First real night on cpap

Hi,
Last night was the first night I used cpap. Previously I was trying to get used the the mask and find a way to get comfortable enough to sleep. I have the tail end of a head cold, so congestion was a concern. I slept for about 3 hours and woke about 3 times. Once to go to the washroom, unknown reason and then at the end due to congestion that required me to remove the mask (due to my cold I think). Without the mask, l will awake about every 30-45 min due to obstructions that I can feel are waking me up. With the machine, I was awaking about every 50-60 mins, but could not really tell why and I don't think I noticed any obstructions waking me up. Could it be that the machine masked my ability to notice the obstructions that were waking me up or do you think it may be the machine was working properly and it was the machine itself and my unfamiliarness with it that was awaking me? My starting pressure is 8 and I have a loner for this month that I assume is in auto mode to find my ideal needed pressure (home titration study). Any advice you could offer me would be much appreciated.

What brand and model machine are you using for the home titration?

bavinck wrote:Could it be that the machine masked my ability to notice the obstructions that were waking me up or do you think it may be the machine was working properly and it was the machine itself and my unfamiliarness with it that was awaking me?

There's a very good chance the machine was simply doing its job and prevented some or all of the apnea events that used to wake you up and that it's just the newness of having a mask on your face that is causing the wake ups.
It might also be that the pressure changes themselves are causing a bit of sleep disturbance...when the machine responds with increased pressure in an attempt to stop the airway from collapsing.

When I first started therapy it took a couple of weeks before I stopped waking up just to feel the mask on my face. It's not natural.
Also..when we are ill with a head cold...we pretty much have to take what happens during that time frame with a grain of salt. Heck, even the OTC cold meds we take can disrupt sleep.

If you would tell us which brand and model machine you are using...there's a good chance that we have software easily available so that we can see exactly what the machine is doing around the time of your wake up. Maybe the pressure is not quite yet optimal and is allowing a few events to slip past the defenses...maybe a big leak...lots of maybes.
Tell us which brand and model machine and we can point you to the software if it is available.
SleepyHead works with both the ResMed S9 and the Respironics PR System One machines...if you have auto adjusting pressure ability..then you have full data available. Just have to figure out which brand and model. ResMed has the S9 Escape Auto..doesn't offer anything useful beyond generic AHI..hope you aren't using that model.

If you have a ResMed machine...the model name is clearly stated on the top of the blower unit up by the on/off button.
If you have a Respironics machine..model number is on the bottom of the blower unit..it's a 3 digit number preceded by DS or REF most often.
If you have a different brand than these 2...it depends on the brand if we have easy to get and use software.

Wow, Pugsy, thanks for the quick and detailed response! The machine they have given me is only for my home study to determine my ideal pressure setting and ensure CPAP works for me before I buy. It is a Philips brand, fully auto and data capable (not sure of exact serial as I am not home right now). Where do I find the SD card on this machine? Will my tech frown on me looking at the data on my computer do you think?

bavinck wrote:Where do I find the SD card on this machine?

On the back of the blower unit above the filter...unless they have the SD card hole covered up with a modem.
You have to push in gently for it to pop back out to get fingers on it to finishing removing it.

bavinck wrote:Will my tech frown on me looking at the data on my computer do you think?

He might but you don't have to tell him and he has no way to know that you looked unless you tell him.
Some care and some don't care. They tend to want to keep all this stuff so ultra secret but it isn't rocket science.

Pugsy wrote:

bavinck wrote:Where do I find the SD card on this machine?

On the back of the blower unit above the filter...unless they have the SD card hole covered up with a modem.
You have to push in gently for it to pop back out to get fingers on it to finishing removing it.

bavinck wrote:Will my tech frown on me looking at the data on my computer do you think?

He might but you don't have to tell him and he has no way to know that you looked unless you tell him.
Some care and some don't care. They tend to want to keep all this stuff so ultra secret but it isn't rocket science.

They do have a modem on it (cellular) for data collection as this is a home study. I will look (I can remove the modem), but I bet they removed the SD card;( No biggy really, another month's time and I will get my own machine and be able to track data.

Thanks for the help - much appreciated!

The modem pops off easily and can go right back on just as easily. They may have removed the SD card but sometimes they don't as it doesn't hurt anything for it to be in there.
If they did remove it..you can go get any cheap SD card and slip it in the slot and the machine will write all the data that it has stored to its internal memory to the SD card and with the PR System One machines...that's a lot of data.

There is also some data on the LCD screen. It's limited to AHI and % of time in large leak and average pressure but it's there. You probably just need to go into the clinical setup menu and turn the "Show AHI" to the ON position.
This explains how to get to the setup menu.
http://www.apneaboard.com/pr-system-one ... structions
There's also a little video at the bottom of the page.
It's unlikely that the tech will even notice if you turn the AHI on..if it is even off.

This is of course assuming that they gave you a Respironics PR System One machine to try. They might have given you the older M series machine as it used a modem also...but at the link you will know if your machine looks like the PR S1 machine or not. The M series machines used a special smart card and there's no sense in getting the card reader that would be needed with it for short term use. Not horribly expensive but no sense in spending the money if you don't need to.

The machine they gave me looks just like the pics in that link. I will confirm when I get home.

Yes, it is the PS system one remstar. I pulled off the modem, what looks like an SD card slot is empty. If I put an SD card in, will it transfer previous data to the card or only future data? Is there a size limit on the SD cards these guys can handle?

I feel like all day I have just had more energy than normal. I hesitate to say so as I have only got like 3hrs with the machine, but it was not a fight to get through the day energy wise. Also, I checked my 90% pressure on the machine for last night and it said 9.0. As my starting pressure was 8, obviously the machine is doing something. If this is a sign of things to come this wonderfully frustrating machine might give me my quality of life back!

The machine will store everything but flow rate (breath by breath analysis stuff) on it for about 30 days and put it on the SD card.
So you won't miss much at all. The machine has to have a SD card in it to get the flow rate stuff because those files are large.
A 1 GB SD card is plenty big enough but you probably can't find one as those are getting scarce. So get a 2 or 4 GB card and just keep it. If you can get another PR S1 machine you will then have a spare.
I don't know for sure if these new machines will handle one of those fancy hi def cards...I am thinking they would but there is no need to spend the extra money as those are a bit pricey. A plain generic SD card will work just fine.

If you are seeing improvements with only 3 hours of sleep on the machine...just wait till you can keep it on all night for several nights. You won't want to ever take it off.