First week results

[Chivalry]

Ok.... Managed to get to the end of my first week... And found a detailed list of results on my s9.... But being a new to all this have no idea what any of it means....or if its good...bad or normal..
So if anyone who knows about this kinda stuff could take a quick look it would be great..

Pressure ... 10.6
Leak... 7.2 L/min
AHI..... 1
Total AI...... 0.7
Central AI.... 0.4

That's pretty much what I could find.... Thanks for any help )

[symmit]

Chivalry - what was your AHI on your sleep test. You machine is calculating it as 1 which in my limited experience is very good, and shows that it is working.

Keep it up!

[Tigers Fan]

You don't need help!

Hi Chivalry

Your results are so near perfect that I'm envious! With results like that, you have nothjing to concern yourself about.

As a rule of thumb, an AHI of 5 or below considered to be the goal of good CPAPing.

TF

[Chivalry]

Chivalry - what was your AHI on your sleep test. You machine is calculating it as 1 which in my limited experience is very good, and shows that it is working.

Keep it up!

I'm not sure what AHI is.... But on my initial sleep test... Over about 5 and a half hours I stopped breathing 410 times

[Tigers Fan]

If all that happened was you stopped breathing 410 times in 5.5 hours, your AHI was 74.5.

AHI is Apnoea Hypopnea Index.

[James @ Intus]

Pressure ... 10.6

Not too familiar with the S9 yet but assume this is your average (95th%) pressure. 10 is very manageable and should be fairly comfortable too. If it is the 95th percentile pressure, it basically means "you are at or below 10.6 hPa 95 percent of the time".

Leak... 7.2 L/min

That's more obvious, 7.2 Litres of air leaks unintentionally per minute. Everybody gets a degree of leaks, only excessive leaks are an issue. Off the top of my head I don't know at what stage statistically it becomes excessive but if TF says 7.2 is good, take his word for it.

AHI..... 1

That is your remaining Apnoea Hypopnoea Index for that reporting period. Note that 5-15 is Mild OSA, 15-30 is Moderate and 30+ is severe. You would have been moderate or severe probably to get CPAP in the first place. Below 5 means "under control" so that's the magic number people aim for. Usually 3 is perfect already as even 'healthy' people get over 0. To get 1 so early one is indeed a brilliant result. It basically means you stop or reduce breathing volume significantly just once an hour on average per night.

Total AI...... 0.7

That's just a break-down of the AHI in this case looking at pure obstructive apnoea's I presume.

Central AI.... 0.4

And here looking at Central Sleep Apnoea.

So statistically, you are doing picture-perfectly well. So the question is, how do you feel? Anything bothering you with this setup?

[Chivalry]

to be honest its not been to bad except.... the problem i seem to get more than anything each night is i wake up at some point with my machine blowing really hard.. up around 15-17 and its extremely uncomfortable...mask leaking all over the place, and mouth open and lips flapping like a dog hanging out a car window!
The only thing i can do is turn the machine off and back on again and use the 25 min ramp time to try and get back off again.... when i awake in the morning its usualy hardly noticable the pressure is so low.. (usualy down at 7 or 8) and i have to actualy check the pressure to make sure the machine is actualy still working.. lol

But last night was probably the worst.... woke up quite early around 6 or 7AM (didnt get to bed till near 2am) with it blowing like the clappers as usual... tried to reset the mask but it was blowing so hard it wouldnt seal...
So gave up and turned the machine off/on as usual... but i think i had been breathing the high 15-17 pressure for so long... i found myself struggling to draw breath once the pressure dropped and the mask was on... so gave up and took it off :0(

AHI was showing 2.7 this morning.... think thats the highest its been...

[symmit]

What mask are you using Chivalry? I remember my early nights (they're only a month ago) and struggling against the pressure during the night, or waking up to find the mask loose and hurricane katrina blowing through the bed. Thankfully the mrs can sleep (and has slept) through an earthquake (she's slept with my snoring and waking for years!) so it never woke her but it sure woke me.

Try finding some way of restricting your movement for a few nights while you get used to it, make sure the straps are tight enough to stay put but not too tight as to collapse the mask or cause discomfort - one of my reasons for swapping masks was that the forehead bit had to be quite tight if I rolled on my side or I'd become unmasked.

[Chivalry]

this is the mask i have atm...

[Chivalry]

Am using the Mirage liberty Full face mask (well,,, kinda mouth with 2 nose plug things,, )

[James @ Intus]

That kind of proves my point in the other thread regarding lowering the APAP's upper pressure. You show an average pressure of just over 10 meaning less than 5% of the time it needs higher than that. If this was a trial period, they'd probably issue you a fixed pressure CPAP with a fixed pressure of 11.

So if they now lower the upper limit from 20 down to say 13, you won't get those massive gales that wake you up yet statistically, you still get a very good therapy.

So I would ask Leicester whether based on the stats, they'd agree with lowering the upper pressure a bit as clearly right now it's causing you more grief than it benefits you.

[Chivalry]

i think after watching a very usefull video on the S9 ,, i can get into the clinical menu and chaneg the settings myself... dunno if the hospital might throw a fit though if i messed with it

[Fredxx]

Your best bet would be to talk to the clinic, tell them what is happening and what advice you have been getting here, see if they will change it for you. If they won't see you to sort it, or are awkward about it, then what you do after that is your own decision!

The "technicians" at the clinics generally tend to know the condition from theory, not from having to live with it. The best ones listen to the patients, learn about living with the condition and take the lessons on to help other patients. Give them a chance to listen, learn and help before taking things into your own hands and falling out with them.