[Pressure] New to CPAP - obviously questions :-)

[sheepless]

I'm no expert but here's how I would respond to your post #20.

if you're feeling well, you're avg ahi is pretty good and you could leave well enough alone.

if you want to try to reduce the number of events, do as WW said: raise min epap to head off flow limitations, snores, hypopnea and oa and try a soft cervical collar to reduce clusters of events.

since your ipap is still reaching max: if your ipap can go higher, you might try it. ~20cm produced periodic breathing and ca in one of your posted charts - that may be a fluke but higher ipap could make that worse. in other charts you had pb and ca at lower pressures so they might not be pressure related. if you do see pb and ca on more nights at 20cm and higher, you might reduce max back to 19.

the collar and higher epap alone should result in less obstructed breathing.

[ShaunBlake]

Little update after 2 months of CPAP and 3 weeks  of the new pressures:
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the collar and higher epap alone should result in less obstructed breathing.

mayuh, I'd like to add to what sheepless said and urge you to turn off the pie chart.  I think it is confusing you because it shows only "events" other than good sleep.  When you focus on the events themselves it's clear that your therapy is pretty effective.  Eg. last night's chart shows that your O, H, and CA numbers are really pretty good.  But that pie chart makes it look like things are out of control.  Maybe a better way to put my suggestion is to focus on the most important things: your feeling of well-being, and the critical events.

Hope that helps.

[mayuh]

Hey! Thanks for your suggestions ;-) I’m obviously new and eager to learn. Thus I give it (too) much room in my life. For now... ;-)

True, i shouldn’t pay too much attention on that pie chart, yet I love math and statistics. Lol! Yeah, well-being is back, that’s all that matters. Still - I’m curious how to counter/attack H, OA, CA and FLs. As I said I used to be more the pilot than the passenger ;-)

Gotta order a collar and some good food/drinks and enjoy my new life ;-)

[mayuh]

...you'd never knew what mental powers can do :-) 

My last 3 nights, just enjoying life, breathing -- and exactly Zero Fs given:

[Sleeprider]

Looks real good Mayuh. What BiFlex setting are you using?

My next post will be to turn it to a lower setting or off.

[mayuh]

It says Biflex, flex 1 - never ever messed with that. What does it do?

Thanks,
Mario.

[Sleeprider]

Try turning BiFlex off. You never know, but it is considered a comfort setting that anticipates your respiration and drops pressure just ahead of exhale and raised it just ahead of inhale. What I noticed is that your Sleepyhead statistics show a longer inhale than exhale. I'm thinking the machine gets the timing wrong and you'd do better without BiFlex. This is where Resmed does a better job because it doesn't anticipate trigger and cycle, and the sensitivity for trigger and cycle is adjustable. It's complicated, so give this a try and let's see what you get.

[mayuh]

ok, so I tried to turn biflex off for 4 days. Subjectively I didn't sleep too well, also my AHI "raised" to about 4 - this night I turned biflex on again, to maybe see a difference... Yes, it worked better: AHI under 1 (Yeah!) and I feel more rested.

Also the machine keeps me on lower pressures for longer time with biflex on.

Do you see anything that might have impacted sleep quality without biflex? Or maybe I'm just a biflex guy :-)

Thanks for all your time and advice,
Mario.

[Sleeprider]

Response to Biflex is mostly personal preference. Sounds like you have enough experience to make a personal decision on its use. I generally found a setting of 1 was better for me than off or higher settings. Experimenting is really the only way to know.

[mayuh]

Thanks for the compliment! Experience of 2.5 months LOL! :-) But I think I made awesome progress from AHI 86.2 to <3 -- next step is sleep lab in 6 weeks. And my explaination why I changed my therapy on my own. Doctors here don't like that... but with that low AHI they can't rant/contradict in my opinion... :-)