Hello Everyone New guy to sleep apnea.

[Booger68]

Hi Everyone,
You folks can call me booger.
New to the forum and looks like I need to learn a little about all of this sleep apnea stuff I have going on. I work 12hr swing shift making crack cleaner (toilet paper) here in Owensboro Ky. I had a sleep study 15 to 20 yrs ago in a lab no sleep apnea then. Diagnosed as swing shift sleep disorder given meds and been on them off and on since then. Speed up to last couple of moths. Been waking up heart racing, panting a few times, sweating, always tired even longer than that but anyone who swing shifts knows all about that anyway. Told primary care Dr about it. He's a great guy. He gets mthe arteries in neck ultrasound very minimal plaque for a fat 53 yr old. Sets me up with a visit to heart Dr. I go to him next week. Home sleep study 3 weeks ago. I was only able to keep the stuff on for 2 to 3hrs couldn't do it any longer I don't know why? I took a pic of the paper I will try and download it from my phone. I have a few charts to download but my machine didn't come with a card.
I was robbed. 

If ya need any other pics I have a few more days or nights but this is an idea anyway. I went for my 3 week check up and they made a change i think to a min pressure of 11 i believe. 

Thanks for any thoughts or help i really would appreciate it.

booger

[Booger68]

Hi Everyone once again,
Here is a copy of the 2hr print out that I have.

Thanks
booger

[SarcasticDave94]

Welcome to the Apnea Board.

According to the report, you are not dealing with mixed or Central Apnea. That's good because it simplifies the therapy. You're showing an elevated Flow Limit and some Obstructive and Hypopnoea events on OSCAR. The data doesn't look very bad, but a few tweaks may help.

Do you know if you're using EPR, the comfort setting that stands for exhale pressure relief. EPR has been proven to combat the flow limit issue. You may want to review that setting, and if needed edit it to full time 3. Maybe Max needs to go up, as your pressure trace mostly stays pegged at 15. Being at 15 for most of the therapy, you may want to evaluate your comfort and consider talking to the doc about a BPAP, the ResMed AirCurve 10 VAuto.

I also would like you to read the wiki on positional Apnea. I'm not certain if it applies, but there's a few clusters of events that maybe it's from a positional, chin tuck issue. Linking to the wiki for you.

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...cal_Collar

[Booger68]

Thanks for the fast reply sarcastic dave. Epr is off. I will turn it on tonight and mash the buttons to 20. Just to see what happens.
Im a side sleeper and get up a couple of times throughout the night to go to the restroom. Getting old does have some drawbacks.
But i will say the machine has helped SO MUCH. I'm getting alot more test than i have in a long time.
Is the bpap machine alot better machine than the airsense10 autoset I currently have?
Looks like i have some reading to do.

Thanks again
Booger

[Sleeprider]

EPR is going to make a lot of difference for your. Be sure to turn it on full-time to a setting of 3.

[SarcasticDave94]

Let's call my prior post a preliminary shotgun message. Best practice is to eliminate everything possible with your AutoSet, discuss OSCAR charts and your overall comfort. When you post the next OSCAR chart, due to the edit of the settings, it would be good to include a critical appraisal on "how do you feel?". These 2 items, data and your assessment on how the therapy is going will pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in the therapy. These steer our assistance to make it the best it can get.

[Booger68]

Good deal Sarcastic dave. I sure will. like I said earlier. Sleep is so much better than before but if we can make it better i am game. Epr is on 3 full time and max at 20. Fingers crossed and fixing to see the sandman shortly.

Thanks sarcasticdave & sleeprider for the suggestions.

Booger

[Booger68]

Well Folks, 
Another good night of sleeping I feel. I made the recommended moves based on Sarcasticdave & Sleepriders recommendations. I may have slept a little better and being new to the chart reading it looks a little bit better. I will wait for a good analysis from you fine folks. 
 did notice i haven't yawned as much so far this morning     But even the few nights that I have had alltogether where way better than the last 2 yrs or so that i have slid into the mess of sleep apnea and not even known it. 
but here are the charts what do you folks think. 
I did try and keep my other pillow tucked under my chin and that seemed to help also. Im getting a sleep collar

Thanks so much folks we will work on this and how do you get the coffee for people 


booger

[Sleeprider]

The 95% flow limit is now down to 0.01 from 0.26 which is a significant change for the better. This eliminated the RERA and hypopnea and probably was much more comfortable. The 95% pressure is down from 15 to under 14/11 (inhale exhale). There is still some OA, but it is certainly within the controlled category at 1.5 events per hour, close to what it was before. So the last change got you a lot more comfort. The remaining OA events are happening mostlly at the lower end of the set pressure (10/7) and it looks like they clear up above 12/9. There is no rush to change settings. Go for comfort and make any changes you see fit at this point, but your optimum pressure is probably closer to 12 cm if you want to make a bigger dent on OA.

[Booger68]

Thanks Sleeprider,
Minimum pressure just went to 12 and we shall see what tonight brings. Thanks so much folks. I do appreciate all your help. 
Probably start another thread here shortly on the physicians assistant i spoke with at yesterdays visit. Just so this thread is not all over the place. 
Then I'm gonna read up on oscar and try and get a grasp on understanding those charts

Thanks
Booger