Rank Newbie

[Doza]

I ended up swapping back up to the small pillows last night from XS, and my AHI is the lowest it's been since I hitched myself up to my new friend. The leaks are also reduced in severity if not frequency.

[Doza]

Been getting what I interpreted as patchy results since my last post (those graphs are up on Imgur should anyone wish to take a look and make an assessment), and was getting a bit frustrated with it all.  I was also finding myself with hose prints on my arm and chest from trying (and failing) to get comfortable back in my natural sleep positions on my tummy and sides with my lovely, trusty old latex pillow.  I would butt my forehead or cheek up against the edge of the pillow and assume the classic dead body chalk outline position before CPAP.  With a hose on my face, it isn't the same. Not even close.
So I chose a thin memory foam pillow with the different edges for necky people.
The results below reflect the success of that decision.  It's the best to date by far. They would have been even better had I not had to completely remove the mask not long after getting into bed, to reposition it because something was amiss.  Once that issue was resolved, the bliss of side and tummy sleep even exceeded the annoyance at having been allotted a mere sliver of bedspace to try out the new pillow.
Totally worth the quite severe mask marks on my face this morning




It's been ten nights on PAP.  Here are the things I've noticed so far.  
Firstly, the fatigue and morning fog are still very much present. No change there at all. Early days.
However in relation to sleep itself, two things.
I'm not napping.  The two times I tried in earnest resulted in no sleep, and poor results on Sleepyhead. I give up on that.  I'm still tired and really really want to nap, but I don't want to be frustrated and still tired afterwards, plus I hate the way it truncates my Sleephead graphs.
Finally, I'm going to bed more intuitively. When I feel tired at night, I'll even leave a TV show or good book halfway through.  Unheard of!  
So things are starting to happen, which is awesome.

The thing I noticed right from the titration study was that I can tolerate extended periods on my back with a machine, which hasn't been the case without one for many years.  That's awesome, but it also allows more events through the night, which was the main reason I changed pillows.  I figured that if I'm doing this, then why stay on my back when it's still the least beneficial position in relation to allowing events to happen?  I'm glad that even way back then, I knew it was going to help, though. 

Oh, I bought a surge protector too.

[Walla Walla]

You have a lot of flow limitations going on through the night. It might be disturbing your sleep. You could try increasing your minimum pressure up 1cm and see if that cuts out some of the flow limitations and help you sleep better.

[Doza]

Thanks, WW. Does that mean I'm not breathing properly, or something's kinking externally? Or does it mean that the machine is picking up unfinished breaths, either in or out?
I can visually, via graphs, get some idea of how to generally see what's going and make comparisons, but I'm still a bit in the dark as to what those words actually mean..

[Walla Walla]

A flow limitation as reported by your machine is like a OA or H on a smaller scale. They either don't close off the airway long enough or don't close the airway enough to be classified as an event.

[Doza]

Ah, thank you. I've been trying to find a plain English explanation. That makes perfect sense I'll go and change that up and see what happens.

[Sleeprider]

Doza, we don't generally treat for flow limitations, but your machine does increase pressure when they occur, since they can be an indicator of pending OA events. The machine is doing its job in that regard for you. If you want to zoom in on the flow rate during periods of flow limitation, you will see a flattened inhale wave-form. Instead of a smooth peak, it is flat or downward sloping. This shows that as the inhale progresses flow rate is slowed, usually by upper airway restriction.

A suggestion for you. Get a fleece hose cover. No more hose snake marks, just a warm soft feel. It is perhaps one of the cheapest and best comfort items you can get.

[Doza]

Ah, thank you, SR. I think I can knock a cover up easily enough.
Yes, I see what you mean about the flow rate thing. Glad the machine is doing its job then!

[Doza]

Still bumbling through the data.  Tonight begins my third week and, while I'm not having any problems with actually doing this therapy, I'm finding more things are cropping up in this process of myself and my bed adjusting to it, if the data is anything to go by.

No worries getting to sleep, but the leaks seem more severe thanks to something I'm doing in my sleep.  I'm consciously not having any problems with the pressure, although who knows what I get up to in my sleep. Whatever I'm doing I seem to be resolving the leaks without waking up.
No discomfort with the mask at all, seldom waking through the night
I'll be travelling for a few days next month, and am hopeful of things being a little bit more consistent for that before I go.
I wonder if it's time to try the other pillow mask - I have a Swift FX in reserve which has the two separate straps.
Here are the last two nights of data.

[HalfAsleep]

On the hose hugging issue...I have turned my hose into a good buddy. I got a hose cover from  SnuggleHose. I debated about the print, but finally settled on the candy cane design. Yeppers, my hose looks like a gigantic candy cane. It's a nice high quality fleece, too. After this, I never had to worry about where the hose was so I wouldn't have to bump into it. The fuzz also helped the hose not slide off pillows, etc. I drape it on the pillows exactly where I want it.