[CPAP] Still have a high AHI, don't know what is happening

[tedvpap]

That is ugly. Good luck with the sleep study and make sure you get a copy of the report (you may have to get it from your doctor).

[allanri]

P.S. I did wear a cervical collar last night.

[Sleeprider]

Well on the positive side, your OAI went from 17 to 10, so that is a significant, but insufficient improvement. I think you would really learn something if you went ahead and put the machine in Autoset mode and set a pressure of 9 to 16, and leave EPR at 2. Either pressure substantially resolves the problem or you might be looking at bilevel. Knowing your response to pressure is not a bad thing ahead of your sleep test.

[allanri]

Well, last night’s sleep study/titration was frustrating. 

I had a hell of a time falling to sleep.  I had been told to try to stay on my back, because they really wanted to try to eliminate my back OAs. So, I lay there, like a corpse, and just kept getting more and more antsy and twitchy. I’ve never had restless legs before, but I think I now know what it must feel like.

Anyway, an hour into the night, I ended up popping an Imovane, which I hate taking, but the sleep study would have been useless had I not slept, right?  I’m any case, 2 bathroom breaks later, the tech sails in with a cheery “Good morning!”  I guess I did sleep after all.

Now, I was expecting a revelation about how my pressure settings were all out of whack. Imagine my surprise when he said “you only got up to 8 [cm H2O].  “Did I have any apnea?” I asked. “I can’t say”, he said. “Your doctor will talk to you about it”. “But keep it up, it’s working”.

So now I’m kind of annoyed and a little worried.  I can’t for a second believe that things are fine as they are at a fixed 9 cm H2O. I don’t want to be paranoid,  it I’m wondering what they saw last night?

[allanri]

Ugh. Check this out: 
[attachment=6230]

This was one of those nights where I couldn't bear to have the mask on at all ... I thought I was going to stop breathing completely.  Generally, I don't have any problems tolerating the mask or the pressure, but once in a while, when I put the mask on and turn on the machine, my body just rebels.  This has happened about 4-5 times in the last month. It's a horrible sensation, where you on the one hand, feel like you're not getting enough air, and on the other, your lungs just don't seem inclined to breathe in even when the pressure is fairly high (i.e. when it should be easy to take a breath).  It's uncomfortable and exhausting. I ended up pulling the mask off a few times because I literally was afraid I wasn't going to breathe.  

I see the doctor tomorrow, and have forwarded all of my SleepyHead charts to him. He also has the data that my equipment supplier has sent to him, so I hope between the different sets of data, he can come up with some kind of interpretation.  My average AHI since starting therapy has been 17.61, far from ideal.  I am anxious to see what changes he suggests; I will definitely start making adjustments myself if he doesn't suggest any.

[Technopauper]

Looked for your thread to see your story and wow - it does look eerily familiar :-)

Keep the faith and your sense of humor - looking forward to hearing your sleep study results too !

Rob