Covid/paxlovid/and CAs

[Dave7777]

Recently caught Covid and decided to try Paxlovid --- it worked quickly and I am now clear but CAs have jumped to almost 50 per hour.  I always have had more CAs in the range of 2 to 4 per hour with usually a range of 11-14 sec.  My OAs and Hypos are usually non existent with a max pressure of 7 at the most 8.  I noticed that the last few nights my pressure never got over 5 and still no OAs or Hypos.  I have been doing throat exercises and working on keeping congestion in check (breathing better through my nose in years.) I decided to scrap the cpap last night and slept great on my side (no waking up ). - My last sleep test stated positional sleep apnea (mild). I am thinking that I have developed treatment emergent centrals although I have been using cpap for years.  I am also using a nasal dilator and this has greatly improved my nasal breathing (deviated septum).  My oxygen level was good throughout the night.  Anyways thinking of ditching the cpap for a couple of nights and getting another sleep test - still the same weight but older and breathing through my nose better - thoughts?

[Gideon]

Post a copy of your daily charts
Plus a 20 min view of the centrals
Plu# a 5 min view of the start of the centrals, what to see what happens just prior to them startting.

[Dave7777]

Thank you for looking at these screen shots - Have to say the screen shot of the CAs scares the heck out of me

[Gideon]

Is this pattern continuing?
Address your mouth breathing, it is bad enough that the machine cannot determine the types of events that you are having this the UA events.

You had an arousal just before the sequence began. Occasional arousals/irregularities throughout the zoomed sequence. Mostly looks like you are caught in a feedback loop

So was this a one-off or is it recurring?

[Dave7777]

Thank you so much!  Your help is truly appreciated.  It recurred for the last few nights going from 18 to 34 to 50 (which alarmed me) with the same pattern of closely tied CAs. Upped my pressure to 7-8 and med. pressure was 7.9 which is high for me - Usually about 7 - Put on the cervical collar and tried to sleep on my side. The AHI was 10 last night.  That is high for me but it is not 50 and on occasion I have hit 10.  Interesting what you said about "the loop" because I am in a very light sleep when this happens and can almost feel the breathing loop.  I forgot to take my card out of the computer last night so I don't have an Oscar record (sorry).  I will work on the mouth breathing and the leaks.

[Dave7777]

I have been researching this forum on the issues that you mentioned that might be causing my CRs.  In other posts it mentions awake sleeping and this seems to be my case. I have insomnia some nights and will lie awake on my back with the mask on hoping to fall asleep (in and out of course).  I am working on the insomnia.  Another post mentioned that covid may make the sensors more sensitive - I just recovered from a mild case of covid.  If that is the case I hope everything returns to normal - Thank you for all your help.

[Dave7777]

CAs are improving - Down to an API of 4 and mostly CA clusters as I am waking and my leaks are less often and smaller.  Going to keep on working on this. Thank you so much for your help and all the people that make this board possible.