Brand new to this

[Cheesedream]

Hi all,

I've just signed up to the forum and was hoping I could get some help.

I've been feeling awful for a couple of years now and suspected I have sleep apnea. I've been to the doctor and been referred to the respiratory specialist but as I live in the UK everything takes forever. 
I've been on the waiting list for 4 months and heard nothing so decided to take things into my own hands.

I bought a viatom check me recordable pulse oximeter and wore it to bed. On the 1st night my spo2 went down to 86% as I was falling asleep so I took the watch off as it was vibrating too much. The next day I turned the vibration off and tried again, during a 1 hour nap the spo2 got as low as 76%. 
As soon as I saw this I got straight on with sourcing myself a cpap, I managed to get a resmed airsense s9 auto.

Since then I have been messing around with masks and settings on the cpap to try and get a decent reading on the pulse oximeter for a full night. 
I've managed to do that now by turning auto off, putting cpap on, turning the epr off and turning the pressure up to 11.
In the last 18 days I've wore the pulse oximeter for 3 nights and had 3 readings where oxygen saturation stayed above 95% for ~99% of the night. I'm going to try another night at the 3 week mark.

This all seems like good news and I've noticed things like my svt (benign heart arrhythmia) has been happening massively less often and my fasting blood glucose is much better.
The problem is, I still feel pretty terrible and I'm extremely tired all the time. 
I'm new to all of this and I'm not the most clued up but I can't keep waiting months and months without trying something.
Is there anything that is glaringly obvious to any of you ladies or gents that I could be doing wrong or anything I could be doing that could help me find out and fix what's wrong?

Thanks for any help

[Crimson Nape]

Hi Cheesedream!  -  
You really need to download the free software, OSCAR, and collect your detailed sleep data using an SD card (no larger than 32GB).  Without seeing this data, anything recommended would be a wild guess.

The S9 has a problem when certain operating systems write data to the card.  This is mainly a Windows computer.  Two things can be done to prevent this.  First, lock the card (Write Protect) prior to inserting it in your PC.  However, this is not always successful.  Newer, less expensive, SD card readers do not have the micro-switch to detect the write-protect setting, thus defeating its purpose.  Just remember to unlock the card prior to reinserting it back in the S9, it does have the micro-switch.   The second thing is to disable the O/S from writing the information file to the card.  We have files available for this, as well as you can obtain instructions from an internet search.

Please read the links in my signature for further help with OSCAR and posting images here.

. . . I forgot to mention, OSCAR allows the Checkme's binary data files to be incorporated with your sleep data, too.

- Red

[Cheesedream]

Thank you for your reply.

I've had a look at the wiki links and it looks like it might take a while to get my head around, especially with the current brain fog I have! Lol

I'm going to get on with installing Oscar and seeing what I can sort today.
On another note I wore the viatom watch again last night and had an oxygen level of 10 with a low spo2 of 94%, an average of 97% and staying above 95% for 99.9% of the night.
From a very uneducated perspective that looks perfect so I should feel fine? Can co2 still be high if oxygen saturation is so good?
I will definitely look at oscar but my worry is that there may be something else up

---

Pulse rate was between 40bpm and 90bpm with an average of 55bpm. The top end is high but I was getting frustrated with not being able to sleep. I don't know if this helps

[ejbpesca]

Not an expert here only a long time CPAP user who is still learning how to use my machine.  I can have okay O2 levels and what may appear to be an okay AHI score and still feel very bad after sleeping 6 hours.  Many details in OSCAR reports can reveal why.  At least your O2 improvement is apparent.  OSCAR should load fine to your PC or MAC.  Some CPAP machines come with SD cards installed.  Check for yours, insert the SD card to a reader, launch the OSCAR app, upload data, then click on Daily Report to see your OSCAR charts with graphs.

Make a screenshot of the report.  I have to save my screenshots on my MAC as file names.  Drag drop does not work for me.  After the screenshot is saved (exported) as a file I click Choose File > File Name > Add Attachment > Insert File to Reply.

Clicking Preview Post lets me know the OSCAR image is there and where on the post I want it. 

Getting the OSCAR image to a Reply can be a bit tricky.  The cursor and screen may jump around a bit during the process.

[Cheesedream]

[attachment=57792][attachment=57792]Here are the results from last nights sleep. I hope this works, I'm not very tech savvy. Does this appear to show anything of concern or show the reason I feel so bad?

[Cheesedream]

I have a new Oscar report to upload but wanted to make sure that I upload what is needed. Is what I uploaded yesterday OK?

Also I've noticed that on both yesterday's and today's Oscar reports my respiratory rate seems a little all over the place

[Cheesedream]

[attachment=57808]

[Jay51]

If you want to, upload 2 or 3 charts with a 3 minute zoom view of times when your respiratory rate is really high.  Just line it up with your respiratory rate chart and click and drag the cursor for a 3 minute chart.  Put the spike in respiratory rate in the middle of the 3 minute chart so we can try to see what is happening right before that to try to see what is causing it.

[Cheesedream]

Thank you jay51

I think this is what you mean but if its wrong ill try again

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Could it have anything to do with the settings? It's set on cpap, pressure is at 11 with epr off

[Cheesedream]

here is the respiratory rate for the night plus an hour long nap if it helps