Frightening results

[Sleeprider]

Quasimodo, is that you?

lol

I kind of prefer a softer approach to back sleeping like wedging a pillow behind me. I don't have problems with back sleeping when using the BPAP, but the point is to keep me from rolling, not to wake me up.

I like to have a pillow in front of me, seems to help with the cpap hose. Having another pillow behind me might be too many pillows.

Oh the hell with that! I have my wife in front of me. Get a hose hanger.

In the event of no romance, I can vouch for the effectiveness of a small dog behind your knees to keep you from rolling over. "You're getting verrrry sleeeeepy" :lol:

[archangle]

Geez, people, you are going way overboard on the concern on this issue. Not that it's trivial, but he's not likely to wake up dead in the morning.

Robotman, read this about posting your data so people can look at your data in more detail.

RT says all he can do is write a letter to the sleep clinic asking them to get me in for the testing sooner.

Look at the actual flow rate data here. While you're having a lot of events, look at the time scale. You stop breathing for 15 seconds or so, then breathe somewhat normally for a minute or so, then repeat. While you'd rather not be doing this, it doesn't sound like something that's going to cause immediate catastrophic damage.

While an AHI of 40 does mean you need treatment, it's probably not that high a risk of serious problems in the next few weeks. Many people have AHI of 100 when they have a sleep test and have presumably had that for years.

Also realize that AHI isn't the whole story. It counts an 11 second long apnea the same as a 120 second long apnea.

i.e. don't panic, but pay attention to it.

Also, don't panic about the big, bad, central apnea. While it's harder to eliminate, it's not necessarily more harmful than obstructive apnea.

Sometimes you can ask the sleep center to put you on a waiting list for cancellations.

You have complex apnea. If your doctor can't recognize it, get a new doctor.

This is what I told you in post #4 of this thread on 7/28, and nothing has changed. My recommendation is actually to stop using this machine until you get a prescription revision.

Very bad advice in my opinion.

RT says normally the body adjusts in a couple weeks and the central apneas diminish. Now I'm confused.

I don't know about "normally," but it's quite common for someone to develop some degree of central apnea when they first start CPAP and have it go away or lessen after their respiratory system adjusts to it. Some people "grow out of it," some don't.

When did you start CPAP?

Re: settings in general.

If you're concerned about pressure induced central apnea, one thing to try would be to reduce the maximum pressure. You might ask your RT about doing that. It would certainly be a lot less extreme than simply dropping CPAP.

EPR can also affect CA. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

We really need to improve our CPAP management regimen. They really should read your SD card data and tinker with settings more aggressively instead of letting problems fester for months or years and doing unnecessary sleep tests.

[robotman]

Geez, people, you are going way overboard on the concern on this issue. Not that it's trivial, but he's not likely to wake up dead in the morning.

I disagree. I already had one stroke, and I woke up sleeping on my back, which probably means I stopped breathing. Come talk to me after your first debilitating brain injury.

Also, results showing multiple instances of 75+ AHI throughout the night are much more serious than you are arguing.

[TyroneShoes]

What it comes down to is whether being strangled in your sleep more times per night is worse than being strangled in your sleep fewer times a night. I think everyone agrees with the same answer to that. We can survive hundreds of partial strangles a night, but at an expense; it takes a toll, especially over time if not addressed.

It is serious; it just isn't life-threatening unless you do nothing about it for a period of time. What will save you is your motivation to fix the issue, so you are thinking properly here. That said, fretting about it might make things worse. Be concerned only about what you have control over. Try diligently to gain control of the rest, but not at the expense of making you even sicker.

I have to agree that "stopping using that machine" is probably not the best approach, but I would like to think that stopping using that machine as it is configured and in that particular mode, and reconfiguring it as we have described, might be a better approach, and is probably what was intended.

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...In the event of no romance, I can vouch for the effectiveness of a small dog behind your knees to keep you from rolling over.

What a cutie. My best friend growing up had one of those (Boston Bull Terrier, is it?) He named him "Putsy", which seemed appropriate. He was a bit of a nipper, though (so was the dog).

[archangle]

What it comes down to is whether being strangled in your sleep more times per night is worse than being strangled in your sleep fewer times a night. I think everyone agrees with the same answer to that. We can survive hundreds of partial strangles a night, but at an expense; it takes a toll, especially over time if not addressed.

The duration and pattern are important, not just the AHI count. Short apneas like this with a minute or so of normal breathing between are not nearly as worrisome as longer apneas or apneas one after another with no time to catch up between.

Also, results showing multiple instances of 75+ AHI throughout the night are much more serious than you are arguing.

I'm not saying to no worry about it or not fix it. Just don't panic. Do contact your doctor and work on improving it. It's a darn shame are healthcare systems are funked up so bad.

Upload a copy of your SD card to dropbox and let's look at it.

Was the 08/03 screenshot in my post above a good representation of your worst CA episodes? i.e. worst in terms of how often and how long you stop breathing?

A recording pulseox, such as the CMS-50D+ would give you some more info on how bad things really are. If your oxygen level is going seriously low, or your pulse is getting seriously high, that increases the urgency. Be sure to get a RECORDING pulseox that works with SleepyHead. For instance the CMS-50D+ records, but the CMS-50D doesn't. (note the plus sign).

BTW, you need to look at your long stretches of OA as well. For instance, around 5 AM in the morning on 08/03.

Once again, how long have you been using this CPAP?

[robotman]

I'll see about uploading that data in a couple days. I'm going on a trip.

See you when I get back!

[robotman]

Hey everybody, I'm back. Here's a link to my full data set from the cpap machine for the whole month or so I've been using it:

https://mega.nz/#!FMVnEbIC!MfwzPdBlhFJfc...oCZHC99hE0

It looks to me (as a noob) that the results are a lot better since I've been wearing the tennis ball shirt. The AHI's are way down. Hopefully that means less likelihood of having a stroke!

[robotman]

The moderator tells me twice to post the full data set, and I comply, and then nobody answers. LOL

[eseedhouse]

The moderator tells me twice to post the full data set, and I comply, and then nobody answers. LOL

Well you only posted a day ago. Some of us have lives.

The link you refer to only sends a zipped file of your raw data. This does no good at all. What we need is a graphic snapshot of SleepyHead's graphs.

[pholynyk]

Actually, Archangle specifically requested the full SD card dump. I think you/one would need to create a new profile in SH to load it into, and then you can drill down in however much you like.
I may try that out tonight, just to see what someone else's data looks like.