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I just got my CPAP and have used it for two nights now. Before the CPAP my AHI was 11.7 but it doesn't seem to have gotten much better. First night it was 10.6 and Last night 9.12. Does it just take longer for those numbers to come down? I was thinking the AHI should drop right away since I should be able to breathe now right?
Welcome, and congratulations on starting therapy for your apnea. Your AHI does indeed need to come down. What will help the experts help you is to post a Daily chart from Oscar. Before you post, take a look at the instructions here:
As Dormeo suggests, download OSCAR and post a few daily graphs. Others will suggest modifications to settings and other things to get the AHI number down, preferably below 5. Hope to see the data and get you the help needed to optimize the therapy.
BTW if you've got your sleep study report, you may want to post redacted detailed screenshots of that report. If you haven't obtained it yet, you should get it for your personal health file. This report helps by giving us some additional background data that is useful for machine optimization. Best to getting success soon.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
The charts indicate a large amount of central or clear-airway apnea, much of it clustered in the last hour or so before you wake up. It's important to know if central apnea was evident on your diagnostic sleep test - this will make a difference in our recommendations. If you don't yet have a copy of your test report, get it from your doctor. Erase any personal id information and post the report here to the forum. We need to see the full report including the charts and tables, not just the summary.
A little bit of background (and apologies if you already know this):
Apnea comes in two basic forms - obstructive and central. Obstructive apnea is the more common and occurs when your airway collapses or is blocked (obstructed) by the tongue and other soft tissues when you sleep.
Central apnea is a very different beast - it occurs when the brain fails to send a "breathe now" signal to the lungs. This may be for a number of reasons including nervous system disorders, certain drugs and medications, congestive heart failure. It could also be idiopathic, which is doctor talk for "we have no idea". Central apnea can also occur in people who are new to CPAP treatment, as the more efficient breathing lowers the level of CO2 in the blood, tricking the brain into thinking it doesn't need to breath just now. This last type is called treatment-emergent central apnea. It sometimes goes away on its own, sometimes not.
For this reason, we need to understand whether your central apnea was pre-existing or whether it only showed up once you started using the hose.
