DO i NEED TO CHANGE MY NUMBERS?

For the past seven days I have been at EPAP 11 and IPAP 22. On table below, ignore my color coding as I didn't do the last two days. Red was for over 5 and green 5 and under. Keeping track like this helps me see where I am with all of this, allowing me to do comparisons. Can you tell I'm a visiual person? LOL . EDIT: My original sleep study had me at AHI 64.7 per hour of sleep. So anything is better than that.




I have another 7 days at same numbers and the numbers were similar except I had Periodics every night but this was when I had leaks and problems with my mask. The night of 3/21 I was in pain and most of my activity was in the last 55 minutes of sleep. The last two nights I was on ibuprofen and tylenol 3 for pain but l slept 7+_ hours each night. On the 18th that leak of 96 was only for one hour.

I wake up very groggy all the time and am having problems again staying awake during the late afternoon if I'm reading, on computer or watching TV. (not groggy because of meds - didn't take during day, only to sleep)

This pain is a totally new issue. Burning pain in my hip/thigh area that eventually spreads to my lower leg to the point that it hurt to walk. Never had this before. It seems to come on after I sit for lower periods of time. I can tell it's in my muscles because they are sore to touch when pain is gone. This pain can be constant for hours and then again, it comes and goes. It seems to be related to my sitting and how I sit. I finally seem to be getting the other things under control and now this shows up. geeesh!

When I was at EPAP 12 and IPAP 22 for only 2 nights my AHI was 19.40 and 22.83 with high OA and CAs.

EPAP at 11.5 for 3 nights w/AHI of 12 +, 10 + and 32 + CAs were over 5 for 2 of 3 nights. Perhaps I should try that again since I seem to have mask issues resolved.

(Am still using Total face mask, but want to try to do nasal pillows - so far no luck).

Thanks

.

The general rule for regular BiPap is EPAP for obstructive apneas and IPAP for hyponeas.
Increasing the IPAP maximum since you are in auto mode...won't do anything unless you are maxing your current 22 cm IPAP out all the time and I don't think you have been. The machine won't go there unless it feels the need.

Your AHI on March 18 was fine.
March 21 you say that the bulk of the night was fine except for the last hour.
So these settings will work...but not consistently work.

You might try the 11.5 minimum now and see if you get a little better results because you seem to have the mask leaks under better control now. If the higher AHI nights also had frequent awakenings due to leaky mask issues a good portion of that AHI might be from "awake" or "semi awake" events that the machine got fooled by. Fragmented sleep can mess with the AHI.

The higher AHI nights...if those are real events will sure account for feeling crappy BUT if your sleep architecture is crappy...you will for sure feel crappy from that also even if the events aren't real.

So you need to have good solid unfragmented sleep and not have pain be messing with things to be able to evaluate the AHI in a fair light.

I'll give the 11.5 a try again. I have a month to figure this out. If I can't, I guess I'll go in for a sleep study tritation. I have one scheduled for Apr 30. I was, however, hoping I could get this figured out so I wouldn't have to go do this. Thanks!

Pugsy wrote:The general rule for regular BiPap is EPAP for obstructive apneas and IPAP for hyponeas.
Increasing the IPAP maximum since you are in auto mode...won't do anything unless you are maxing your current 22 cm IPAP out all the time and I don't think you have been. The machine won't go there unless it feels the need.

Your AHI on March 18 was fine.
March 21 you say that the bulk of the night was fine except for the last hour.
So these settings will work...but not consistently work.

You might try the 11.5 minimum now and see if you get a little better results because you seem to have the mask leaks under better control now. If the higher AHI nights also had frequent awakenings due to leaky mask issues a good portion of that AHI might be from "awake" or "semi awake" events that the machine got fooled by. Fragmented sleep can mess with the AHI.

The higher AHI nights...if those are real events will sure account for feeling crappy BUT if your sleep architecture is crappy...you will for sure feel crappy from that also even if the events aren't real.

So you need to have good solid unfragmented sleep and not have pain be messing with things to be able to evaluate the AHI in a fair light.

Hi - I'm pm'g you...