Screenshots to verify I am reading SleepyHead correctly?

[Sleepster]

ShelaghDB, if I were you I'd set the machine in auto mode with a minimum pressure of 10 and a maximum pressure of 13.

Do you know why your machine was originally set at 10 instead of 13?

[ShelaghDB]

RobySue:

Thank you. I will read that again tomorrow but I'm quite comfortable with your suggestions and will do these over the next few weeks to see how it goes.
Yes it was "hellish" what i experienced last week but I was being hit by too many things at once. Too Fast too sudden.
Your suggestions don't strike me that way.

Yes you are right about the titration being 13

As for the time and the spikes you ask of
I would have still been awake. I tend to go to bed about 12:30'ish turn on the TV, read the news on my phone, check may calendar, all the things one is NOT supposed to do............and then usually about 40 mins later i get up one more time, visit the loo quickly and come back to bed...and then usually that time about 10 mins later i will go to sleep

i used to sleep longer, until about 9:30 am so i would get my time but with the sudden onslaught of hot weather, the city comes alive a lot earlier and I am being awakened earlier by sounds I haven't heard since last summer, namely a house being built right next door.
I keep telling myself i will go to bed and start the process at 10pm but so far i haven't made it here yet. Here it is and i am still putzing around

Anyhow yes so likely around 3am or so i think i got up one more time for 2-3 minutes, I think...........and then i woke up very early.

Yesterday I went back to bed when I woke up at 6am or so. I didn't meant to but i did until about 10:45--and that was the reason I slept so little last night.

No Zonk, not the medication u mention but I assumed someone would try to put those two together. The medication itself is rather unimportant. They are unimportant in that i am aware of them but they are not critical.

Thanks again robysue and now i finally know what i need to do.........up until now, I wasn't sure but now i am.
Thanks again. I hope it works out as easily as you make it sound

[Gabby]

Sorry Shelagh, I may have missed it but was your AHI when you went for your sleep study?

[zonk]

No Zonk, not the medication u mention but I assumed someone would try to put those two together. The medication itself is rather unimportant. They are unimportant in that i am aware of them but they are not critical.

You also wrote: 'I am also on temporary medication that can create central apneas so I also have to be aware of them spiking and am watching for that reason too'

Mayo clinic article saying opiate drugs can causes central apnea, your apneas are obstructive, not centrals

[ShelaghDB]

Do you know why your machine was originally set at 10 instead of 13?

No sireee.........you have me on that one. I too assumed it was 13. Imagine my surprise to discover it was only at 10 ;-)

Very interesting that you do mention that. After writing the sentence above, I decided to go look and you are right, my prescription is actually at 13 although higher numbers are mentioned, as shown below.

Why is it I am not surprised that after dealing with the doctor that i did, and the company that set me up with the equipment, are, I think, perhaps owned by him and a few other doctors.......that they couldn't even get the prescription right.

Not sure IF the number 10 rather than 13 would have made much difference?
Makes you wonder though. Had we not discovered that and I did not purchase the Auto Set if I would ever have known they set it incorrectly? LOL




When the doctor kept saying No to my wanting the AutoSet, at one point i offered to pay the balance IF there was one but he immediately wrote something about paying for it in full if i wanted it. LOL







In any event, that was a good spot there..........I never would have remembered that it actually said 13 on the prescription. For some reason I just thought he had told me that, hence, I never thought to double check it.
Good Catch!! ;-)

To be honest, I can't even imagine HOW they checked me for not one mask worked for me that night. Each one had high leakage and she was quite frustrated with them.
At one point she came into the room pleading with me to get at least one more hour sleep of it wouldn't work so I did try but by that time, she had changed my mask about 10 x or taped it tighter and i had a headache by this time it was so tight but it was the only way she could get some of the leakage to go away but no one would have slept like that normally.
She pleaded with me for one more hour and put me on my side. I honestly don't recall sleeping but just lying there trying to sleep cuz air was blowing into my eye, or something and finally i just pulled the cord and said I was done.

The irony was that Kevins slept like a baby all the way through that night but for some reason they considered his titration a failure.

[robysue]

RobySue:

Thank you. I will read that again tomorrow but I'm quite comfortable with your suggestions and will do these over the next few weeks to see how it goes.
Yes it was "hellish" what i experienced last week but I was being hit by too many things at once. Too Fast too sudden.
Your suggestions don't strike me that way.

Yes, you had too many changes too fast. You don't need to risk that again. In several weeks after you are really and truly comfortable with everything, you can always do a cautious experiment with APAP.

But for now, I'd be skittish about doing anything that might mess up the subjective quality of the sleep.

As for the time and the spikes you ask of
I would have still been awake. I tend to go to bed about 12:30'ish turn on the TV, read the news on my phone, check may calendar, all the things one is NOT supposed to do............and then usually about 40 mins later i get up one more time, visit the loo quickly and come back to bed...and then usually that time about 10 mins later i will go to sleep

And the mask is on all this time???

Simply learn to discount all events scored during the times you know for sure that you are AWAKE with the mask on. Wake breathing is not at all as regular as sleep breathing is, and wake breathing is often falsely scored as sleep disordered breathing events when someone has the mask on for long periods of time when they are awake.

If you are often using the machine while awake (on the chance that you might just settle down and fall asleep), then keeping a diary with the times you know you are a wake and the times when you think you probably were asleep might be a good idea.

Also---if you have the mask on when you are awake AND the machine is scoring "false" events, that might just explain part of why the AutoSet felt so hellish: It was probably drastically increasing the pressure at what felt like random times for no good reason.

I want to stress that there is nothing wrong with using the machine while you are awake but in bed. And it's better to have the machine on when you are awake if you know that you are prone to either suddenly falling asleep or if you simply want the freedom to turn the light out and snuggle down without any additional "fuss" when you're ready to sleep. But you do need to discount any clusters of events scored during the times you know for sure that you were awake and using the machine.

[Sleepster]

Not sure IF the number 10 rather than 13 would have made much difference?

Heck yes! It'll make a huge difference. The reason your AHI is so high now is because your pressure is so low.

My advice is to set the machine in auto mode with a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 13.

The only reason not to do this is if you've had a history of not being able to tolerate the higher pressure.

Setting the EPR to its maximum of 3 will help you tolerate the higher pressure.

[ShelaghDB]

Not sure IF the number 10 rather than 13 would have made much difference?

Heck yes! It'll make a huge difference. The reason your AHI is so high now is because your pressure is so low.

My advice is to set the machine in auto mode with a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 13.

The only reason not to do this is if you've had a history of not being able to tolerate the higher pressure.

Setting the EPR to its maximum of 3 will help you tolerate the higher pressure.

I was going to give that a shot last night and tonight and if it didn't work well, id go back to the other plan but right now my machine is not recording data so I have just unplugged it to see if that will reset it.

I did put it at least to 11 last night just to see but without the data recorded I can't yet tell if there was any change or not

So on hold until then

[Sleepster]

I did put it at least to 11 last night just to see but without the data recorded I can't yet tell if there was any change or not

Keep it on 11 and see how you feel. You don't want to keep making changes.

You see no data in both SleepyHead and ResScan?

[ShelaghDB]

I did put it at least to 11 last night just to see but without the data recorded I can't yet tell if there was any change or not

Keep it on 11 and see how you feel. You don't want to keep making changes.

You see no data in both SleepyHead and ResScan?

I can see data in Rescan for last night except funnily enough i seem to be taking it off 3 hours into my sleep.

For some reason I am waking up and telling myself its morning, taking it off and falling back to sleep and then shocked when i do finally wake up and its no longer on my head

I have a feeling even the slight move up to 11 is more uncomfortable so I am taking it off........but it is too soon to say yet.
I need a couple more nights on it to see if I will settle in on 11