Verne7

The buckwheat pillow IS one of the pillows recommended for side sleepers. I love it, and have been using one for years. The re-seating method I mentioned worked again last night. It does appear to prevent leaks from reappearing. I think the reading of 2 L/m I got from the myAir website is probably erroneous, because it doesn't look like that on the Sleepyhead data.

I use an Airfit F10 full face mask, sleep on my side, and use a Sobe Kowa (sp?) buckwheat husk pillow that I can sort of form fit to my face. Occasionally, I wake to air coming in around the mask. Last night, I did an adjustment that really helped my leakage.

I just put my index finger on the very top point of my mask and pushed down. I felt the mask move just slightly and seal, and I used that adjustment the rest of the night, because it seemed to stop the minor leaks for a longer time than usual. I'm not sure whether I did it 3 or 4 times. My usual mask leak is 5-7 L/m, but last night it was 2. And, it meant I wasn't awake long each time it needed to be reseated. Because that one slight push reseated the mask around my nose and the chin was taken care of at the same time. I'm a newbie, sorry if everyone already knows this;)

wiredgeorge's suggestion of a mask pad might help us keep our beards :)

I am late 60's and never had a doctor suggested a sleep study to me. It wasn't part of the curriculum for their fields of study probably. Also, they are people as much as any of us. Some of them rush though their patients barely listening, especially to things they have heard many time, just thinking of what to do for dinner or the evening out. This year, I ended up in the hospital with afib, and it's been suggested several time since then. Also, understand that regular doctors are not psychologists. Their knowledge of depression is limited. You are the only one that knows you, find a doctor that listens to you.

I write to agree with DanM, my highest AHI (that I know of) is 4.51. Even my mild sleep apnea has had a very detrimental effect. I have had fairly uncontrollable high blood pressure the last few years, and then early this year I started having Afib attacks, ended up in the hospital twice. During a procedure the doctors noticed and were alarmed that I was not treating my sleep apnea and that night I enjoyed my first cpap machine. That next night, my blood pressure dropped to 106/72, it has taken me a month and a half on the automatic cpap (plus the 3 months it took to get the machine), but I have nearly duplicated the results. My blood pressure has been 140/90 or a bit higher since I was 35. In recent years, 150/100 has been more my range. Today, my blood pressure is 116/72. I have been in this range of less than 0.5 AHI's for the last 4 days and see what has happened to my blood pressure.

Also, been told I had Tinnitus by some @#$%. I think it has to do with my Eustachian tube being clogged possibly. It was a sudden pop, like going up in altitude that I have had in my left ear since about 1997. Have always had sinus issues with my left ear. Trying to keep the humidity high seems to help my sinus, it stays a bit wetter, though I would like to see if I could make it even wetter like it was in the hospital. I use Flonase every night before I sleep.

I'm hoping it works for me too. My ears have been popping. Yes, I've noticed ENT's don't pay attention to that complaint of pressure or fullness in the ears. They just want to sell you a hearing aid. The description of Tinnitus just doesn't fit. Had one actually tell me it wasn't pressure I was feeling, it was deafness because all of the little hairs in my ear suddenly broke off. Actually, my ear just popped one day, sitting one the sofa, like I'd gone up in altitude. I seriously have always doubted that all those little hairs took that exact moment break and die to create that "pop".

I thought this was going to be easier to answer. Like I haven't a clue how to interpret those numbers. :) But, then point you to myAir Web... but, you have a Respironics... lol The myAir Web has that chart of your daily L/per minute. But, I looked around, and my L/m is 5, or 7, way below the 24L/m boundary. You can also see the info on the Leak Rate chart. Each tic on the left hand chart appears to be 7.5, so the second tic from 0.0 is 15.0. My line is below the 1st tic. Hope that helps.

I just saw my Doctor, and she approved my changes. Now, to see the sleep dr. If she doesn't approve, I get a new one.

I also believe I heard someone reference 1.0 or below to be the desired Ahi. I don't know if that's actually possible or true, just something I heard. My Ahi has never been above 4.51 so far as I know, so I tried for the less than 1 Ahi, and actually have made it there the last 4 days. Even previous 4.51 (somewhat low) Ahi has been crippling as far as the high blood pressure and Afib. Untreated for 50 years or so. Today my blood pressure was 116/72 and a pulse of 62 when I saw my Doctor. Before, going below 140/90 was not a usual thing for me and it was 140/90 when I was 35. Those low numbers scared the crap out of me, but my Doctor was very happy.

Hope you can glean some good info there, PS I had to shave my beard to achieve a good seal on my facemask... ;)

I just recently found that turning my EPR back on, allowed the machine to go below 6 (on exhale)- even though my low setting was at 9. 6 is too close to the number that causes afib, and yesterday, I was in afib when I woke, with a pulse of 80 and blood pressure of 164/115. My blood pressure goes up when I sleep badly. The therapy worked, and those numbers dropped quickly. But, my blood pressure dropped too much when I took my meds. When I've been having good pressure recently, it's normally 134/88. So, I finally had recreated the CPAP therapy that was so good for my blood pressure, I think I was really close to some good numbers and didn't want to lose that benefit. I wasn't sure whether to change the EPR from 3 to 2, or to raise my lower setting from 9-10. Either one would keep that EPR pressure from going to 6. Also had to change my meds, because evening my blood pressure dropped to 111/64 and worst was my pulse was 40-42, per doctor I need to be above 50. So, I took half of my next ration of bp meds (2) of them anyway, and set my machine at 10-16, because I still do get up to 15, and a EPR 3. My last 3 days I've had an AHI of 0.11, 0.44, and 0.39 last night. I had CA's the first two nights, but not a single one after the last settings change. And, my waking bp showed no sleep problems at 140/85 pulse 64. I think I see a connection to respiration rate. Last night, my respirations went up only into the 30's as opposed to nights the charts show I can close to 50. The CA's I get seem to be getting, are a period where I stop breathing for about 16 seconds or so. There was something about a Clear Airway pulse being generated, but I'm not sure what that means. I'm thinking this last pressure change might be enough pressure to keep the airway open and prevent CA's. That's a guess from last night's charts.

One thing I was talking about is a setting called Pressure Relief. It is on the front end, it is user configurable, and it turns off EPR. Which I find strange. Perhaps your machine is slightly different than mine.

Just an idea here... I am an illegal. That is, I reset my machine myself. Mainly, because my sleep "doctor" started me at 5-15 and that led to some of the worst sleep I have ever had. At 5, the low pressure was like trying to breathe through a single straw. That first night, I slept 11 hours, and had to sleep 6 more after I took the mask off. I was ready to give up 4 days into it. But, with Afib and pretty uncontrollable high blood pressure it wasn't an option. My "dr" would not have given me ANYTHING without data to back it up, so I simply learned how to change them myself. I've ended up at 9-16.

Now, the last strange part is that in the data I noticed the low pressures also had low AHI's when I switched to my full face, which also ended most of the Large Leaks on the Sleepyhead chart. However, the fact that I had some low AHI's seemingly caused by low pressure, made me to look at the charts again. I certainly couldn't try the low pressure again, because that led to an Afib attack. The DME told me I could turn off the Pressure Relief when I got "used to" the machine. However, turning that off turns off the prescription EPR. So, possibly the DME confused me by talking about Ramp and Pressure Relief at the same time, and possibly he had only meant it was okay to turn off the Ramp. Anyway, I was curious and looking at the charts I had a lot of high respiration around the events. And, I thought, maybe Pressure Relief could stop all that high respiration I was seeing in the charts. So I turned the Pressure Relief back on and I went from AHI's in the 1.x range to 0.11 last night. I had one CA during 9:20 hours of sleep. Last night, my respiration's were without the spiky high readings.

The one good thing I can say about my sleep "doctor" is that her ignorance helped me learn things that helped me set up my own cpap. If my respirations continue low, I can probably change the upper number back to 15 as well.