Please Help! AHI high after 30 days

[Pugsy]

Give these settings a couple more nights of trial and then try turning off Flex and see what happens.

[hdclassic4466]

Will do. I'll report back in a couple of days.

[hdclassic4466]

graphs 4-30 to 5-2

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4-30.PNG (113.97 KiB) Viewed 1361 times

5-2.PNG (112.43 KiB) Viewed 1361 times

The 4/30 graph, I had an alcoholic drink and my wife has been sick so was up a lot through the night. I feel better than I have, like I'm getting better rest. Minimum pressure is at 8 with flex of 1.

[hdclassic4466]

Only had 1 OA event last night, and I don't think that was real because I was awake and getting out of bed at the time it shows.

Pugsy- Please advise. Thanks.

[Pugsy]

Have you tried Flex turned off?

[hdclassic4466]

No not yet, go ahead and turn the flex off and keep min setting of 8?

[Pugsy]

I like to keep variables to a minimum unless there is an urgent need to change more than one thing at a time.

I think you need a bit more minimum pressure but turning Flex off also increases the overall average just a bit because the drop during exhale gets eliminated.

So that's why I would just make the one change for right now.

[Barb (Seattle)]

Did you have a sleep study done in a lab where they hooked you up to the mask and machine?
Or did you have just some sort of diagnostic sleep study (home or in lab...which kind???) and sent home with apap to sort out the pressure needs?

When is your follow up appointment scheduled? Do you have one? If not...make one.

I don't know what to think about your central apnea/Clear Airway flagged events at this time for various reasons...one we don't know if they are real or not and we don't know if they are real if you had them on the diagnostic sleep study or not...or if they just popped up because of cpap itself.
There's a lot that we don't know for sure but one thing we do know for sure...the obstructive side of your sleep apnea is not optimally treated just yet.

So let's try to fix what we can fix with this machine and see what's left after the obstructive side of things is better managed.

Try minimum of 8 BUT turn Flex off if you can do it off comfortably...if you can't try just reducing it to 1.

Turning off Flex might...stress might...reduce the centrals but only if Flex is the cause of them and they are real and not SWJ. Chances are slim but not impossible.
Increasing the minimum might help reduce centrals only if the centrals are post arousal centrals because the OAs are causing arousals.

Edit...I see you had a home study....do you know the name of it? Have a copy of those results?
Did you wear anything around your chest or abdomen?

//side note/// feel like I"m looking at my old readout pugsy....// she helped me figure out my problems....thank you for that pugsy

[hdclassic4466]

I greatly appreciate your help/guidance Pugsy. I had a lot of meetings today at work so I kept the settings to what I have for last night. Feel pretty good today, had an overall AHI 5.8. I'll turn that flex off over the weekend and report back with my sleepyhead chart/AHI number.

[hdclassic4466]

Thanks Barb for the side note, I'm encouraged and feel much better than I had. Probably would have given up on it if Pugsy hadn't gotten involved so am really grateful for the guidance.

[hdclassic4466]

Update: Turning Flex off resulted in a pretty miserable night. I woke up after about 2 hours of sleep, the pressure kept blowing my mouth open and was causing my stomach to be full of gas. I stuck with my normal routine that I did all week, no alcohol and reasonable bed time. I didn't sleep well and I can tell today. I also switched from the nasal pillows to the cushion because I have developed a sore in one of my nostrils (from getting used to the pillows). I turned the flex back on at 2:15am, but think the damage was already done and my AHI was shot at that point. Check out the graph.

5-5 flex off.PNG (119.18 KiB) Viewed 1297 times

[hdclassic4466]

increased minimum pressure to 8.5, AHI getting lower and I'm feeling better. slept with the nasal cushion last night, doesn't look like that affects the AHI any as this is the lowest it's ever been!

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[palerider]

see those spikes? the places where there *aren't* spikes are areas where there's room for improvement.

When you're sleeping really good, your type of machine gets bored and restless, and starts looking for something to do... it's a good sign.

[hdclassic4466]

Awesome, thanks Palerider for the explanation. I'm already feeling much better than a week ago.

[hdclassic4466]

getting lower

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