Acceptable nightly AHI number

[Sleeprider]

Hi. Was all that info shown by Kcap what I would see if I download Sleepyhead. Is there anything else that Sleepyhead would show me other than what Kcap showed, or is that the entirety? Thank you very much.

The information posted by Kcap was only the summary statistics from the last day, last 7-day average, and 30 day average. The graphs are a lot better, but his information was good enough for me to make some informed conclusions about his treatment status. (I've been at this for a while). Much more can be learned by looking at the graphs, especially when variable pressure auto-cpap is in use.

Kcap, the comfort settings are available for you to review anytime Just use the menu knob to select the options menu and comfort settings. You can see FLEX icon and whether is it is set to OFF, C-FLEX or A-FLEX. If C-FLEX or A-FLEX mode is enabled, you can set it to 1, 2 or 3. Each feels a bit different, and you can test them and decide what feels best. These are comfort settings and are available to you as the patient to change as you see fit (unless the provider locked them out). Your user manual has information on these settings. If the Flex settings are not visible, then ask the provider to unlock them. Alternatively, it is pretty easy to go into clinical mode and DIY that lockout.

I'm not advocating any pressure changes at this time. If Hypopnea remains above 3, then that is something we might consider later.

[hegel]

Sleeprider is more experienced than me, so you should listen to him. However, my issue is also hypopneas. I was told, and experience has borne this out, that a higher minimum pressure setting is a good possible solution for these. I experimented with a variety of minimum pressures and ultimately, a mere .5 increase (from 9 to 9.5) has made all the difference in the world. For some reason, my machine would rarely get a 90% reading over 10 when my minimum was below 9.5. At 9.5, my 90% reading is usually at 10.5. I think that what this means is, my machine is now responding more quickly to hypopnea events and is now successful in addressing them.

Of course, these numbers are particular to me. But my 30 day AHI is now 1.2, very consistently. this is the best it's ever been in over five years of cpap use. The proof is in how I feel in the morning and during the day.

My take-away is that over time I finally found the sweet spot in terms of minimum pressure and the peculiarities of my machine.

All of this takes time. In my case, success had to do with learning how my machine works AND what my primary issues were.

Of course, now I've jinxed things and will fall into cpap hell as a result of my hubris!

p.s. I still don't really understand how limiting the higher pressure settings works. Mine is very high; far above anything I ever reach. sorry if this is thread drift.

[robysue]

hegel,

I'm glad to hear that changing your min pressure from 9 to 9.5 made a big and positive difference in bringing your AHI down to the 1.2 area.

You also write:

p.s. I still don't really understand how limiting the higher pressure settings works. Mine is very high; far above anything I ever reach. sorry if this is thread drift.

For most people, including you, limiting the max pressure is not an issue. The machine goes to where it needs to go and pretty much stays there. For a few people, like me, however, the machine may go higher than our stomachs can handle and in response to things that don't actually seems to improve with added pressure. Again, in my own data, it doesn't seem to matter where I set my max IPAP: The machine will score enough flow limitations to take my IPAP up to the max IPAP setting and it will usually spend enough time at the max IPAP where 90% IPAP = max IPAP. And the flow limitation index does not improve, and in fact, can be worse if my max IPAP > 12. And I typically feel worse the higher I set my IPAP due to the return of aerophagia and the additional spontaneous arousals and awakenings caused by the machine. I am kind of an unusual case, but my collection of problems gives a good illustration of why some people do need to limit the max pressure setting on their machine.