New Member (self-treating)

[GreyParrot]

Hello Everyone,
I'm a new member here to learn as I am treating myself all on my
own. I started because I had all the classic signs of sleep apnea.
I could not afford to go to a sleep clinic so I've had to do this experiment by studying on my own. I borrowed a pulse ox as my
first step and found that I was not breathing many times per night
for as long as 40 seconds at a time. So I searched on craigslist and
purchased a ResMed Elite S9 with an H5i humidifier for a very good price, with a brand new mask. I downloaded the ResScan 3.11 software and started learning. My first night at 10 resulted in an AHI
of 41.3! Over time I have settled on 14 and have had 7 days now at
1.3. I will continue to experiment with settings until I get to the best
I can on my own. Odd thing I discovered was the majority of my
events are now "central". In the beginning at a lower pressure they
were mixed with "obstructive". Now I rarely see an obstructive event.
I have a pulse ox on the way, just to collect more info.
I feel SO much better on a daily basis. My blood pressure is now
normal. Thanks to everyone here I was able to learn what I needed
fairly quickly.

[cbramsey]

Welcome to the forum!!! We are glad you joined us!!!

[zonk]

Odd thing I discovered was the majority of my events are now "central".

Pressure increase does not help with central apnea,an apnea is scored when there is reduction of breathing for at least 10 seconds or more
The machine does not know whether you,re asleep or awake at the time scoring the event, awake events are meaningless.
AHI is below 5 which is the benchmark for a working therapy

Whats leak rate and how did you come using full face mask.
Sleep study is preferable, this might be of some help http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-pr...re-on-cpap

[trish6hundred]

Hi GreyParrot,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Don't make too many changes at one time. If you do make changes, wait a couple weeks between each of them because you are looking for trends.
Hang in there for more suggestions and best of luck to you with your CPAP therapy.

[Airstream]

Gotta hand it to you, you suspected a problem and then educated yourself from the experts here on the forum (there are members here that know more than many professionals, IMHO) and took action.
I know that some people may not agree with your course of action, but you do what you have to do sometimes.
Sleep clinics and medical equipment suppliers don't like people like you, but I am impressed.
Welcome and good luck.

[xxl]

I'm thinking that I like this idea of self diagnosis and treatment. Even though I have insurance that covered most of the costs, I could have saved well over $1500 and still come up with the same results. I would have needed to start reading and understanding months in advance of making the equipment and mask purchase through friends or craigslist. A data capable machine and SleepyHead is a wonderful combo!

[PaulaO2]

If you made the changes too fast, as in you upped the pressure too fast or in too high increments, that's what's causing the central events. Give it some time and those should start dropping down. Or back down on the pressure (slowly!) until you see them drop below 5 AHI then stay there for a while (30 days or so) then slowly increase again.

There's another version of ResScan out, if you are still using that one. And there's another software called SleepyHead. Give that one a try.

ResScan 4.3 - http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...hines-only

SleepyHead - http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...e-software

[DeepBreathing]

Hi GreyParrot, welcome to the club.

I really admire the way you've gone about this. While I'd never normally advocate going outside the medical system, sometimes it's a necessity. You seem to have done all your research and understood what was needed, unlike many apnea newbies (like myself) who are somewhat traumatised by the whole process.

As mentioned above, the centrals you're seeing are probably a result of your body adjusting to the higher pressure. Paula has given you some very good advice on handling these.

[GreyParrot]

Thanks for the kind words people. I don't advocate everyone trying
to self diagnose and treat. I just don't happen to have insurance or
the funds to do otherwise. Finding a solution was priority. I'm pretty
good at figuring things out if given enough time and thought if I were
careful, trying to solve the problem was less risk than doing nothing.
I read the boards everyday for a while before attempting anything.
My results have had more positive effects than I thought possible.
Paula02, I will stay at the settings for a while. I had another decent
night with a AHI of 1.2! I only woke up once. Thanks for the link
to Resscan 4, I'm using 3 at the moment. BTW if I ever get insurance
again, I will in fact get a real sleep study. One cannot ever have too
much information.

[me50]

if you are in the US, have you looked at the market place for Obama care plans?