06-28-2023, 01:02 PM
New APAP User, need help optimizing
Hello, all. This is a great board, and I have already learned so much from reading the posts.
My story: I have suspected having OSA for a long time, but just never got around to getting it tested. I have AFIB, and spent 4 nights in the hospital in early May getting my heart rate under control. I elected to get a cardiac ablation for the AFIB to enable me to reduce meds, and hopefully avoid future hospital stays. (This was my second for AFIB). I knew that untreated OSA would lessen the likelihood of the ablation working, so I decided to finally address it.
I'm kind of a do-it-yourself girl, so I went online and ordered a Watch-PAT home test. Also, it can take a long time to get appointments and sleep studies around here, and I wanted to get the ball rolling. The study came back with mild-to-moderate sleep apnea. (AHI 7.0, pRDI 16.1, O2 nadir of 72%) The sleep therapist I talked to also noted that my sleep stages were just all over the place, never staying in one for long at all. (I am aware that sleep stages are just an educated guess with the watch-PAT study.) I had been sleeping horribly for quite some time. Often, I would get up 6-7 times a night just to use the bathroom, and I never ever felt rested.
The prescription I got was pretty generic - APAP 4-20. They suggested I get an in lab study 4-6 weeks down the road to titrate pressures. I would rather just do it myself, hopefully with some help from the knowledgeable members of this board.
I started APAP on 06/16/23, with the factory settings. I have since made some adjustments. I turned off the ramp. Turned on the EPR (started at 1, then 2, then 3) I changed the range of pressure to 8-13. Last night I tried 8-12.
I suspect I have some chin tucking issues, so I ordered a cervical collar and tonight will be the first time I use it.
Questions:
1) I have made small changes to my settings nearly every night. Is that bad? Is there a recommended mount of time I should allow to really see what the effect of the changes are before making further changes?
2) I think my mask seal is pretty good most of the time. However, I notice that when the pressure goes up to 12 or more, I sometimes wake up with air leaking from my mask. My solution at this point is to cut the machine off and let it restart at 8, making mask adjustments if needed. Is this normal, or something that needs to be addressed?
3) Max pressure - because of the above issue, I have had the max pressure at 12 and 13. However, I do routinely hit these pressures, so should I set the max a bit higher? Also, do leaks cause the pressure to go up, or do leaks happen because the pressure goes up?
I will attach the last three nights of data.
My story: I have suspected having OSA for a long time, but just never got around to getting it tested. I have AFIB, and spent 4 nights in the hospital in early May getting my heart rate under control. I elected to get a cardiac ablation for the AFIB to enable me to reduce meds, and hopefully avoid future hospital stays. (This was my second for AFIB). I knew that untreated OSA would lessen the likelihood of the ablation working, so I decided to finally address it.
I'm kind of a do-it-yourself girl, so I went online and ordered a Watch-PAT home test. Also, it can take a long time to get appointments and sleep studies around here, and I wanted to get the ball rolling. The study came back with mild-to-moderate sleep apnea. (AHI 7.0, pRDI 16.1, O2 nadir of 72%) The sleep therapist I talked to also noted that my sleep stages were just all over the place, never staying in one for long at all. (I am aware that sleep stages are just an educated guess with the watch-PAT study.) I had been sleeping horribly for quite some time. Often, I would get up 6-7 times a night just to use the bathroom, and I never ever felt rested.
The prescription I got was pretty generic - APAP 4-20. They suggested I get an in lab study 4-6 weeks down the road to titrate pressures. I would rather just do it myself, hopefully with some help from the knowledgeable members of this board.
I started APAP on 06/16/23, with the factory settings. I have since made some adjustments. I turned off the ramp. Turned on the EPR (started at 1, then 2, then 3) I changed the range of pressure to 8-13. Last night I tried 8-12.
I suspect I have some chin tucking issues, so I ordered a cervical collar and tonight will be the first time I use it.
Questions:
1) I have made small changes to my settings nearly every night. Is that bad? Is there a recommended mount of time I should allow to really see what the effect of the changes are before making further changes?
2) I think my mask seal is pretty good most of the time. However, I notice that when the pressure goes up to 12 or more, I sometimes wake up with air leaking from my mask. My solution at this point is to cut the machine off and let it restart at 8, making mask adjustments if needed. Is this normal, or something that needs to be addressed?
3) Max pressure - because of the above issue, I have had the max pressure at 12 and 13. However, I do routinely hit these pressures, so should I set the max a bit higher? Also, do leaks cause the pressure to go up, or do leaks happen because the pressure goes up?
I will attach the last three nights of data.
