$$

Thank you, Popi. Yeah. I am excited about the numbers but, knowing that there are some who still struggle, actually wonder if I should post them at all. I don't want to discourage anyone, ya know?

At any rate, I wonder if I live with the little bit of temporary pain in the morning on the tips of my ears and beneath my nose, or do I seek out another mask or pillows thay may (or my not) alleviate the pain?

Someone reading this is probably wondering why I'm complaining about a little bit of ear and nose pain when they'd be willing to crawl through the broken glass.

Day 3. AHI 0. Leak 6l/min at 95% percentile. (leak events were around 1-2am)

Small spot of blood at the base of my nose (exterior) probably from mask chafing. Hope to get a better seal tonight and drop the mask a bit on my face after trimming the mustache. Maybe that will help with the leaks, too.

Funny. It seems like the pressure dropped in the middle of the night. ResScan said it didn't. 12cm all the way.

Perhaps my lungs and face are "used" to 12cm after 7.2 hours of sleep. I woke up an hour earlier than I planned, but that's all right. I'm somewhat alert.

My guess, your injury will never heal properly if it keeps getting irritated. My nasal pillows (Swift LT) are awesome. I honestly don't feel them and so far, I've had zero problems with irritation. One odd thing however....and please forgive me for this, but I haven't had a booger worth picking since beginning treatment. I only mention it because I've never seen it mentioned before....maybe my body just reacts differntly.

Kept the mask on last night...woke up at 3am, but that's not too bad, as my normal time is 4am.

As Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus once said: Every day and in every way, I am getting better, and better.

Good morning. 7.75 hours last night, 0.1 AHI (0.1AI, 0.0 CI). 0ml leak @ 95th %ile. Max at 8.4. This was due to "seal-testing" (don't worry, no seals were harmed!) earlier in the evening (checking to see if a mustache trim would help). 1.2 was the max after that experiment.

So, I'll consider last night to be virtually leakless.

Day 4.

6.6 hours. ACK! Kept having to adjust the mask. 0.4 AHI. I'd love to get back to sleep. There's gonna be some leaks in there, but I've not checked the report today.

I don't think I've "napped" more than one evening (10-11pm) since I started therapy. So, that's a plus.

About 7.5 hours last night. I shot up with generic "afrin" last night (with camphor) after a few hours. Problem is that I'll be all congested again tonight. I've got Saline in a can, but it's not nearly as good.

I have less problem with inhalation at 12cm with congestion than the exhalation, so I turned on the EPR last night to 3. It helped.

Just chiming in regarding the sinus surgery - modern day sinus surgery, especially just a turbinate reduction is a pretty easy surgery to recovery from. I've had two sinus surgeries in the past 5 years because I have severe allergies. But the turbinate reduction was a fantastic experience. I forgot how good it felt to really be able to breathe through my nose. My lungs appreciate having the moistened air and in general, I just feel much better. Afrin is very rough on your sinuses when used long term and the rebound congestion can be rough.

Just a thought - the internet stories are rough to read in general. My theory is for the vast majority, the surgery goes very well and people don't post their stories, but when it goes bad, they do - thus the number of bad stories on the internet. The pain is minimal and w/ turbinates, I felt like I could breathe so much better a day after surgery. I just made sure I used someone who doesn't use packing or stents.

I thought my septoplasty and turbinate reduction surgery was a piece of cake. I went back to work two days after outpatient surgery (with a moustache bandage under my nose). There was minimal pain. The worst part was the splints and being forbidden to blow my nose until they were removed. The splints felt like they were a foot long---but ah, the relief when they were removed. Next to quitting smoking, having this surgery was the smartest thing I've done in my life.

Day 13.

8.9 hours of hose time. 0.1 AHI. 0.0l/m leak

Woke up twice in the middle of the night. Turned over once (made sure no leak) to Falcon position.

Finally got my Rx copy and my sleep study copy. Hopefully someone can help me translate:

Total sleep time of 402.5 minutes. REM latency of 2.0 and 294 minutes respectively. Sleep efficiency at 95.8%. Patient entered the earlier stages of NREM sleep. Slow wave sleep was present but was decreased. REM was noted on two occasions but was also reduced. Sleep mainly in non-supine.

168 abnormal resp. events, overall RDI of 25. Most of these were obstructive in nature. Positional effect - supine RDI was 89.4. O2 desat accompanied the events. 93% during NREM and REM and dropped to the min of 84%. PLMs index at 27.9 and PLM arousal 13.3. REM effect produced RDI of 56.1.

I know we've got some smart folks here. Anyone? Thank you.

If you can post some pictures of the hypnograms from your sleep study, you might attract the muffin's attention.

is super at interpreting sleep study charts/graphs/etc.

It's good that you're getting those leaks under control. Looks like you're doing very well.

Thanks, Rested Gal. I don't have the cool-o pictures. I'm a picture-guy myself. I don't understand the REM latency and stuff. While I understand the importance of REM, I gather (?) that the Stages 3 and 4 are the "more effective" sleep.

Yeah, the leaks are doing well, for the most part. I am considering (yeah, if it ain't broke...) moving to nasal pillows for my next mask in 11 weeks. I like what I got, but it would be nice to haul the thing to the living room to watch TV with my wife and not have her yelling at me to "go to bed! I can't hear the game!" (we go from Baseball season to College Football, so there's always a game on Friday or Saturday nights)

I could handle not bringing out the H5i for the few hours of evening napping (which is rarer than what it was!).

I will see what kind of Act of God it'll take to get the graphs and charts. My nurse has been VERY helpful. I gave her a week to get me the script and PSG report and called her back. She admitted to completely forgetting. "I'll get that right out to you, Mr. Hokie. I just forgot."

If it wasn't for you all and the encouragement, I could be doing poorly on therapy and not knowing it.

Attended a wedding yesterday. Long evening. I did well with not being tired at all. Couple of good kids - made it that much more enjoyable. (the bride and groom. Ours were home with a sitter)

Maybe it's cuz I'm not used to it yet, but it seems that in the morning (Day 14, BTW. 0.1 AHI and 0.0 l/m leaks) the pressure on the machine has dropped from when I started the night.

Is this normal? ResScan 3.10 has it at a 12cmH2O with 0 rampup. Or is this because I'm "used to the deeper and better breathing" by morning?

Should I have the thing looked at by the RT?

Thank you.

You're getting used to it. There are times that I purposfully take a deep breath just to see if air is coming through the tube.

So it's true, you REALLY do get used to using these things....I never thought, during my first week or so, that I'b be saying that, but it's true.

And again, we all hate you for the numbers you're getting...j/k.

Popi wrote:You're getting used to it. There are times that I purposfully take a deep breath just to see if air is coming through the tube.

So it's true, you REALLY do get used to using these things....I never thought, during my first week or so, that I'b be saying that, but it's true.

And again, we all hate you for the numbers you're getting...j/k.

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." - Pantene advert.

Thanks, Popi. That's good to know that the "light" pressure I sense is due to the night of breathing well I'd just experienced. Seriously. I was going to be calling the DME that there was something wrong with the machine. And the only reason I asked here is because I couldn't find it on the search. (I'm a horrible searcher here, but evidently a stronger one elsewhere)

I admit that I have no idea what I'm doing right or wrong when it comes to the machine, the mask, the HH - none of it. Chalk it up to beginner's luck or something. If I knew, I'd certainly share. I'm sure better folks than me (and there's many here) have worked harder for longer periods of time with less success. I really wish I had more to contribute here.

Roman Hokie wrote: I really wish I had more to contribute here.

This is going to sound all mushy, but you do contribute....last night I couldn't get my mask to fit correctly, so I decided to sleep without it for the night....then I remembered your success and decided to give it another try. I had a pretty good night, thanks to you.

Turns out, the inner wall of a Swift LT can sometimes collapse on itself...who knew? All it takes to fix, is to take the time to turn on the bedside lamp, actually look at the gear, fiddle with it enough to jimmy it loose, and there you go...all fixed. Getting frustrated is never the answer.