Newbie

[Ripandsnort]

New just yesterday to the board. Started using machine one week ago and feeling great. Just wondering how people know their nightly readings and all the letters like AHI.....I learn fast so hoping not to bore ya'll.
TOM

[trish6hundred]

Hi Ripandsnort,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Great to hear that you are doing well with your CPAP therapy.
Hang in there for suggestions and best of luck to you.

[herbm]

RipandSnort,

Welcome, we are both newbies and more or less share a CPAP "birthday" of about a week ago.

We also both "learn fast" and there is quite a bit to learn and you probably want to know it all now -- that's not possible but it is possible to get up to speed pretty fast if you concentrate first on your own machine and issues.

You have a "Resmed c series" machine listed as you equipment -- being new also, I am not familiar enough with machines nomenclature to be certain but as least one "Bipap" or bilevel machine fits that name. (I use an S9 but there are multiple versions of that SERIES with different capabilities.)

Someone with expertise in your machine will likely respond but while waiting try to find the VERY specific model of machine just in case there is more than one in that series.

My Resmed Autoset has data on an SDCard for download AND it shows the AHI on the screen when I turn off the air flow on waking. (by pressing Info button.)

The advanced machine, if if yours is a Bipap, have detail data collection, but most machines will show you at least usage and maybe your daily AHI.

But you also list a "CPAP" pressure of "9" which implies either a simple single pressure CPAP machine set to 9 or a more advanced machine running in the CPAP mode. 9 is a fairly low number and my guess is that most docs who prescribed an advanced machine would have set a RANGE for a new person.

What were your sleep study numbers? Many of us have requested our "Sleep Study" (at least the summary form) from our sleep docs so that we can review our own status and learn about CPAP using our own data.

If you took two sleep studies then the first one is usually the "diagnostic" to determine if you have apnea, which if boiled down to one number it is the Apnea-Hypopnea Index or AHI.

This is in EVENTS (either apneas or no breathing, and hypopneas or reduced breathing that causes your oxygen saturation to decrease a certain amount without your breathing completely stopping.)

Somewhat arbitrarily AHI less than 5 is considered normal, up to 14.9 is mild, up to 29.9 is moderate apnea, and after 30 is "severe sleep apnea". They don't bother with "Very severe" or "extreme" after 45 or 60 but many people here have AHI in those ranges. FYI: My servere AHI 49 is NOT even close to the highest you will find among people here.

This is how many times you are likely waking or at best being roused partially from sleep EACH HOUR so 30 means about every 2 minutes and you wouldn't be getting much good sleep.

Another measure that is used is the RID or Respiratory Disturbance Index.

You might wish to read the Wikipedia article on "sleep apnea" (as opposed to just "apnea" in general) if you haven't yet. There isn't a lot there but it is organized pretty well as a starter.

For collecting data and reviewing it you need one with an SDCard or other option to move it to your computer.

SleepyHead is free software located on SourceForge.net that allows for data download, review, and storage on your computer. Rescan (for Resmed machines) is proprietary software that does much the same but in a slightly different format. I use both and find each has strengths and weaknesses but either one alone WOULD be SUFFICIENT.

There is a thread elsewhere on this board for requesting a download link.

Rescan 4.3 is the current version that you want.

It isn't allowed for me to post links to other commercial sites (where many glossaries are located) so try this search on Google: [b]cpap apnea ~glossary ~terms | ~acronyms[\b]

I recommend you review your stats (if you machine has this capability) daily (at least for a while). It will help you learn to read and interpret the numbers if you start looking at it, figuring it out, and posting questions or screen shots to ask for help in the interpretation.

Knowing your progress from your diagnostic values can be a giant motivator or lead you to seeking assistance on problems that might be interfering with you receiving effective therapy.

Also not that almost all of our machines (even the advanced ones without adding expensive sensors that few people have) do NOT measure oxygen saturation and none of them measure EEG which can actually tell if you are awake or not.

We must DEDUCE of INFER that we are having disturbances from the raw apnea scores and by estimating our wake/sleep status from our breathing rate etc. (or by noting when we are lying awake trying to fall asleep of course.)

There are also advance manuals for many machines available (for the asking) on this forum.

My personal goal is to start with a 30 day full compliance, not only using it at least 4 hours per day but also using it for every sleep session without exception.

Good luck, and I urge you to use your machine for all, or as much as possible, of your attempts to sleep.

Does that help?

Let us know what we can help you learn -- there are a LOT of people here who know far more than I do at this point and they are very helpful.

[zonk]

New just yesterday to the board. Started using machine one week ago and feeling great. Just wondering how people know their nightly readings and all the letters like AHI.....I learn fast so hoping not to bore ya'll.
TOM

Hi Ripandsnort, welcome aboard
Machine reading can be accessed on the machine LCD and SD card, some machines just shows hours used and some are data capable machines shows hours used plus efficacy data
User profile shows "Machine: Remstar c series", we need to know the exact name of the machine to be able telling whether the machine is data capable or not

http://www.apneaboard.com/cpap-machine-p...espironics

Once you know the exact model, some clinical manuals are available by direct download (section two) or email (section three)
http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-pr...tup-manual

[Gabby]

Welcome Tom, great news to hear you are feeling so good after a few days. I start treatment this week and that's what I hope to be saying on this forum this time next week.
I am 99% sure your questions will be answered by the good people on this forum.
Keep up the good work and continue to sleep well.