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Hi wiredgeorge,
I haven't seen any research links but on various medical websites, I see the 50% mentioned frequently. You are asking some good questions.
It seems on the cpaptalk.com forum, that many newbies have wide open pressure settings from 4 to 20 and then complain about not getting enough air. Hmm, I wonder why. All sarcasm aside, the fact that folks are given wide open settings without an adequate titration is a recipe for disaster.
Poor mask fit is another one. Many patients never get fitted correctly and get off to a horrible start, not realizing there are better options.
And the current system is very archaic. Get fitted at a DME or sleep doc's office with someone who is most likely clueless. And if the mask doesn't work, it is very hard to return it many times.
And there are people like me who have tried for 4 years to make pap therapy to no avail even though my settings are optimized. Don't know how many are in my situation but it is very frustrating.
Hope this helps.
Dan,
As an FYI, I have had AHIs greatly increase when wearing a full face mask at the same pressure even though the leak levels were within an acceptable range. I know I am not the only one who has experienced this. That is why knowing how to properly monitor the data in case a pressure change is necessary is so important.
Hi Courteous,
In the past, when I have used full face masks at the same pressure, the AHI has unfortunately skyrocketed so yes, a higher pressure was necessary. Do you have a data capable machine that would allow you to review this data to see if that is what is occurring?
You also might want to go to either the cpaptalk.com or apnea board forums and look for a thread on how to achieve the perfect mask fit. Personally, I am wondering in my own situation if the higher AHIs from wearing a full face mask are because I made the mistake of tightening the straps too much which might have led to a higher AHI due to the effect of the jaw being pulled back. May or may not be applicable in your case.
Best of luck in solving the problem.
After one of those nights from h-ll, waking up initially on the machine after 1.5 hours and not being able to get back to sleep right away, I looked at Sleepyhead software with the expectation I wouldn't find anything significant. I was totally wrong as it looks like a large leak woke me up. I then realized that the eye-ware mask I woke last night to block out light on a new humidifier that I bought to use in addition to the machine, probably dislodged the mask. Anyway, I turned the humidifier around this morning to block out the light and hopefully, that will solve the problem.
I also like the fact that you can set it up to flag breathing events on resmed machines that wouldn't qualify as apneas/hypopneas. As many of us have learned having a low AHI does not necessarily lead to great sleep and having these events might be an explanation for the difficulties.
Dolphin,
How long have you tried to use your CPAP? You might consider listing your issues on this or the apnea boards as there are very helpful posters who can help you troubleshoot the issues.
Regarding the surgeries, did the ENT explain how that would address your obstruction issues? Did he/she do a sleep endoscopy to confirm that these procedures are appropriate for your obstructions? I would also ask him/her to give you the success rates of his/her patients who have undergone these procedures. What percentage after a year got their AHI below 5, 10, 15 and how long did these results last? Same statistics for two and five years.
Best of luck.
barbz,
We are in somewhat similar situations. Even though I had a septoplasty, I am still quite stuffy and so far, have had trouble finding things that work. As a result, I am looking into having the Inspire Procedure.
By the way, I lasted two seconds on the Oracle so I salute you for trying to make it work. Good luck with everything
Susan,
Can you provide a link to the post by Dr. Strohl because I didn't see it. If I missed it, my apologies.
Thanks for your response. I am talking about people who have done everything possible to make it work with the right mask, settings, etc. and it still worsens sleep vs. improving it. For example, once again, I woke up prematurely on the machine and was too tired to get out of bed so I took my mask off and fell right back asleep.
I am not the only one this happens to and the reason is why? I ask my sleep doctors this and no one has an answer.
So I propose a research question, then what? Who reads this? What happens to it?
I would like to see research on why CPAP non compliance is so high that doesn't come across as blaming the patient. That seems to be sadly lacking in the sleep medicine community and I see no indications this is changing.
49er
SusanR,
As one who wrote a post that is still under review from yesterday regarding cpaptalk.com, I agree with DariaVader. If this forum is going to turn into that same type of censorship that I felt the old ASAA forums had turned into before the new management seemed to see the light on, I see no point in participating.
By the way, folks on that site were strongly encouraged to participate here but were understandably weary because of the censorship issues. It looks like they may be right.
