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KerriG
+0 points
·
over 2 years
ago
Original Poster
Hello. I just started CPAP therapy last Tuesday. I however have had extremely erratic apnea readings. My first night was 30.8, second night 20 (after they increased pressure from 9 to 11) third night, 2.6 followed by 3. Then I had two nights of 16.5 but last night was 45.0. My respiratory therapist insists the doctor wants more data from my machine but I think something is terribly wrong besides being utterly exhausted. I'm using a Fisher P sleep style, pressure 11 with heated humidifier and heating tubing.
Do you know what the breakdown of your AHI is? How much is obstructive, central, and hypopnea? If there is a significant amount of CA or Central Apnea events that makes things more difficult. I had a Fisher and Paykel machine as a demo after my sleep study. At that time you could not read the data on the SD card with SleepyHead. Now that SleepyHead is OSCAR I am not sure if OSCAR can read the card data. If you can look at the data then you get a much better idea of what is going on. The other issue is that the older F&P machines did not handle central apnea well. The ResMed and Phillips DreamStation responds to CA events by not increasing the pressure. The F&P instead increases pressure. This is assuming your are in the auto mode. Perhaps you have a manual CPAP model or it is set to CPAP mode. If you are having issues with CA then a fixed pressure CPAP mode may be the best. But, it still can be difficult. Typically more pressure increases the frequency of CA events. If you have both OA and CA events then it can be difficult to find a pressure that prevents OA, but does not initiate CA events.
This said your starting point is finding out what type of events your are having. I can't remember enough about the SleepStyle to say how you get the results from it.
KerriG
+0 points
·
over 2 years
ago
Original Poster
I am unsure if the fisher and P use sleepy head and no one is contacting me to adjust pressure unless I phone the supplier. all I'm told is that they need more compliance data but I'm not sling due to 45 apnea events per hour, terrible dryness and the heated tubing is terribly hot. The supplier said they won't contact m for another month now and I'm exhausted, frustrated and wishing I'd never stated this.
KerriG
+0 points
·
over 2 years
ago
Original Poster
Hi, my machine which is a fisher and P sleep style, does not give a real down. the only reason I have this machine is that it is accessible as I am totally blind. I am now trying a Res med auto set and so far I do not have dry mouth and my apnea hypopnea index fell to 4.5 events per hour. The only issue was terrible rain out. Another question is this: what Ould ouse my extremely dry out when on the fisher ad p but not the res med? both humidifier levels are set to 6 but the fisher machine has heated tubing and heated humidifier. the med has only a heated humidifier.
I use a ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet with a heated hose. When you use this machine with a heated hose it has an automatic humidity control setting which I find does a very good job of maintaining humidity without causing rainout. Rainout is normally a problem when you are in an area with high humidity and the temperature in the room is low. A heated hose solves those problems. I don't know if the F&P has an automatic humidity setting that can be used.
The AirSense 10 has an advanced sleep report that can give you the breakdown of the types of apnea events. OSCAR is much better, but the more detailed sleep report is better than nothing in determining what is going on with the erratic AHI results. If you want to use the more detailed sleep report let me know and I can tell you how to set it up on the ResMed machine.
KerriG
+0 points
·
over 2 years
ago
Original Poster
Hi, thanks so much. I have a feeling I need to get the air sense ten iwth auto adjusting heated humidifier. I've had someone read the manual (I'm totally blind) and the fisher does not have auto adjusting heated tubing nor auto adjusting humidifier. it also does not use Oscar I don't think and does not have advanced sleep sports. I think the eratic A H I is due to dryness. I mouth breathe and my tongue is a little fatter and shorter than normal due to a tongue reduction surgery I had. (this is all due to my bone disease) When the air is too dry, my tongue sticks to th roof of my mouth and I can't breathe. I bought the fisher myself so I hope they will exchange it but I"m receiving little help with any of my therapy at all.
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