1 year and still tired!

[Scott C.]

I'd bump a half more for the hypopnea and see how that goes. The leaks I have no real advice, I wear a FFM.

How about the max. pressure should I raise that higher than 11.5? Or leave it the same as min. pressure? Is a range important?

[ajack]

If you are going to apap. you could have 10.5 min and 14 max.
fixed cpap I'd go 11.5.

but either way your apnea is pretty good now. it's the leaks that need more work or just go to a FFM. If you aren't feeling a bit better in a month, I'd look elsewhere for the problem.

[Adoniscmj]

I would say that your pressure is probably too low. Most of us, myself included have a minimum of at least 7 mine is 7.5 to 9. That seemed to work the best for me. Best thing to do is take the charts from sleepy head to your doctor and show them. I was still about where you are in AHI until I tweaked my pressure, on my own and now my AHI is literally 0.0. I have no issues what so ever. Yours can be improved and I think you will get the full benefit from your therapy. Hang in there it does get better, I struggled without the help of my doctor for a year until I finally got it tweaked just right. Now I have to admit that I no longer use my machine. I need to again to make sure that I am still doing well without it. I lost 25lbs of weight and my hormone levels are now normal. These things have improved my apnea to a point that I can sleep without the machine. Talk to your doctor and use SH, it is one of the best if not the best software out there for OSA. I believe it is better than the software the doctors use as those usually just check for compliance and as you found out after that they don't seem to care much. I fired my doctor and went to a new one. Do to a lack of instruction and caring about my other sleep issues such as massive twitching. Good luck to you! It will get better.

[Scott C.]

Thanks Adoniscmj. And congrats on your numbers. Its been a hard year but thanks to this board I'm seeing the light. My latest Min. pressure is 11 and Max. pressure is 11. I started out on auto-cpap 4-20. Been fine tuning it for a couple weeks.

P.S. I edited my profile to reflect current pressures.

[Andy J]

While you might have a simple (hah!) apnea problem, there could be other life factors or even diseases that are contributing to your tiredness. If after fine tuning you're not seeing a good improvement and you're still horribly tired, talk to your doctor.

[Sleeprider]

Scott, your results and leak rates have gotten steadily better. I think your efforts will slowly pay-off and you should start feeling better. You are regularly getting results under 1.5 AHI with leaks that are much better and generally well below large leak threshold. Congrats on the progress, and hope you will have the patience to continue. Adding to what Andy said above, a fairly common problem seems to be a low testosterone level. I was pretty shocked to find mine was under 200, and I started receiving replacement therapy a few years back. Not suggesting you run to the doctor, but ask for the test at your next routine physical.

[Scott C.]

While you might have a simple (hah!) apnea problem, there could be other life factors or even diseases that are contributing to your tiredness.  If after fine tuning you're not seeing a good improvement and you're still horribly tired, talk to your doctor.

Thanks Andy J, Its funny , I was diagnosed with OSA after losing 120 lbs. IT was a like a light switch just turning on and not feeling rested. Never felt like that before. That was reason I went to Dr. And he ordered a sleep test. Go figure.

Thanks again for the input.
Scott

[Adoniscmj]

Scott, your results and leak rates have gotten steadily better.  I think your efforts will slowly pay-off and you should start feeling better.  You are regularly getting results under 1.5 AHI with leaks that are much better and generally well below large leak threshold.  Congrats on the progress, and hope you will have the patience to continue.  Adding to what Andy said above, a fairly common problem seems to be a low testosterone level. I was pretty shocked to find mine was under 200, and I started receiving replacement therapy a few years back.  Not suggesting you run to the doctor, but ask for the test at your next routine physical.

Yea, this can happen to those that are low on Testosterone. Mine was 30, go figure. On the flipside to high of a T level and it can make apnea worse. I went on hormone therapy and my apnea got really bad and that is due to my level being at 1700. My doctor wasn't checking my level, so when I saw a new doctor he said we need to get that number down to about 600. Once that happened my apnea got so much better that I no longer needed a CPAP. I no longer wake up gasping for air and I noticed that my CPAP was no longer having to intervene in my breathing. My sleep doctor said either the machine is working really well or I no longer have severe apnea. I stopped using my machine and have been fine ever since, so be careful on TRT. One must make sure your doctor monitors your level.

[Scott C.]

Scott, your results and leak rates have gotten steadily better.  I think your efforts will slowly pay-off and you should start feeling better.  You are regularly getting results under 1.5 AHI with leaks that are much better and generally well below large leak threshold.  Congrats on the progress, and hope you will have the patience to continue.  Adding to what Andy said above, a fairly common problem seems to be a low testosterone level. I was pretty shocked to find mine was under 200, and I started receiving replacement therapy a few years back.  Not suggesting you run to the doctor, but ask for the test at your next routine physical.

Thanks sleeprider, I happen to have a physical coming up. Plan on asking him about testosterone as well as a thyroid panel. Both I have heard could cause sleep problems.
Are there any other tests I should consider?

Here is last nights ugly chart. With min. max. of 11, Flex1  collar and no tape. Tried a new nasal mask one size larger. It was a fail I would say.

[Scott C.]

Adoniscmj, Thanks for the heads up and good to know. I'm new to this whole medical thing. Was always the one who never got sick.