Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.
Login or Create an Account
I am a 30 year old male and was recently diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea on the 19th of this month. It was not very surprising to me given the increase in symptoms leading up to getting the sleep study. My body just could not compensate like it used to. Now I have a Resmed Airsense 11 with an AirFit F20 full face mask. This has had its ups and downs getting comfortable enough to have a full nights sleep with it on. In the meantime, I've been tracking the data in OSCAR since the first night with it.
Last night was the first night I was able to sleep with the mask on completely. Attached you will find my sleep study report and the OSCAR data.
Some questions that I have so far:
From referencing the waveforms from the wiki, it looks like I experienced a bout of positional apnea?
Do I need to turn off the EPR setting? I've had it on to get accustomed with the machine since exhaling on constant pressure was preventing me to go to sleep.
Is there anything in this data that stands out to you in terms of settings?
11-26-2024, 02:53 PM (This post was last modified: 11-26-2024, 02:58 PM by Deborah K..)
RE: FastFujitsu - Therapy Thread
Because your median pressure is over 9, I suggest you raise your starting pressure to 9. Although you have a lot of CAs right now, I believe they are treatment-emergent and will lessen as time passes. Your sleep study showed a very small number of CAs, so you don't need to worry about them.
You do have some positional apnea. No setting can fix these. PAs happen when your chin tucks toward your chest, restricting airflow as a kinked hose restricts water flow. Some can solve this by sleeping on a very thin pillow. More solve it by sleeping in a soft cervical collar. Most drug stores carry a few and Amazon carries many of them. Lots here like the Caldera Releaf Collar, as long as they can get one that is tall enough. Others like the Valpeau collars and others. Some of us sleep on a fairly flat pillow that has a raised ridge in the front that holds our heads tipped slightly back. This solves it for me entirely.
Your leaks are not enough to worry about.
As to EPR, it's up to you. Some turn it down or off to eliminate some CAs. That will give you a lower AHI. My opinion is to keep it set as you have it and wait for the CAs to drop. This is because EPR also keeps your flow limits low, a good thing to accomplish because they are short, unreported apneas. So they don't add to your AHI, but solve another problem. Choose whichever EPR idea you prefer.
Again, welcome, and good luck with your new therapy!
Because your median pressure is over 9, I suggest you raise your starting pressure to 9. Although you have a lot of CAs right now, I believe they are treatment-emergent and will lessen as time passes. Your sleep study showed a very small number of CAs, so you don't need to worry about them.
You do have some positional apnea. No setting can fix these. PAs happen when your chin tucks toward your chest, restricting airflow as a kinked hose restricts water flow. Some can solve this by sleeping on a very thin pillow. More solve it by sleeping in a soft cervical collar. Most drug stores carry a few and Amazon carries many of them. Lots here like the Caldera Releaf Collar, as long as they can get one that is tall enough. Others like the Valpeau collars and others. Some of us sleep on a fairly flat pillow that has a raised ridge in the front that holds our heads tipped slightly back. This solves it for me entirely.
Your leaks are not enough to worry about.
As to EPR, it's up to you. Some turn it down or off to eliminate some CAs. That will give you a lower AHI. My opinion is to keep it set as you have it and wait for the CAs to drop. This is because EPR also keeps your flow limits low, a good thing to accomplish because they are short, unreported apneas. So they don't add to your AHI, but solve another problem. Choose whichever EPR idea you prefer.
Again, welcome, and good luck with your new therapy!
Hi Deborah, thank you for the warm welcome.
Based on your insight, I switched to a thinner pillow and moved the EPR level to 2. I forgot to change my mask type setting from nasal to full face mask so I changed that too.
This is what I found to be improving: falling asleep with the mask on, keeping it on over night (in the beginning id rip it off in my sleep all night), breathing normally with it on
What I'm looking to improve: humidity levels (experienced rainout the first 2 nights so need to back down the tube temp to get it more comfortable, but no rainout which is great)
Overall, it's beginning to feel good to wake up. I'm still tired but it's changing into a different type of tired if that makes sense. It must be that my body is finally resting and recovering.
Lastly, there does some to be some perceptible difference between these last 2 night and the AHI. So, I'll try my best to keep it low and adjust from there.
Raising the tube temp helps with rainout, not lowering it. If you continue to have rainout you may want to buy and use a hose holder. I didn't have the problem you have, but I wanted the hose lifted over my head instead of lying on my body. Amazon has lots of them. Here's the one I have used for several years:
(11-27-2024, 01:04 PM)Deborah K. Wrote: Raising the tube temp helps with rainout, not lowering it. If you continue to have rainout you may want to buy and use a hose holder. I didn't have the problem you have, but I wanted the hose lifted over my head instead of lying on my body. Amazon has lots of them. Here's the one I have used for several years:
...
Also, if you don't like the idea of raising your minimum pressure to 9, try 8 and see how it goes. I think you will sleep better.
Raising the minimum pressure to 8 is my plan for tonight! I will let you know how it goes.
Raised the minimum pressure to 8 last night. A bit tired today, more CA's than last night it seems. I had a few drinks for thanksgiving last night, which probably wasn't a good idea for my OSA. But, I did not take off the mask which is a win. Overall, I feel better than before the CPAP. Just need to give my body time to heal and grow accustomed to the treatment.
Raised minimum pressure to 9 last night. Breathing under the mask is feeling more comfortable now. It's taking less time to fall asleep with it on which is nice. I still have a lot of CA's, but I have only been using the CPAP for a week at this point. Going off of watch data, it appears I'm getting more deep and REM sleep. Definitely a lot more REM sleep than I had before.
On the graph there are clusters of CA's from 8:00 A.M - 9:00 A.M. I was kind of half awake at that point, maybe the machine was recording my awake breathing at that point?
Given I have only used CPAP for a week, and just now had about 3 nights with it on fully it seems I'm beginning to slowly get a good picture of the data.
One thing I'm wondering now is choosing the right minimum pressure. I read in another thread that you can go off of the median EPAP or you can average the EPAP for the OA events. But, when considering the method of using median EPAP, is the idea to raise it to the point it levels out and does not rise anymore?
No, raising your pressure is not to achieve a level pressure. It is to find the range that works best for you. I suggest you raise your low pressure setting to 11 now. Your sleep should improve, and you would have a smaller pressure range, all to the good.
11-30-2024, 08:14 PM (This post was last modified: 11-30-2024, 08:17 PM by FastFujitsu.
Edit Reason: More detail and nap data
)
RE: FastFujitsu - Therapy Thread
Raised minimum pressure to 11 and it felt good. Interestingly, I woke up way earlier than expected and felt refreshed like I was full of energy. Also I took a nap with the CPAP on for the first time and experienced a lot of hypopneas which seemed odd. For some reason it seems I always have clusters of events near or on when I wake up. Not sure if I need to increase my pressure or not now. Lastly, I am now dreaming again. I can't remember the last time I had dreams this vivid before.
