Yet Another Newbie

[DonC]

Hello Everyone,
I have been taking Chemo for about six years and have always blamed it, and the other meds I am forced to take, for the tiredness that I experience everyday. That tiredness has resulted in acts such as falling asleep in my dinner to taking the mirror off my car as I fell asleep driving. About four weeks ago I eventually took a sleep test which showed that I had Apnea, I think I have suffered from it for many years, and had 72 instances of stopping breathing for over 10 seconds every hour. I don't know all the other numbers but I will. I have already learned a tremendous amount from this forum but more importantly I have learned what questions to ask.
I have to say that I am a little disappointed because I started on my new ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset eight nights ago and am still having an average of 12 - 13 episodes an hour, last nights was 17.9. Even so I have to say that I feel better but from what I have heard I think I should be doing better.
The Simplus mask feels comfortable, I do not think I am having too many leaks and I am sleeping a good number of hours. My ResMed Dashboard scores are an average of 96.5 and nearly all the points lost are because of the events per hour so I am a little frustrated.
Any comments or advice will be gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

Don

[OpalRose]

Welcome to the Forum DonC,

I see from the Software Support Forum that you have tried to install Sleepyhead with no success.
Hang in there as someone will be able to walk you through that .

Once you get that installed, then you can post a screenshot for us to look at. We should be able to help you lower that AHI, buy will need to look at some data in order to make any recommendations.

[PaytonA]

You have found a very good place. I know that most of us are data junkies to some extent but try not to be. The important thing is to feel better.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

[cate1898]

Welcome DonC! For what it's worth, my sleep doc told me it can take 6 months or more to really reap the benefits of therapy for sleep apnea. So keep at it and it will get better in time!

[justMongo]

The reason for using software is to look at what type of apneas are being scored, how well leaks are controlled, what the pressure is at time of an event, et cetera.

Sometimes, when beginning therapy, pressure induces clear airway apneas that diminish with time.

Don't be frustrated. Like many things, it can take time to reap the benefits.

[PoolQ]

Yes, please focus on getting us some charts to look at. There are a lot of people here that will provide you some good feedback once they can see what is going on

[trish6hundred]

Hi DonC,WELCOME! to the forum.!
It can take some time before you notice improvement, so just stick with it and don’t give up.
Hang in there for more responses to your post and much success to you with your CPAP therapy.

[DonC]

Thanks everybody. Your welcome and support are really helping.
I am a bit surprised about the 8 posts rule before you can post a picture as I would believe it is the newbies who need that kind of help.
The forum is unbelievable, as is Sleepyhead and I really believe that with all your help I will get through this and start to enjoy life again. I am not saying it has been horrible but it could have been so much better.
Thanks again, I will get the eight posts sent quickly and get back to you with the information.
Don

[DonC]

Hi Everyone,
Just so that I don't create a problem I want to post some information that I must thank SuperSleeper for. The 8 post rule is not strictly true. Please see the quote from SuperSleepers post.

as a brand new member, you can use the attachment feature to attach a pic to your post, new members are limited to 200 kb attachment sizes, once you transition to a standard "member" (after 8 posts), that will go up to a 512 kb attachment size limit.

Or (at the point you transition to a regular member (after 8 posts), you can upload your images elsewhere on the web and link to them in your post either as a direct link or an embedded image (instructions here).

Sorry for the confusion.

Don

[SuperSleeper]

I am a bit surprised about the 8 posts rule before you can post a picture as I would believe it is the newbies who need that kind of help.

Hi Don, you can post a picture as a brand new member by using the attachment feature. (It's only links to pics or websites that are limited for members with less than 8 posts).

Keep in mind though that there are limits on file size when posting pics as attachments, as explained in this post:

Your total attachment storage is limited depending on your level of membership (found just above your avatar and below your username; also found on your profile)

New Members: 200 kb
Members: 512 kb
Preferred Members: 600 kb
Wiki Editors: 700 kb
Advisory Members: 1024 kb

So you may need to use some image editing software to reduce the size of the image file you attach (in order to get below the file size limits above).

* The reason we limit links for brand new members is because of the proliferation of spammers who create an account in order to quickly post spam links.