Juniper's questions

[juniper]

If you have auto start/stop enabled, the machine will turn itself off when the mask is removed.

The "for her" setting gets mostly negative reviews, as does "soft" response. Standard generally provides the most effective therapy, but if you find that fast increases in pressure are waking you up and a high maximum pressure is a requirement for you, it's possible to try the others and see if they help. Otherwise, you could restrict the maximum pressure so that it doesn't rise so much, and this may be the best solution for you. I wouldn't worry too much about these in your case, as you are showing very few remaining obstructive events.

No, I don't have auto start/stop enabled. It just runs. I have no partner, so it's not bothering anyone. So, when I put it back on, it will just continue to run at whatever pressure it was when I took it off? Like, if I was at 8, it will still be at 8?

I see my response setting says soft, but I can't find the "for her" setting. I thought I saw it once, but it has disappeared.

I am accustomed to waking 2 or 3 times every night, thinking I must need to go to the bathroom, getting up, going back to bed, falling back asleep.  I assume it was actually the apneas waking me because I didn't really have to go that much. This pattern is still continuing.

My start pressure says 5. My range is 7-14. (It was originally 4-16 which seemed too wide., so I narrowed it. Bad idea?)  Which one is my "minimum" and which one is my "ramp?"

So far, I seem to land somewhere around pressure of 8 most nights. It doesn't seem like much pressure. I'm lying flat on my back. Supposedly that is supposed to make me need more pressure. I have been exhorted NOT to lie on my back.

I wonder, am I not really falling deeply enough asleep to have obstructive apneas? Apneas would trigger the pressure to go up, right? Maybe the pressure only goes to 8 because I am not asleep enough? I don't suppose there is a way to figure out if I am asleep or just dozing.

Thank you.

[HalfAsleep]

I believe silk covers for head gear will solve your pulled hair problem. I get my head gear covers at the kind of online shop where thousands of craftsy people sell their handmade stuff. Good luck choosing between the hundreds of patterns…

[juniper]

I believe silk covers for head gear will solve your pulled hair problem. I get my head gear covers at the kind of online shop where thousands of craftsy people sell their handmade stuff. Good luck choosing between the hundreds of patterns…

Ah yes, that craftsy shop. I know it well!

[juniper]

Hi. I'm fairly new to this. I finally figured out how to get OSCAR onto my computer. I do not understand what this stuff means. I would appreciate any input.

[Phaleronic]

Hi Juniper, you're having quite a few leaks and clear airway events (these are correlated to each other), you should try sleeping on a flat pillow and you may need a soft cervical collar to keep you from tucking in your chin and creating flow restriction with your airway..

You could lower your max pressure a bit too (12cm) once you fix the sleeping position.

[juniper]

Thanks.

I do take my mask off 2 or 3 times and leave it running when I go to the bathroom in the night. How can I tell if the leak if from that or from something else?

What is a clear airway event?

I sleep mostly flat on my back with one of those pillows that is lower in the middle where my head rests and higher where my neck is. I cannot sleep without the neck support. I attached a picture. I tried a soft cervical collar once. It did not work for me. I don't think my pillow works with it, and I found it very uncomfortable.

I use a Knightsbridge chinstrap, but keep it fairly loose because I have jaw problems that pinch a nerve. I cannot snug anything up very tight. This also limits the masks I can wear.

[BoxcarPete]

That pillow should be good as long as it supports your neck in way that keeps your airway aligned and you aren't moving much through the night. A clear airway event is when the machine algorithm doesn't detect airflow and also determines that your lung volume is available to flow by pulsing a small amount of pressure into the mask and detecting if the air goes anywhere or not. It's not perfect and sometimes flags 80-90% blocked airways with purple even if they're actually obstructive events. Since you have a mixed cluster this might be the case, but zoom in on a couple 3-5 minute sections from where you are having the events and we can try to determine what's more likely.

[juniper]

OK, I'm trying to understand this. An event means stopping breathing? A clear airway event means I stopped breathing even though my airway was clear? Also, where do you see those events? I'm not sure what I'm looking for. And how would I zoom in? (Not great with technology.)

[juniper]

Anybody?

[staceyburke]

I can try to help a little.  First the chart that says event flags shows each event (Cent, O, H) If you take your mouse and put it on one of the events in the event flags chart you will see a number with () around it.  The number inside are the number of seconds the event lasted. (it has to be at least 10 seconds to record) If less than 10 seconds it will be in the flow limits chart instead of the event flags chart.

 An easy way to see the event is to enlarge it.  You do that by using your mouse and clicking the event in the Event Flags chart.  If you don't hit exactly on it arrows on your key board to move the enlarged part of the chart. The left key moves to the left, the right key moves to the right.  The up arrow makes it bigger the down arrow make it smaller.   Play around with the mouse and arrows and you will see how to enlarge and see different parts of the charts.

Centrals are apnea that are open airways or not obstructive.  These types of apnea can not be treated by a normal cpap and need a very special type (and more expensive) of cpap machine.   But most people (and you are one) that don't have enough to be a problem.  You did have a group of them and IF you had more groups of them during the night then you might need the other machines.  We all have some centrals during the night, some are not long enough to be classified (10 sec or longer).  For instance, you probably hold your breath when you turn over in bed.  If you held your breath for over 10 Sec it will record it as a central apnea.  You reach down to pull up the blanket another and so on.

Most centrals are what are called treatment emergent centrals where you get them because the therapy is working.  It has washed out CO2 from the blood and the body does not take a breath.  After a few weeks the body become adjusted to less CO2 and we see less centrals.  Not sure if all that makes sense to you.  I sure you can find out more if you need to on the site.