Three months and still not having much success

It's been three months since I first started on CPAP therapy and I'm now on my third different full-face mask. I'm finding the Quattro Air to be the lightest and easiest to use (though there is some leakage toward the bottom of the mask), and now that my sleep doctor has prescribed Ambien to help me get to sleep and that's working I'm doing slightly better. I'm feeling somewhat better with more energy on some days, but I'm still not able to sustain an average of more than three or four therapy hours for any period of time.

I have a question regarding how "therapy hours" are computed on the Philips Respironics PR System One REMStar Series Auto CPAP Machine. Last night I fell asleep, with my mask on, at about midnight and didn't take the mask off until I awoke at about 6 a.m. Yet when I checked the number of hours of therapy using the "Info" setting, it shows only 3.2 hours during the last 24 hours when I was sure it should have been roughly six. Does anyone know the answer to this? I went to the Philips Respironics website, but couldn't find this information anywhere.

Thanks in advance for any information or suggestions.

The information on the machine's LCD screen isn't updated until noon GMT time so you probably checked it prior to the updating.
The days go from noon to noon GMT time and the data shown on the LCD screen won't be updated until that time has past.
Now you can use the software and see the updated hours without waiting for GMT noon to roll around.
It should show up correctly now.

Thanks, but I just checked it again and it hasn't changed. Also, I'm not able to use software as I have a Mac and my understanding is that the software is not available for the Apple operating systems. I will have to take the data card in to my sleep doctor when I'm there for my next appointment in another week or so.

You can use SleepyHead software. It has a Mac version.
Go here and get Jimbo's Mac build
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sleepyhead/files/
Since you have a 60 series machine you will need the special Mac Patch file...go to this thread page 3 or 4 (I forget which) and get the Patch file for the Mac version (don't get the one in the first post because that is Windows Patch).
viewtopic/t83551/SleepyHead-Series-60-Patch-Avail.html

Not sure why the therapy hours are off but the software reports might explain it if it hasn't updated yet.
Usually it is related to when a person sleeps relative to the GMT noon and the update factor.
Easily seen on the reports.

Thanks for the information on the software. I'll give it a try!

I've imported the two pieces of software, but it just occurred to me that I've not looked at the card to see what type of card reader is needed to import data to my computer. Will have to do that next.

If you have a slot for the SD card nothing else is needed.
If no slot for SD card then a generic reader/adapter is all that is needed. One end to use a USB port and another end to plug the SD card into.

My machine is evidently very similar to that of the OP as well as Pugsy, except that nowhere on the machine or documentation does it ever mention the word "Remstar". All it says is "PR System One" on the top, and on the bottom it says"PR System One BiPap Auto Bi-Flex Ref 760P". The forums though insist that it is a "Remstar" for some reason so that is what shows up in my sig.

Anyway, I digress. Just trying to ID my machine. But unless I'm doing something wrong or just failing to understand, my machine gives the accurate therapy time instantly when I wake up and check it against the nearby clock. Having said that, I always begin therapy after midnight EST and awake and turn off the machine between 6 and 7 am. This morning at 6:24 am it showed a duration of 5:24, and I started exactly at 1:00 am.

Not sure if that helps or not.

Well this is interesting, Pugsy. First, thanks for the information on data import with a Mac. That worked perfectly. Here's what I retrieved:

CPAP Statistics as of August 5, 2013
45 days of CPAP Data, between 4/11/13 and 8/5/13
Details Most Recent Last 7 Days Last 30 Days Last 6 months Last Year
AHI 2.27 1.53 2.71 3.90 3.90
RERA Index 1.22 0.60 0.35 0.52 0.52
Hours per Night 05:43 02:56 03:00 02:50 02:50
Pressure 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00
Average Total Leaks 40.10 48.13 52.04 45.41 45.41
95% Total Leaks 50.00 78.00 84.00 76.00 76.00

Changes to Prescription Settings
First Last Days AHI FL Machine Mode Pr. Rel. Pressure
5/22/13 8/5/13 33 2.95 0.00 PRS1 CPAP C-Flex+ x3 11.00
5/6/13 5/21/13 10 7.58 0.00 PRS1 CPAP C-Flex+ x1 11.00
4/11/13 5/5/13 2 1.38 0.00 PRS1 CPAP C-Flex+ x2 11.00
The above has a threshold which excludes day counts less than 5 from the best/worst highlighting

Machine Information
Brand Model Serial First Use Last Use
Philips Respironics System One RemStar Auto with A-Flex (560P) P07198323E589 4/11/13 8/5/13

I'm somewhat relieved to see that it does have 5.43 as the most recent hours of therapy, as that's correct. I just went back to the machine to see what it says and that information hasn't changed and is incorrect. I'm not sure how the card captures correct information yet under Info the information is wrong. But most important is the fact that I did get 5 hrs and 43 minutes of therapy last night. I'm not terribly concerned about the longer term information as much of it was with masks that weren't working well for me. I'll have to do some research to see what the rest of it means. From what I remember, it would appear that the AHI numbers are good, given that in my sleep test I had over 30 episodes of apnea per hour during REM sleep. I assume that the average total leaks means 40 minutes of leaks were detected last night, which would still leave over 5 hours of therapy.

Old Dude, I'm afraid I can't help you on the machine ID and hope someone else can. I checked mine and it does say Remstar on the machine itself.

frustratednewuser wrote:I assume that the average total leaks means 40 minutes of leaks were detected last night, which would still leave over 5 hours of therapy.

No, that's the average total leak in L/min for the entire night.
Remember Total Leak is the mask's expected vent rate plus any excess leak...For your machine you want to stay below 75 L/min for the bulk of the night.
The 95 % leak number...that just means that for 95% of the night your leak was at OR below that number. You were pushing large leak territory with your max leak but with the average fairly low I doubt you spent much time up near large leak territory.

You might want to read this if you haven't already. It will give you a head start on understanding what you are looking at.
viewtopic/t88983/Pugsys-PointersSleepyH ... nding.html

Your AHI is fine...your leaks are acceptable (need to look at the detailed graph line to make sure you didn't spend much time up in large leak territory) and the main thing that I see ....and you already know it...you need to extend those hours of sleep.

Thanks again for your greatly appreciated assistance, Pugsy. I'll read the information in the link you sent. I do get additional hours of sleep, sometimes after the mask comes off in the morning and sometimes taking naps in the afternoon, but so far I've not worn the mask for the naps and need to get into the habit of doing so.

Bad habits (sleeping without the mask and machine) are notoriously easy to make and extremely hard to break (aren't all bad habits) so work on not getting into the habit of sleeping without the mask at any time.

Keep telling yourself....sleep equals mask and machine on...no exceptions.

Yes, I know you're of course right. I do need to work on this!

Good news! I fell asleep around midnight last night and when I awoke at 6 a.m. I forced myself to put the mask back on before falling asleep again, which resulted in a personal record for me of 8 1/2 hours of therapy last night (my previous record was 7 hours). So it's heading in the right direction!

frustrated, thats great! keep it up! Oak