Do Changes In AHI Matter?

BleepingBeauty wrote:It's hard to tell for sure, considering the granularity of the reports, but your hypops appear to occur when your PTB % is higher, rather than when it's really low. If hypops are happening when you're initiating your own breaths, it would seem you need a bit more pressure in order to prevent them; and since you're nowhere near the top of your IPAP range, I would think that raising EPAP a bit might benefit you. But I'm just applying logic here, and I hope someone a lot more knowledgeable will chime in. (JohnBFisher, -SWS, Muffinman, where are you?)

Is there a way to get less granular reports? On my report from last night, it looks to me like the hypopneas are happening when the PTB% is low. I'll post it and see if it's clear enough for anyone else to give some input on it. And if it is still granular, maybe someone can tell me how to get it to post clearer.

I don't know why the right side of my page gets cut off when I post the image. Arggh!!

Paper_Nanny wrote:I don't know why the right side of my page gets cut off when I post the image. Arggh!!

Right click the image, "view image," then use Ctrl-+ or Ctrl-minus to make the image bigger or smaller.

Works in firefox at least.

Paper_Nanny wrote:Is there a way to get less granular reports? On my report from last night, it looks to me like the hypopneas are happening when the PTB% is low. I'll post it and see if it's clear enough for anyone else to give some input on it. And if it is still granular, maybe someone can tell me how to get it to post clearer.

FYI, I took a screenshot of the data, cropped it to show just the PTB and Events graphs, and then enlarged that to make it a bit easier to correlate between the two:



You're having so many hypops that it looks like some of them do happen when the PTB is low; still seems to me that the majority of them (especially the clusters) are occurring when the PTB is higher. But as long as the machine is initiating breathing for you when necessary, I wouldn't worry about the low PTB. I'd concentrate on lowering the HI.

The other medical issues you're dealing with most certainly impact your therapy needs. I'm glad ozij posted; she's someone I highly respect, who's far more knowledgeable in these matters than I am. Also have to say that I really like your sleep doc's response about "treating the patient, not the numbers." Good doc, IMO. But since you feel "horrid" and the numbers aren't good, a visit with the doc is a good idea. I'd ask to be put on the cancellation list; feeling horrid for another two months would be torture. I hope the RT at the lab gets back to you and can help.

BleepingBeauty wrote:I hope the RT at the lab gets back to you and can help.

She did get back to me and asked me to e-mail her a copy of the past couple weeks worth of data. She wants to see that my AHI was lower and now it's higher. She also said to send along a list of my questions about anything else and she would see what she can do to get answers for me. Bad news is Mister Sleep Doctor is gone until next Tuesday, so I won't be hearing anything before then. It's sooner than August, anyway.

Deborah

Paper_Nanny wrote:

gasp wrote:Have you tried other masks? If you're happy with this one then trying another mask is not even something you want to mess with - but if you're not then maybe you want to try having two around and then compare data.

I am happy with the Fit Life Total Face Mask. I have tried many masks in the past three months. I am fortunate to have a very helpful DME to work with. The graphs look pretty much the same, regardless of which mask I used, other than the one showing the large leaking. That one was really bad with some of the masks.

Deborah

Well then that may rule out the mask as the cause for the fancy graphs : )

gasp wrote:Well then that may rule out the mask as the cause for the fancy graphs : )

I looked at the graphs more carefully and I would actually say they look worse now that I have a mask with no major leakage issues.

I had an interesting graph from this afternoon; I am going to post it in a separate thread, though. See if I can get some other people interested in taking a look.

Deborah

Paper_Nanny wrote:

gasp wrote:Well then that may rule out the mask as the cause for the fancy graphs : )

I looked at the graphs more carefully and I would actually say they look worse now that I have a mask with no major leakage issues.

I had an interesting graph from this afternoon; I am going to post it in a separate thread, though. See if I can get some other people interested in taking a look.

Deborah

I'll go look for the thread. Been away for a few days - time to catch up : )

My AHI have been down to 1 something since I got my new VPAP. just bragging.

ozze_dollar wrote:My AHI have been down to 1 something since I got my new VPAP. just bragging.

Aww, hey now, that is something to be bragging about, all right!!! I was all bragging in my other thread because mine was down to two but you got me beat by one, ozze_dollar! Way to go!

Deborah

For readers who have been following Deborah's (Paper_Nanny)'s difficulties in this thread, here's a link to great news in her other thread -- where she got to the bottom of the problem and is getting her therapy going well:

ASV, self initinated breathing low, feeling horrible
viewtopic.php?p=607571#p607571

Thanks for the helpful information

rested gal wrote:For readers who have been following Deborah's (Paper_Nanny)'s difficulties in this thread, here's a link to great news in her other thread -- where she got to the bottom of the problem and is getting her therapy going well:

ASV, self initinated breathing low, feeling horrible
viewtopic.php?p=607571#p607571

Thanks for linking that in here, rested gal.