Getting worse..

[GTOdude]

Mark, one of the criteria for qualifying for bilevel is a failure at CPAP. That can be compliance or efficacy. You really need to alert the pulmonologist to your unusual sleep breathing pattern with inhale/exhale time of 3:1 and the really ragged inhalation. These are symptoms that do respond well to bilevel, and perhaps ASV. I never associated your respiratory issues with the cardio issues, but you show a lot of indications of upper airway resistance or flow limitation. Your doctor is best equipped to figure this out and get you on-track with the sleep therapy you need. Please consider taking in some printouts of the flow rate charts for him to see. Ideal would be to use EncoreBasic waveform printouts.

cant do much of anything till the 4th of Jan when i see the new dr. I cant get in to my current one till Feb of next year. Im kinda stuck. I will take printouts then. I saw him years ago so im still in his system.

Mark

[Sleeprider]

That's plenty soon enough. You've been working hard to make CPAP work for you, and it's too bad you're not feeling more effective relief. Good luck and have a great new year.

[GTOdude]

That's plenty soon enough. You've been working hard to make CPAP work for you, and it's too bad you're not feeling more effective relief. Good luck and have a great new year.

Thank you, Sleeprider, and the same wishes to you and yours! I slept last night without the machine, wearing a shirt with a ball in the back. Fell asleep without 1/2 an Ambien which tells me the rushes are were anxiety related. Woke up every couple hours but the wake ups were right after a dreaming session. I have an iphone app (MotionX 24/7) which monitors my sleep movements, sounds etc. It recorded one instance of me lightly snoring, the rest was me accommodating the cat who came to me a few times during the night. I was on my side or tummy all night, no supine.

I think I can live like this till I see the pulmo on 1/4. Oh, my oximeter was all over the place but i think that was because of my different positioning and moving my hand a lot.

Mark

[Sleeprider]

That reminds me of another thing to bring up at your appointment. You have incredibly high position related apnea events (supine), and do well as long as you stay off your back. That positional obstructive apnea is not apparently treatable with CPAP pressure that you can tolerate. You might want to take along one of the old graphs that illustrate the problem.