Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.
Login or Create an Account
Hello, this is my first post! I have been using CPAP since June and I am still not sure if CPAP is making much of a difference for me. I usually do not have a large number of events compared to what others report. But there will be 2 or 3 episodes of hypoxia. Is this a pattern others have?
In the Oscar Nov 15 attachment, it shows Oxygen levels with and without CPAP on same night. In the Wellue attachment it shows just the Oxygen levels, with markers where the vibrate was triggered (I set to 83%).
The respiratory therapist doesn't seem terribly interested in these charts. Maybe I should stop worrying about it. Does anyone have any insights? Thanks!
I suggest trying higher pressures to see how it affects things. In looking at the posted chart the low SpO2 occurs at lower pressure, so bumping it up may make a difference. Given that most events are OA or H, more pressure is indicated regardless of those drops.
Try the following:
Mode APAP
Min pressure 10
Max pressure 14
EPR 3 full-time
No ramp
That should tell us whether there is a correlation between low pressure and SpO2 drops. If not, then we need to try other things, but this is a simple experiment to start.
You are running the instrument close to your max pressure threshold. I suggest setting the minimum pressure to 10.6 cm and the maximum to 13 cm.
Also, turning the ramp off.
I agree with what they posted but I also see some 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… You had 1 large and maybe as many as 4 times when you were in a position that cut off your airway.
I tried changing pressure 9 to 13 to see what happened.
The extra force was difficult to tolerate. Because of the effort to control leaking but Mainly the pressure in my right ear and the noise that that makes in my head. I took a break and tried again later.
I attached the Oscar file for last night. The cluster around 3:30 was during large leaks so I do not know how reliable that reading is.
The positional apnea is an interesting idea. I try to avoid sleeping on my back. I have a wedge and pillows but I often slide down during the night and have to readjust.
