First time therapy, settings and progress

[UnicornRider]

It takes the "Average" user several weeks to a couple of months to get used to the fit and feel of wearing the mask under pressure. In order to acclimate your body faster try wearing the mask under pressure during the daytime while doing something distracting like watching TV, reading, gaming, going on the computer researching the ApneaBoard Wiki or forum. Those hours of use count towards compliance, and will reduce the number of sleep hours required to acclimate your body.

When posting an OSCAR Report for the forum to review and assist with settings, you can remove those training sessions from the Daily Details view by going to the bottom of the left hand panel under the Session Information and deselecting the sessions you do not want to show. That will also remove those sessions from AHI and other calculations on that page as well as Overview and Statistic pages.

A forum member, CPAPfriend, has several very good YT videos that may help you navigate OSCAR:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32JwMc6dphQ 

And this video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujaoKvBnP00

He has several other good videos worth watching.

[Schernenk]

It takes the "Average" user several weeks to a couple of months to get used to the fit and feel of wearing the mask under pressure. In order to acclimate your body faster try wearing the mask under pressure during the daytime while doing something distracting like watching TV, reading, gaming, going on the computer researching the ApneaBoard Wiki or forum. Those hours of use count towards compliance, and will reduce the number of sleep hours required to acclimate your body.

When posting an OSCAR Report for the forum to review and assist with settings, you can remove those training sessions from the Daily Details view by going to the bottom of the left hand panel under the Session Information and deselecting the sessions you do not want to show. That will also remove those sessions from AHI and other calculations on that page as well as Overview and Statistic pages.

A forum member, CPAPfriend, has several very good YT videos that may help you navigate OSCAR:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32JwMc6dphQ 

And this video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujaoKvBnP00

He has several other good videos worth watching.

That's great information, I'm going to watch the video's tonight...while sitting with my CPAP on.  I figured out how to turn the sessions off, I had to change the mode to make them editable but once I changed that it was not problem.  

Stupid question, the big orange and black AHI number, is that how many events I am still having, not how many I had and the machine "intervened on", like when it is all said and done I want that number down to 5 or less in a perfect world.

[jcp519]

That's the number of events that you actually had per hour of sleep. So you had about 19 events per hour.

Now if you were half asleep the whole time it might not be super accurate.

I'd say try the changes that BoxcarPete suggested of min 7, max 15, EPR full time at 3 cm H2O.

[Schernenk]

That's the number of events that you actually had per hour of sleep. So you had about 19 events per hour.

Now if you were half asleep the whole time it might not be super accurate.

I'd say try the changes that BoxcarPete suggested of min 7, max 15, EPR full time at 3 cm H2O.

Yeah, I was MAYBE half asleep, if I was lucky.  I just googled how to hack the CPAP settings (tech said she had to make any changes)  , needles to say it was easy and I changed the settings.

I just have to say...to everyone on this board, the support is just incredible.  You should all be very proud of yourselves.

[jcp519]

Most of us all came here the same way you did and are just paying it forward.

The best thing you can do for your therapy is take things into your own hands. You have every right to change the settings on your own PAP device!

[Schernenk]

OK, last night was the first night I actually slept, so this data is likely way more valuable.  I was solidly asleep for 3.5 hours, so this is a win for me (sleeping I mean).  Overall every thing looks good to me, but anyone sees any red flags please let me know.  I changed the settings as prescribed by BoxCar, and if anything they helped.  Air pressure seemed to average out at just under 8, good seal, and and AHI of 1.15.  Hopefully I can continue to just build on the amount of time I have the mask on.  If results continue like this I would probably lay off posting for a bit and then do a follow up in a week. 

Can't thank everyone enough so far.

[UnicornRider]

It looks pretty good, When you have multiple screen shots it helps the forum members if you pull the vertical slider of the left hand panel down so in the second screenshot shows the information at the bottom of that side panel.

Keep using the machine for acclimation during the day as you said it is a good time to watch YT videos on OSCAR, or research the forum. Before long you will be getting a straight eight hours of use per night.

Good job, you are coming along in your knowledge of OSCAR and use of the equipment.

[BoxcarPete]

Agreed, looking much better already. It's not uncommon for CAs to happen when we doze off, not quite sleeping nor really awake, and I see what might be a little bit of that in your chart between 22:40 and 22:50. If you weren't sleeping much at all the other nights you tried it, that might be part of why; if the dozing period was too jarring for you to fall into a deeper sleep you wouldn't really feel like you fell asleep. This phenomenon is often called "sleep-wake junk" on this board and if it goes away on its own or remains constrained only to a short period at the beginning and/or end of the night's sleep then it's not something to be worried about.

[Schernenk]

Sleep Wake Junk, got it...this is great, I really want to educate myself as much as I can.

I'm sure my dad has Apnea, he had been diagnosed with what I think was severe Apnea about 20 years ago (he nor I remember exactly).  He got a CPAP back then and hated it, mask was blowing air into his eyes (read massive leak), it was loud, uncomfortable, you name it, and he had no support.  He lost some weight, my mom said she stopped hearing him gag and gasp as much at night so he turfed the CPAP because he hated it.  I showed him mine and he was like WHAAAAT?  You mean it's quiet?  It's comfortable?  It has a humidifier?  

Anyway, long story short I would be shocked if he doesn't still have moderate Apnea, and if he gets confirmation I really want to be able to help him out since he isn't very internet savvy. 

On another note, my aunt who passed away not long ago    had Apnea.  My uncle and I got to talking and turns out she had a very lightly (like 4 times) used AirSense 10 "For Her" and the intraweb has told me I can go into clinician mode and change it from the "For Her" setting to standard APAP mode.  He could use the money and I can get a reasonable price on it, so....winning (I don't mind the flowers on it LOL)

Thanks team!

[Schernenk]

I am also realizing the "racket" some of these equipment providers are in. The brick and mortar place did provide a service during the mask fitting...but they are selling an AirSense 10 with Humidifier for $2500 CDN, I can get one online in Canada for $1300, not cool.