New Member - My Story and Questions

[player]

I was on cpap and had OK days but more poor days. I switched to apap and I feel way better. Like cured.
Apap is the way to go if you can get it.

[cate1898]

Welcome to ApneaBoard Gunner! You'll get lots of advice here, sounds like you already have!

Good luck with your therapy.

[Gunner]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses and welcome.

Around 2 weeks in to treatment and so far it's been a positive experience and definite improvement to my life and my partners (snoring reduced to an acceptable level).

I have recently however picked up a sinus/nose/respiratory infection due to me not deep cleaning my water tank sufficiently and also not using filtered water. I've learnt my lesson from this but since the infection my AHI has gone from around 2.5 to closer to 4-5.

I'm still debating whether to invest in an upgrade and switching to a APAP machine as I tend to wake up earlier than I feel is necessary due to my belief that the pressure at that time in the early morning is too high.

I'm still also wondering if my AHI would improve even further if I switched to a full facial mask, as I tend to want to breathe through my mouth at night, yet my AHI figures are still pretty good even with a nasal mask. Can anyone offer any advice and experience from switching to a nasal mask to a full face?

Thanks again guys

[otrpu]

Gunner,
I prefer APAP, hands down, (unless you need Bi). Been on CPAP since 2003. I always use FFM. Sometimes have trouble getting good seal. Then I switch to RespCARE Hybrid FFM. Much smaller mouth seal area. It's a combination mouth seal/nasal pillow mask. By design it holds mouth closed without need of a chin strap. Might give it alook see.
Cheers,
otrpu

[Gunner]

Hi guys -

quick update. I've been averaging around 1.8-2.0 AHI for the last week or so and it's so fantastic to sleep an entire night without waking up to pee about 7 times - I sleep right through and sleep like a baby. I had a problem recently (aside from the water tank getting grimy issue) where I wore the forehead straps on my mask too tightly and woke up with very severe bruising and marks on my forehead that have only just began to heal, so chalk that one down to another learning experience - I'm sure it won't be the last. Oh, and my C-FLEX auto-check feature has upped my pressure from 9.0 to 10.0 which I think has definitely resulted in a better AHI score.

I was just wondering if my leak rate / volume was normal and if my overall stats were 'normal'? I feel good, just want some kind of confirmation if anyone would be kind enough..

(by the way I don't always sleep for 11 hours a night, more like 7-8 but I was having a bit of a two day hangover )

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[Sleeprider]

Your leaks are just fine. Sleepyhead tracks total leaks as well as a baseline expected leak. I would not worry about leaking as a problem unless your total leaks rose above 50-60 and the baseline above 30 or so. You are well below those thresholds for large leak.

Good work in making this work for you. You've come a long way.