New User Finishing 2nd week

[bingo49002]

Hello all,

First I would like to say that I am VERY excited to have found this site full of helpful members sharing their knowledge and history of cpap and bipap treatment. I have spent a LOT of time reading posts and comments.

I am VERY lucky to have excellent health coverage from my job. My wife forced me to start using the health coverage and start seeing a doctor because of my lack of energy. My wife has told me for years that I snored loudly and held my breath while I slept. My doctor ordered a nuclear stress test to rule out any serious heart conditions. Stress test showed no serious problems. Doctor sent me for a sleep study which revealed severe obstructive sleep apnea.

I was prescribed bipap of 14 and 8. I am now at the end of my second week of bipap use. Sleepyhead shows my AHI as most recent -20.8 and last 30 days of 15.47.

I must say that I feel much better as far as productive sleep than I have felt in years. I am sure that it will take some time and titration to get the AHI numbers below 5 average. If I feel this good now, I am excited to see how good I can feel with an AHI of 5 or lower.

My machine is a Resmed VPAP S with H5i and climate control tube. I am using Resmed Swift FX nasal pillows. No issues adjusting to mask and machine.

I guess I just wonder how long is average for AHI numbers to drop off to acceptable levels?

Well, enough about me for now. Great to be a part of a wonderful group. Sleep well all.

[mjbearit]

Welcome to the group!!!!
That is great that you finally got in there and got some help. It sounds like you have already adjusted pretty well! Congrats! A lot of folks have a very hard time adjusting to sleeping with the machine.
I love the Swift FX, that's what I use as well. I find most other mask styles to be bulky and cumbersome and while they do their job my actual time in sleep is diminished by waking up because of this big bulky mask! LOL! But everyone is different!
Again, congrats and welcome!

[CHanlon]

Bingo - an average time to see < 5 AHI probably doesn't exist as a meaningful statistic. Everyone is different, and there are many variable that affect it... like how long it takes people to adjust to wearing the mask, finding a mask thats both comfortable and effective. Leak rates, pressure settings, etc. can all affect the AHI. Some people take longer then others to see an "acceptable" AHI value. Others... well, mine was < 5 the first morning, and I felt better then I had in 10 years.

AHI is a guide to the effectiveness of your therapy, and if you can get it down, great. But a better indicator of how well it's working is the answer to the question "how do you feel?"

[Sleepster]

I guess I just wonder how long is average for AHI numbers to drop off to acceptable levels?

I've not seen that topic discussed much. For me it took 4 days. But I had a lot of other problems adjusting.

I would think that the two weeks you've waited is long enough to establish a trend. You might want to contact your doc or DME and report these numbers.

The other thing you can do is look at the components of your AHI. Is it dominated by OA's, CA's, or HY's? And you can zoom in on the Flow Rate graph and see how long they last. If they're only about 10 seconds long, that's not as damaging as if they last 90 seconds or so.

Another thing. I would guess, based on the machine they gave you, that your condition is more complicated than simple OSA. Do you know what the diagnosis was?

[zonk]

I must say that I feel much better as far as productive sleep than I have felt in years.

Its a good indicator......congrats
Follow-up with your sleep physician and take the reports with you. high leak can skew AHI numbers and apnea while you,re awake as you trying to fall asleep should be discarded for a true AHI.

[bingo49002]

Thanks for all of the comments. Talked to the DME and he said to bring in data card and he will forward the info to sleep doc. My sleep study was done in two parts on the first night. It felt like I no sooner fell asleep when the tech came in and said "I was registering over 100 breath stops per hour," and started me on CPAP and moved to BIPAP while I slept. I will have to get a copy of the sleep report to find out what my AHI was after they titrated the pressures to find my starting AHI. Sleep study center said I will have a second sleep study after a month of machine use.

Again, thanks for all the great info.

[trish6hundred]

Hi bingo49002, First of all, welcome to the forum! Congratulations on your second week of CPAP therapy. It's good to hear that you are doing so well with it because a lot of people have a really rough time getting used to it and it takes some of them an extremely long time. I know that the numbers are important, but to me, if you are feeling better than you have felt in a long time before you started with CPAP therapy, I wouldn't worry so much about the numbers. It's good that you sent your report to your DME and your Dr. so that they can alert you to any problems, if there are any. By the way, I had to go back for two separate studies instead of a split night study because, when I went to the first study, I couldn't get to sleep till it was almost time for me to get up. so by the time I did get to sleep in that first night, there wasn't enoughf time to hook me up to a CPAP machine and to get it adjusted. When I went back for the second night, I was a little more used to my surroundings and that's when they finally got me set up with a machine. Well, I've rambled on enough for now, take care and good luck on your continued success with CPAP therapy. Oh and, sleep well, (Ha-Ha-Ha.)