Mitreal - Therapy Thread

[clownbell]

Mitreal - It seems you have made some good progress. May I add two items for thought:

1) Sleeping on your back is problematic especially for positional apnea. A quick and cheap experiment is to find a small backpack (you may have already) and put several tennis balls in there. That will keep you off your back.

2) Regarding mouth taping, know that not all tapes are the same. The fabric tapes can leak, which defeats the purpose. Some are very tough to remove, which is painful. I have had excellent results with SILICONE tape, specifically the MedVance 1" wide tape available on Amazon. To remove, stretch the skin to move it away from the tape, then remove with your thumb on the face at all times so that you pull the tape back on itself and not pulling out. For me, and for many, the right tape solves the leak problem as well as dry mouth why is bad for dental health.

[Mitreal]

Thanks for checking in on my progress, Expat.  

I have been spending the last few weeks trying to get rid of a few internal styes that have developed in one of my eyes. It seems cpap has been drying out my eyes. Though, they weren't bothering me too much. In the meantime, I have come to realize that my daily condition is tightly correlated to the AHI rating. If it is around 1, I feel pretty good. As it goes up to 5, I feel increased tiredness at each increment of 1. At 5, I start to feel terrible. Through some reading, I have come to realize there are other's that feel like this. I have had little time to explore the possibilities of why. But briefly, it appears flow limitations are at play. I will enter that rabbit hole now that my styes appear to be on the mend. I plan to post some charts in the coming days.  

Clownbell, thanks for the advice. I prefer to avoid mouth taping and tennis balls for now. I can see myself sleeping on the tennis balls, regardless of how they feel. I like to think a wedge would work, but also see how it can frustratingly fail. I think the easiest might be the collar. I got one that looks like it might work. I have yet to try it. I want to understand the data a little more first. I am also going to pick up an adjustable memory foam pillow this month. I like to think the ability to change its loft every few nights might provide some input. 

It's amazing how our bodies will just do what they want when we are sleeping. I will fall alseep comfortablely on my side and yet wake on my back with my arm draped across my face covering my nose thinking "what am I doing?" and go back to my side just to start the cycle over again.

[Expat31]

Good you are focusing on the data and understanding what it means. Big swings in AHI I usually find are caused by the appearing of that dreaded "clump" of events. No prizes for what has caused this. The second mischief maker is leakages.
This duo can be responsable for a lot of problems.