djam's therapy thread

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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djams
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Sat May 18, 2019 12:56 pm

zonker wrote:
Sat May 18, 2019 12:28 pm
djams wrote:
Sat May 18, 2019 11:39 am

Thanks zonker!

But I gotta tell you - Pugsy's alien's are not thwarted by physical barriers! I'm counting on my Bleep army to fight them off! :lol: :lol:
yeah, judging by the avatar, you're all in with the bleep!
I'm in up to my nose! :lol:

Yes - the Bleep is the one for sure. You've probably noticed that I like to try different masks. ;-). Awhile back, resmed came out with the P30i - and with just a little research, I discovered that I could switch my N30i to a P30i for $30 bucks. All I had to do was by the pillows. So, "I'm going to give that a try!. Since using the Bleep, I've learned how to tape my mouth. Bet I could make this work."

So, placed order at CPAP.com and started wearing the N30i that very night - wanted to get used to the headgear. Wore it for 2 hours the first night - gave up and taped on some DreamPorts. Soldiered on and got to sleep in a reasonable amount of time the next. Wore it for four nights, and I felt like crap. Then, I got home on the 5th day, and the pillow sling had arrived. "sigh... allright, I'll try it". Was just one more night of misery. I was exhausted. Leaks, and just not sleeping soundly. I felt like I was wearing a jousting helmet! :lol: :lol:

So yeah - I'm all in with the DreamPort. :D

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babydinosnoreless
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by babydinosnoreless » Sat May 18, 2019 10:23 pm

zonker wrote:
Sat May 18, 2019 11:20 am
and just lock the bedroom windows tight and don't let those aliens in.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
[/quote]

The last time I joked about pugsys aliens the flu alien visited
me and I spent the night praying to the porcelain god. Never again will I volunteer to take on those suckers. :lol:

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djams
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 7:14 am

I feel the need to chronicle the result of the all the help I've gotten here over the past year. Don't think that my last post captured just how effective the help I've gotten here has been.

So, here are djams therapy highlights (literally). :lol: The big events that took place along the way - my big milestones.

04/24/2018 - (pink). Started therapy. Though I was fully aware that SleepyHead existed, I made the decision to just "use the machine". When my AHI started reaching 8 to nearly 10, I dug out an SD card and put it in the machine and installed SleepyHead.

06/27/2018 - (yellow). Started this thread. You can clearly see that the high AHI's got nipped in the bud pretty quickly. Nearly immediate improvement. I had struggles and mis-steps along the way, but there was always someone popping in here to help.

12/29/2018 - (purple). Pugsy spots my thread querying how to switch from FFM to pillows, PM's me, and a few days later I've got a Swift/FX nasal pillow mask. This had an immediate and dramatic impact. Look what happened to my FL's, AHI and pressure needs. I quickly figured out that I could drop my MIN pressure. Went from 12cm to 9cm. But as you can see in the large leak graph - I was having a problem with leaks. Large leaks for extended periods.

02/08/2019 - (green). Along comes the Bleep DreamPort. I got involved in the pre-release testing. Once I realized that the Bleep just doesn't leak, it made it easy (almost) for me to come up with a mouth taping method that works. With the DreamPort I've dropped my min pressure another 2cm - now down to 7, and my AHI has never been better. But it's the nearly leak-free sleep that's making the big difference at the present time. My mini-arousals throughout the night are way down. I can see this clearly in my flow rate charts.

Masks used during these periods:
Pink - Airfit F20(< 2 weeks), AirTouch F20
Yellow - AirTouch F20, DreamWear FFM, AirTouch F20, AirFit F30
Purple - Swift/FX , P10, Dreamwear with gel pillows, Dreamwear with nasal cushion, N30i
Green - DreamPort
TherapyHighlights.png
TherapyHighlights.png (127.78 KiB) Viewed 3062 times

MyAir leak chart:
Screenshot_20190525-075512_myAir15%.png
Screenshot_20190525-075512_myAir15%.png (25.39 KiB) Viewed 3062 times
Here's my AHI ever the past 30-ish days:
2019-05-24_16-38-02.png
2019-05-24_16-38-02.png (20.78 KiB) Viewed 3062 times

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Machine: ResMed AirSense™ 10 AutoSet™ CPAP Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
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Last edited by djams on Tue May 28, 2019 4:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Pugsy
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by Pugsy » Sat May 25, 2019 7:25 am

Congratulations.
Little things add up to big improvements in both numbers and how we sleep and how we feel.
Doesn't get much better than that.

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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by babydinosnoreless » Sat May 25, 2019 9:07 am

djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:14 am
by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 6:14 am

I feel the need to chronicle the result of the all the help I've gotten here over the past year. Don't think that my last post captured just how effective the help I've gotten here has been.
Very nice. I am jealous of your very low pressure! :)

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Miss Emerita
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by Miss Emerita » Sat May 25, 2019 10:23 am

Wow! And aren’t we lucky to be part of such a great online community?
Oscar software is available at https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by zonker » Sat May 25, 2019 11:02 am

i'm telling you guys, this fellow is the actual poster boy for cpap therapy!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

seriously, we should shunt newbies over to this thread to show them
a) what good solid therapy can do for a person and
b) how much work the end user has to do to get there.

obviously, i agree strongly with miss emerita. this is a great and helpful community.

in the end, though, it's djams that has trod the path.

congratulations, my man!
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
Oscar-Win
https://www.apneaboard.com/OSCAR/OSCAR-1.5.1-Win64.exe
Oscar-Mac
https://www.apneaboard.com/OSCAR/OSCAR-1.5.1.dmg

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djams
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 4:50 pm

Pugsy wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:25 am
Congratulations.
Little things add up to big improvements in both numbers and how we sleep and how we feel.
Doesn't get much better than that.
Thanks Pugsy.

I've gotta single you out here. Quite honestly, if you hadn't sent me that pillow mask, there's a good chance I'd be sitting here right now still "thinkin' about it". :lol:

And you got me into the Bleep trial too! Not to mention all the sound advice and words of wisdom along the way. Thank you. Thank you. :D

You're a gem.

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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 5:11 pm

babydinosnoreless wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 9:07 am
djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:14 am
by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 6:14 am

I feel the need to chronicle the result of the all the help I've gotten here over the past year. Don't think that my last post captured just how effective the help I've gotten here has been.
Very nice. I am jealous of your very low pressure! :)
I got really lucky that the switch to pillows had that effect for me. It just makes everything easier. Evidently, the FFM lower straps were causing me a lot of unnecessary problems. It didn't seem to me that I was over-tightening them.

_________________
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Additional Comments: Backup machine: AirSense 10 AutoSet with all the fixins

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djams
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 5:21 pm

Miss Emerita wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 10:23 am
Wow! And aren’t we lucky to be part of such a great online community?
Yes, lucky indeed! And that's really what my post was about. I've said it before - I seriously doubt that I'd ever have gotten here without CPAPTalk - heck might as well admit, I'd have *never* gotten here. Relying on my sleep doc's operation? Pshaw.

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djams
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 5:32 pm

zonker wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 11:02 am
i'm telling you guys, this fellow is the actual poster boy for cpap therapy!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

seriously, we should shunt newbies over to this thread to show them
a) what good solid therapy can do for a person and
b) how much work the end user has to do to get there.

obviously, i agree strongly with miss emerita. this is a great and helpful community.

in the end, though, it's djams that has trod the path.

congratulations, my man!
Thanks pal!

Don't know about the poster boy part, all I did was listen to all the great advice I was getting, and tried to do as instructed. Will admit that I am willing to try just about anything. I am the guy that ordererd an adult pacifier to see if it would help with mouth breathing. :lol: :lol: That's going to be in my Amazon order history forever. :lol: Besides, 29 pages is a lot to expect folks to read. Seems like the "Newbies read this before posting" is too long to hold the attention of some.

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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by babydinosnoreless » Sat May 25, 2019 5:57 pm

djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 5:11 pm
babydinosnoreless wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 9:07 am
djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:14 am
by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 6:14 am

I feel the need to chronicle the result of the all the help I've gotten here over the past year. Don't think that my last post captured just how effective the help I've gotten here has been.
Very nice. I am jealous of your very low pressure! :)
I got really lucky that the switch to pillows had that effect for me. It just makes everything easier. Evidently, the FFM lower straps were causing me a lot of unnecessary problems. It didn't seem to me that I was over-tightening them.
I don't know why these sleep places send us off with these full face masks without even giving us a chance to try other things. Pugsy was right it sending us both the nasal route. :D

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djams
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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 6:45 pm

babydinosnoreless wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 5:57 pm
djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 5:11 pm
babydinosnoreless wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 9:07 am
djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:14 am
by djams » Sat May 25, 2019 6:14 am

I feel the need to chronicle the result of the all the help I've gotten here over the past year. Don't think that my last post captured just how effective the help I've gotten here has been.
Very nice. I am jealous of your very low pressure! :)
I got really lucky that the switch to pillows had that effect for me. It just makes everything easier. Evidently, the FFM lower straps were causing me a lot of unnecessary problems. It didn't seem to me that I was over-tightening them.
I don't know why these sleep places send us off with these full face masks without even giving us a chance to try other things. Pugsy was right it sending us both the nasal route. :D
I've got to sheepishly admit that I share the blame. They brought me a nasal mask along with all the FFM's. When she picked it up, I held up the "stop hand", and said "don't even bother, I'm a helpless mouth breather".

And really, I still am. Getting rid of the mouth tape is really the only thing left that I'd like to accomplish. I know that when I do give it a try, my sleep will suffer. But hey, I've finally trained myself to side sleep - it took a year. Maybe next year around this time I'll give it a try. :lol:

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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by AMC4x4 » Wed May 29, 2019 5:57 pm

djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:14 am
02/08/2019 - (green). Along comes the Bleep DreamPort. I got involved in the pre-release testing. Once I realized that the Bleep just doesn't leak, it made it easy (almost) for me to come up with a mouth taping method that works. With the DreamPort I've dropped my min pressure another 2cm - now down to 7, and my AHI has never been better. But it's the nearly leak-free sleep that's making the big difference at the present time. My mini-arousals throughout the night are way down. I can see this clearly in my flow rate charts.
Wow. Just wow. Look at those results. Congratulations!

I've been using the Swift LT for years. Have tried a few other masks but haven't been able to sleep comfortably with them. Just figured I'd have to deal with air leaks (I almost always have times of significant air leakage). Maybe I will try the DreamPort and see if I can get used to it. My numbers look very similar to your purple numbers.

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Re: djam's therapy thread

Post by djams » Thu May 30, 2019 4:46 am

AMC4x4 wrote:
Wed May 29, 2019 5:57 pm
djams wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:14 am
02/08/2019 - (green). Along comes the Bleep DreamPort. I got involved in the pre-release testing. Once I realized that the Bleep just doesn't leak, it made it easy (almost) for me to come up with a mouth taping method that works. With the DreamPort I've dropped my min pressure another 2cm - now down to 7, and my AHI has never been better. But it's the nearly leak-free sleep that's making the big difference at the present time. My mini-arousals throughout the night are way down. I can see this clearly in my flow rate charts.
Wow. Just wow. Look at those results. Congratulations!

I've been using the Swift LT for years. Have tried a few other masks but haven't been able to sleep comfortably with them. Just figured I'd have to deal with air leaks (I almost always have times of significant air leakage). Maybe I will try the DreamPort and see if I can get used to it. My numbers look very similar to your purple numbers.
Why Thanks!

Can't say enough good things about the DreamPort. It's really making a difference for me. I've been using it for over 4 months now. For me, the "getting used to it" period was one night. Felt weird not having any straps. By all means give it a try. I'm sleeping like a baby.

It's totally silent when everything is connected right, and palrider's filter diffuser is used.

_________________
Machine: ResMed AirSense™ 10 AutoSet™ CPAP Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: Bleep DreamPort CPAP Mask Solution
Additional Comments: Backup machine: AirSense 10 AutoSet with all the fixins