Fine tuning

[tkblizard]

Hi all, so appreciative of this board.  I have learned so much from you all!  I received my AirSense 11 last Dec/Jan and I tried several nights back then to hone in on good settings, learned OSCAR etc, tried a few masks.  Then I got a horrible cold/congestion, weeks of coughing, think I cracked a rib, and it all went out the door and I stuffed everything in the closet.  After excessive daytime sleepiness, I pulled it all out again two weeks ago and have been giving it another go and have made better progress with some titration and following advice seen here on the boards. Some nights seem pretty good and others not so much, even with similar settings. One of my main challenges now seems to be I can make it through the first four or so hours, but then all heck breaks lose and I get leaks, or a pressure surge wakes me up and I get frustrated and want to sleep without having to adjust anything.  

I'm currently using the F30i mask, but have ordered out of pocket two other similar masks (under nose, over mouth) to try soon as I think leaking might be part of the problem? I would say before this journey I was a stomach sleeper (think I've trained myself to do that to avoid snoring too much) and a mouth breather.  Now I think I might actually prefer nose-breathing but my mouth still opens maybe positionally? I also have an appt with an ENT soon as my nasal passages are super narrow from we think inflamed turbinates.  I tried a neck brace but ended up with crazy neck cramps. 

Anyhow, would love to have your all look over some of my data and see if anything jumps out at you?  Sorry if these paste huge - not sure if they turn into thumbnails after I post.  I wish I could correlate/track my body position to see if I am switching to back sleeping in the wee hours! I get pretty depressed right before going to sleep knowing I'll have to manage things all night.   Here also is a link to Sleep HQ  T's data not sure if it shows all the data I have or not (Oct, Nov, last Dec, Jan)

Attachments:

A good night, I think?
   

Pretty awful towards morning (maybe I was on my back and the max pressure not high enough?)
   

Last night - could only stand it until about 3 in the morning, then the leaking kept bothering me and I just couldn't deal anymore
   

Many thanks for any ideas!  I'll post my sleep study next

[tkblizard]

My sleep study

Page 1
   

Page 2 (my O2 never seemed super low - can someone have moderate apnea, but mostly because I snore a lot - is it really bad enough to need cpap?)

   

[staceyburke]

The night with all of the O events in the morning, You are having positional apnea.  You can see positional apnea where either H or Oa events are clustered together.  Getting rid of as many as you can will lower your AHI.  Positional apnea can NOT be controlled by pressure changes.  You have to find out what position you are getting into and cutting off your own airway.  Have you changed your sleep position?  Sleeping on your back?  Using more (or new) pillows?  These things can cause positional apnea by chin dropping to your sternum and cutting your airway.  Think of it of a kinked hose – nothing can get through – you have to unkink the hose…

IF you can’t make a simple change like changing to a flatter pillow helps then you will need a collar.  I have a link to collars in my signature at the bottom of the page.  It shows people who are not wearing a collar and the SAME person wearing a collar.  There is a huge difference between the two.