By Way Of Introduction... General Rookie Questions

[Michale32086]

Thanx for all the info..   It's very much appreciated...

[Dormeo]

Hard to be sure, but there seems to be a bit of clustering in your events. This suggests you may be tucking your chin down toward your chest, which can restrict your airway. The fix is to wear a soft cervical collar and see whether the clusters dissipate. But if this is too much stuff on your body for now, consider trying it later.

[Michale32086]

Hard to be sure, but there seems to be a bit of clustering in your events.  This suggests you may be tucking your chin down toward your chest, which can restrict your airway.  The fix is to wear a soft cervical collar and see whether the clusters dissipate.  But if this is too much stuff on your body for now, consider trying it later.

Definitely..  I usually sleep on a stack of three king-sized pillows.  When I am on my back, it definitely shoves my chin down...

Time to consider using a single pillow like a normal person.  heh

Thanx for the reply...

[Melman]

If the clustering continues after reducing the number of pillows consider a soft cervical collar to prevent chin tucking. It has worked well for me and many others. See the link below on soft cervical collars.

[Sleeprider]

With a pressure range of 4 to 10 and EPR 3 you have too many obstructive apnea and fragmented therapy. A large part of the problem is the wide range of pressure fluctuation. I'm with Deepbreathing, and recommend a minimum pressure of 7.0 with EPR 3 and turn off ramp if you can tolerate it. If you must use ramp, set it to Auto. I think you need to remove some pillows to avoid the chin-tuck. Take a look at this wiki article to see how chin-tucking can affect your therapy. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...onal_Apnea

[Michale32086]

All great information.. Thanx..

[Michale32086]

OK.. I have the CPAP set for min pressure at 7 and max pressure at 14...

The RAMP was actually set to auto, but I set it to 10 mins.. The gist I gather is that the less RAMP time the better. Before all this kicked off I use to fall asleep very quickly so minimal ramp time seems best.. Lately post surgery, 30-50 mins seems the norm..

So, we'll see how it goes.

Again, thanx to all for the input..

[Big Guy]

I've seen the ramp issue discussed on here several times. I usually have mine set on auto. I do mess around with it from time to time, and try different time settings. 

No matter what I have it set on, it doesn't seem to make all that much difference. 

It usually takes me a while to drift off to sleep.

[Michale32086]

Rather then add to and create an unmanageable long thread, I decided to break things up into a daily thread until nirvana is achieved..

(Mods & Admins, please advise if ya'all prefer the long thread, as opposed to a bunch of smaller threads)

OK here we go..  Day 3..

CPAP set at 7 min pressure and 14 max pressure.  Ramp time, 10 mins..

First off, my sleep wasn't the best.   Was up several times with moderate to bad chest pain. 3 or 4 times I had to get up and walk around for a min.. I believe the culprit was the max pressure.. More on that in a few..  As you can see by the FitBit graphic, I still have a lot of red in my ledger..  

The OSCAR data for the night tells the rest of the tale..

As things were explained to me regarding my surgery..  Due to being on a ventilator for 7-10 hours, my lung capacity was shrunk considerably.. The way the nurses explained it is, inside my lungs, it's like a bunch of grapes on a vine.. During normal times, the grapes are taut and round like good grapes are.. But, because of the ventilator, now the "grapes" in my lungs are shriveled up like raisins.. As I recuperate, and breathe deeper and deeper, my "grapes" will soon return..

What I think is happening (and this is just my rookie ignorant guess) is that 14 max pressure is pushing my lungs to slightly over-inflating.  Towards the end when I was fully awake, I could feel the CPAP forcing more air that was just bleeding out the sides of the mask.  Since it's working my lungs to slight over-inflation, that would account for the chest pain..  

I am thinking dialing it back to 12 and then gradually work up to 14, then 16 and beyond..

6 hours 21 mins of sleep last night and up for the day around 0400..  That's about normal for the way things were pre-surgery and pre-apnea diagnosis..

As always, thanx for all the advice and hints and tips..

[jaswilliams]

We tend to like one thread it’s easier to scroll back and find things you have tried in one long thread