[CPAP] Newbie looking for help/opinions please!

[buckrogers76]

Hi Methodicalfool

Thanks for the response and your raise an interesting point. I still feel tired and yawning loads so I might give one of these a try and see what feedback I get! What should your oxygen levels actually be per the norm?

Regards 

Buck

[DeepBreathing]

Buck, your figures for 2 August don't look too bad at all, though there is still room for improvement. At this stage I think you should probably stick with the settings you have for at least a few nights - preferably a week or so - and see what trends develop. Changing pressures every day ("dial twiddling") doesn't give your body a chance to adapt to the new regime.

My guess is that your AHI will come down a bit over the week (and you'll likely feel more refreshed), but it's probably time to wait and see.

[Sleeprider]

Buck, did you ever try out the soft cervical collar suggestion? You have made great improvement with the increased pressure, but there are still some episodes of obstruction during the night. These can often be eliminated with
'positional therapy", mainly improving head/neck alignment to prevent obstructing the airway.

[buckrogers76]

Buck, did you ever try out the soft cervical collar suggestion?  You have made great improvement with the increased pressure, but there are still some episodes of obstruction during the night.  These can often be eliminated with
'positional therapy", mainly improving head/neck alignment to prevent obstructing the airway.

Hi Sleeprider! 

Amazon have just confirmed dispatch of one foam collar! I should have it in a day or so and will give it a try and post the results!

I think it will deco help!

Regards 

Buck

[buckrogers76]

Doh!

I couldn't resit could i , thought i knew better! should have listened to deepbreathings advice!

Feel rubbish now today and my AHI has more than doubled , I'm hoping that its not due to my messing with the settings , but no doubt someone wiser than me can cast their eyes over last nights SH data and advise accordingly.

Many thanks in advance , oh i raised the upper pressure to 16 and the EPR to 2!

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[img]blob:http://imgur.com/080d78c7-b2df-4162-ac00-d4ff73f865ec[/img]

[buckrogers76]

Anybody there?

[pholynyk]

Not anybody who feels qualified to comment, apparently...

Be patient!

[Gideon]

Go back and wait.

Here you have a correlation of your clusters with snore, leak, flow limit, and tidal volume. I suspect that this is when you are changing position thru the night.

Fred

[quiescence at last]

buck, you'll want to know that the exhale pressure is the more important value for knocking out OA (obstructive apneas).  When you switched to EPR of 2, you were selecting a lower exhale pressure.  it is not a real big deal, but you apparently felt the difference.  your median pressure rose by about 1, not surprising.  anyway, it felt strange to you one night, but you might get used to that setting and have better nights to come without changes.  we'll see.

if this were mine, with the wonderful, quick responding machine, I would bump my minimum pressure up - I would use the following formula:

minimum pressure - change to [median pressure - 2]  (11.6 - 2 = 9.6 cm)
maximum pressure - change to [95% pressure + 1]  (15.9 + 1 = 16.9 cm)

I think the foam collar will help.

I also think that your chart shows that the median EPAP stayed about 10 cm, even though EPR was off, then 1, and then 2.  That suggests you will need at least EPAP of 10 to eventually shed most of the apneas.

Good luck, and go slow!

QAL

[buckrogers76]

buck, you'll want to know that the exhale pressure is the more important value for knocking out OA (obstructive apneas).  When you switched to EPR of 2, you were selecting a lower exhale pressure.  it is not a real big deal, but you apparently felt the difference.  your median pressure rose by about 1, not surprising.  anyway, it felt strange to you one night, but you might get used to that setting and have better nights to come without changes.  we'll see.

if this were mine, with the wonderful, quick responding machine, I would bump my minimum pressure up - I would use the following formula:

minimum pressure - change to [median pressure - 2]  (11.6 - 2 = 9.6 cm)
maximum pressure - change to [95% pressure + 1]  (15.9 + 1 = 16.9 cm)

I think the foam collar will help.

I also think that your chart shows that the median EPAP stayed about 10 cm, even though EPR was off, then 1, and then 2.  That suggests you will need at least EPAP of 10 to eventually shed most of the apneas.

Good luck, and go slow!

QAL

Well that was horrendous! foam collar to small so velcro strap biting into neck , and pressure adjustments made and the SH data posted below has just played out. Went to bed feeling pretty tired and up for a good sleep and here i am awake at 02:30 GMT after 4 hours!

At my wits end at the moment , just had a quick look at my SH data when i had an AHI of 4.4 and my pressure settings were 8-15. Should i revert to those settings and head back to bed once feeling tired again or what???

Can somebody please help and advise where to go with this!

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[img]blob:http://imgur.com/86d0e3e0-1a16-42e8-a889-99763bcf58e7[/img]Another!