AHI 131 !! - Help me understand my SleepStudy & CPAP results

Here's night #4 with the Aloha nasal pillow mask. Another perfect night with no leaks and an AHI of 0.83!! It's just so amazing to see the min and max leaks fluctuate by only 5 L/min. (happy dance)

Tuesday night's data - Night #4 with Aloha Nasal Pillow:

Kenwood wrote:Here's night #4 with the Aloha nasal pillow mask. Another perfect night with no leaks and an AHI of 0.83!! It's just so amazing to see the min and max leaks fluctuate by only 5 L/min. (happy dance)

I love serial novels with happy endings.

Drowsy Dancer wrote:

Kenwood wrote:Here's night #4 with the Aloha nasal pillow mask. Another perfect night with no leaks and an AHI of 0.83!! It's just so amazing to see the min and max leaks fluctuate by only 5 L/min. (happy dance)

I love serial novels with happy endings.

But it appeared like my novel was going to be "Harry Potter sized"! 51 days to figure it out Pugsy the Heroine

That leak line is amazing. I think you nailed it! How are you feeling now that things look good on paper?

NotLazyJustTired wrote:That leak line is amazing. I think you nailed it! How are you feeling now that things look good on paper?

I'm feeling fantastic!!
I'm no longer being woken up to the gushing air sounds at various times of the night fighting the previous FFM leaks or the mask riding into my eyes. Since the Aloha nasal pillows are so small (with that ball joint), I can now return to my natural sleep position of on my stomach with my face into my pillow - like I was pre-cpap. That is huge for my happiness level. Even the wifey can't even tell if I'm in bed anymore as I'm so quite now.

Kenwood wrote:

NotLazyJustTired wrote:That leak line is amazing. I think you nailed it! How are you feeling now that things look good on paper?

I'm feeling fantastic!!
I'm no longer being woken up to the gushing air sounds at various times of the night fighting the previous FFM leaks or the mask riding into my eyes. Since the Aloha nasal pillows are so small (with that ball joint), I can now return to my natural sleep position of on my stomach with my face into my pillow - like I was pre-cpap. That is huge for my happiness level. Even the wifey can't even tell if I'm in bed anymore as I'm so quite now.

Nothing but smiles man, nothing but smiles. I am so happy for you!

Okay, I can't resist it any more. I am a woman and I just have to say it for all womankind.

I told you so.

You know I am proud of you. I had my fingers crossed about the mouth breathing thing. I didn't know how bad of a habit you had. I fully expected some evidence of significant mouth breathing but I figured that was still a better option than what you were doing with the FFM.
I am tickled pink that your mouth breathing issues are pretty much zero... I can't say that for myself.
But then I am a woman and we all know that we women have a difficult time keeping our mouths shut.

Pugsy wrote:Okay, I can't resist it any more. I am a woman and I just have to say it for all womankind.

I told you so.

You know I am proud of you. I had my fingers crossed about the mouth breathing thing. I didn't know how bad of a habit you had. I fully expected some evidence of significant mouth breathing but I figured that was still a better option than what you were doing with the FFM.
I am tickled pink that your mouth breathing issues are pretty much zero... I can't say that for myself.
But then I am a woman and we all know that we women have a difficult time keeping our mouths shut.

....PUGSY TOLD ME SO

Here's night #5 with the Aloha nasal pillow mask. Another great night with no leaks.

Although this morning the wifey said my machine was making ALOT of noise around 2am. She said it was bothering her enough where she tried to wake me up and almost went downstairs to sleep. So I brought up my SH charts and saw another SPIKE DOWN, it looks like I had a 30 min period where I was blocking or partial blocking the vents. I don't remember anything nor did I wake up.

I did noticed that when I was getting comfy last night, the vent was close to the pillow and make a loud gushing noise since the vent air was blowing on the pillow (inches from the vent), so I readjusted the hulls in my pillow and the sound went away. Maybe that happened again? As this time it wasn't a total spike down to zero, like a couple nights ago. I did explain to the wifey, that the next time that happens to try harder to wake me up (talking), cause blocking the vents are bad.

- How quite should the PR-650p be? The last couple nights, after masking up, I have noticed that during inhale (IPAP) - I can hear a whine from the machine. The best way to describe it would be like a low vacuum cleaner sound. Is this something to be concerned about? Or is this just because I'm more quite with the nasal pillow versus the FFM

Wednesday night's data - Night #5 with Aloha Nasal Pillow:

The most noise that the 650 will make is on inhale and at your pressures it might sound like sort of a whine..part is machine working and part is the nasal pillows.
If it seems to change and become much louder..the change is an indication that something may be up with the machine.

When any mask has the vented air hit the bed linens it can make a lot of noise especially with your pressures but that noise shouldn't be at the machine level.

While normally these machines don't have a lot of problems...they are just like any other electronic...they can have something go bad on it.
Changes in noise levels at the machine...not good. Some noise we expect but at the machine level it should not be an issue to a spouse...They are too far away. I can barely hear my machine with my head on the pillow sort of next to it...my husband who is of course farther away can't hear it at all. If he did start hearing it then that would mean something had changed.

So first of all...make sure vent isn't blocked...no bed linens in the way and tell her to try to determine if noise is coming from the machine itself.

Pugsy wrote:So first of all...make sure vent isn't blocked...no bed linens in the way and tell her to try to determine if noise is coming from the machine itself.

Wifey said I WAS making the noise last night (not machine)....so it must have been the sound of the vented air hitting the bed liner or pillow since the time frame matches the spike down.

But....wifey did say that the other night she heard "it was like a faint, patterned siren in the distance" - so that must be my machine she heard and what I was hearing last night.

Two different things here

Make an effort to listen to the machine tonight before going to sleep.
There shouldn't be a loud siren or whine. There is a change in motor sounds between inhale and exhale...that is to be expected. It's hard to describe...kind of like the S9 bird call thing on exhale. I don't think it sounds like a bird call at all but some do. It's all in how each of us perceives something.
What I hear on inhale with my PR S1 may be exactly the same as what you are hearing but I may perceive it differently and call it something else....and of course you might also have a totally different sound.

There are going to be times when a sound or noise appears louder than other times. When there happens to be a marked difference in the sound or noise level and it doesn't go away....maybe something is wrong with the machine.
UncleBob had that happen with his new 560 machine. It was nice and quiet for a while and then all of the sudden it got a lot noisier. It was returned under warranty and he got a new machine.

The noise you make.. of course we can't do anything about it but watch the machine motor noise.
Your wife being able to hear a very faint pattern in the distance...that's normal. In a quiet bedroom if we are actually listening for something...we will hear it but it shouldn't be loud. Kind of like the ticking clock thing.

She may have just been in super sensitive mode due to waking up in the middle of the night from the noise you were making.
When in doubt though about machine working properly...get a second opinion like your idiot DME....good luck on that one.
The motors aren't totally silent..they can't be but they shouldn't disturb sleep and if horribly loud and a new change in level...there's a problem.

Here's night #6 with the Aloha nasal pillow mask. Another great night....and I finally had one leak which I'm was caused by my pillow. Boy I sure enjoy seeing that flat long leak line hardly move this week.

Got home from a late night with the boys around midnight, so I was super tired. But I did listen to my machine and its just a very low patterned "whine" from inhale to exhale. I will see if there's any difference over the upcoming nights. I think I will chalk up the wifey's comments the other night to blocked mask air vents.

Insurance/DME company update:
Called my Sleep Doctors office yesterday. My doctor reviewed the email I sent her with all my recent SleepyHead charts showing the last 2 weeks (showing her more for my snore levels) which had a week using the Mirage Quattro FFM versus the week using the Aloha Nasal Pillow mask. She wrote and faxed my new DME an RX for the Aloha. They said they also faxed over the RX for the Auto BiPap machine. I placed a call to my CPAP rep at my DME company (US Med) asking her to give me a call regarding the status of my machine RX (as they had a call into my Sleep Doctor). But I also called and talked with my Health Insurance Company (Aetna). My Insurance basically doesn't give a crap what CPAP machine or brand I have - There is only ONE code for a CPAP machine, period. As long as the doctor writes an RX, it shouldn't be a problem (though another medical company does review em - as my original CPAP RX and Sleep Study results were reviewed by this company to see if I meet their requirements for CPAP.) I have a $2,000 per year cap on medical equipment. That cap is the money that Insurance pays, so it doesn't include what I pay out of pocket for my 50%) The bad news is that once I meet my deductible ($100 away), I will be paying 50% for my CPAP machine (rent to own) and all equipment (masks, pillows, hoses, etc). I knew I had crappy Insurance, but I thought after my deductible was met it would be 20% not 50%! Damn!

Thursday night's data - Night #6 with Aloha Nasal Pillow:

Something to check out ahead of time.
IF you get the Auto BiPap...what happens to the Fixed BiPap machine status and monies paid for it.

If you end up paying 50% of the costs of a brand new Auto BiPap that is going to suck big time. In that case you might be better off online or private purchase or even secondwind.
I am pretty sure that 50% of what a DME might want to get for the Auto BiPap is going to be a chunk of change.

So check out every possible scenario ahead of time.

Pugsy wrote:Something to check out ahead of time.IF you get the Auto BiPap...what happens to the Fixed BiPap machine status and monies paid for it.

If you end up paying 50% of the costs of a brand new Auto BiPap that is going to suck big time. In that case you might be better off online or private purchase or even secondwind. I am pretty sure that 50% of what a DME might want to get for the Auto BiPap is going to be a chunk of change.

So check out every possible scenario ahead of time.

Yeah....I was thinking the same thing last night. Since 50% of this is gonna be coming outta my pocket - and money is tight these days. This basically means that ResMed S9 is out. So I will have to stay with Phillips Respironics brand. On CPAP.com the 750 Auto BiPAP with humidifier is $895+190 = $1,085 (my 650p would have been $956). I have no idea the costs on the new DME, but my old DME rental for the 650 BiPAP with humidifier was a monthly rent/own of $107 per month - so my out of pocket would be $53/month. I started on the 21st so I've been charged two months and will be charged by my old DME for my next month on Sunday,April 21st. So thats 3 months into payments.

As to what happens to those 3 months of already paid for.....no idea yet. WHY IS MY CPAP EXPERIENCE SOOOOO DAMN COMPLICATED.