[Diagnosis] New mild-moderate diagnosis with 25% periodic breathing

[Flex Plexico]

Hey all! First post here - I am a fresh diagnosis (as of Friday Nov 30th 2018) for apnea with an AHI of 22 (27 in REM). I have been feeling so bad for months that I haven't been able to do anything... work, go grocery shopping, any sort of exercise. Had every blood test under the sun. Thank god for this diagnosis, because its something I can actually treat.

Anyways, I'm on day 4 of treatment and although I haven't gotten a ton of sleep so far, I am averaging about 25% periodic breathing on each day - I'm a little freaked out because I see people worried here if they have like, 3-5% PB. Like - I JUST had my sleep study done, and they said that any centrals I had on that study were benign... EKG was normal... surely they would have caught something if something was seriously wrong with my heart? 

The PB doesn't look like classic CSR with long periods of nothing in between breaths. More like, just the gentle roll of waves (without depleting completely) - OR, in connection with an apnea (aka, I'll have the apnea, and then have PB for 3-7 mins until things 'stabilize')

I'm on an auto-trial for one week and my levels are set 9-12 (they originally had me 6-12 but I felt like I was suffocating at 6, and the machine seems to be hanging around 9-11 anyways). I also currently am recovering from a head cold and am still very stuffed up - although I don't seem to 'feel it' on the APAP - does this have an impact? Is this just an 'adjustment period' for me?

Thanks for any insights you have

Paul

[mesenteria]

Hi, and welcome.  You and your new 'friend' are learning to adapt to each other, but unfortunately with at least one confound, temporary as it is, and that's the cold.  It is slowly titrating you, and you are slowly welcoming the benefits, and the necessary other adaptations that come with it, over the next several months.  Not weeks.  It is best to be patient, but also to do all the other things you are already doing: monitoring, reading, learning, adapting, noting, and coming here for a the very least some commiseration.  All of us here have gone through it.

I hope your new lifestyle continues to develop in a salutary way as it seems to have done.

[Flex Plexico]

Hi, and welcome.  You and your new 'friend' are learning to adapt to each other, but unfortunately with at least one confound, temporary as it is, and that's the cold.  It is slowly titrating you, and you are slowly welcoming the benefits, and the necessary other adaptations that come with it, over the next several months.  Not weeks.  It is best to be patient, but also to do all the other things you are already doing: monitoring, reading, learning, adapting, noting, and coming here for a the very least some commiseration.  All of us here have gone through it.

I hope your new lifestyle continues to develop in a salutary way as it seems to have done.

Thank you so much for the welcome, and to be honest I am not miserable to have the APAP - I've known this diagnosis has been coming for weeks and I have been yearning for one. Some people barely feel the effects but in a matter of months i've been turned from someone who could hike 10km into a non-functional human who can't walk around the block. It really is amazing how deep the effects can get.

[Sleeprider]

Turn down or off the Flex setting. It's not good for everyone, and it's worse for you. It would help if tour charts included the respiration and settings data from the left column. See the Organizing Sleepyhead charts in my signature. The periodic breathing usually resolves itself pretty quickly as you adapt to CPAP, but for some reason is much more common with the Philips Dreamstation, than the Resmed Airsense 10.

[Flex Plexico]

Thanks for the advise, I tried to clean up my Sleepyhead per your guide, and I took an additional screenshot with the left sidebar attached to this post. Tonight I will either disable or turn down flex to 1 and see how it goes.

[Haley]

How do you tell if you have periodic breathing? Is there something on Sleepyhead that shows this?

Thanks

[Sleeprider]

Periodic breathing is nothing more than a cyclical increase and decrease pattern in the respiratory flow rate. It is very easy to see in Sleepyhead by looking at the flow-rate graph zoomed into a 4 to 10 minute level view.  It will also show up in either the respiration rate, tidal volume or minute vent charts.  I'm looking forward to seeing results without Flex.

This was a pretty good example of periodic breathing

[Gideon]

Good advice above.

You said you are on a trial of Auto mode.  That implies that you do not have your own machine yet.

I'm going to suggest that you insist on getting a ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset or an Autoset for Her which has an additional algorithm and some decorative leaves on the case.

NOW is your window to have an impact on getting the machine that you will have until it wears out in 5+ years.
You will find that these machines are the most frequently recommended by the users of CPAP machines.  

You will find the links in my signature very interesting and informative reading especially since you are new to the world of having a mechanical bed partner.

Fred