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New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
#1
New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Diagnosed with Moderate OSA (17.7 AHI) after years of just being tired (sleeping 12 hours a day)  and antidepressants not working at the help of my psychiatrist. 

I got my device in Mid-November and unfortunately wasn't really helped at all when I was given it (was given the wrong size mask and no mask options told 'if you can't breath through that you can't breath through your nose here take a full face - that was then too small).   Lots of trial and error and 3 masks and after bugging the doctors office for help I finally found some success with Nasal pillows! 

I am getting almost no leakage, events are low and not having problems with waking up with my mouth opened (I think it happened once since I've gotten the pillows?)? 

I am however, constantly waking up, like almost ever hour and it is driving me crazy.  It was happening the whole time with the masks that didn't work right/ were uncomfortable but now I'm comfortable / not bothered by the mask however I'm constantly waking up (and in turn it's somehow harder to fall back to sleep vs initially at night).   This is all new for me, prior to the CPAP I never work up at night to a conscious level so this is all new. 

Right now I'm just powering through it.  Made myself use it for 4 hours a night minimum last week,  4 hours 30 mins this week, etc just working it up.  But I feel like if I were to just leave it on all 8 hours I'd never get any sleep with the constant waking up and not getting back to sleep. 

What else should I be trying?  Any tips would be appreciated it on how to adjust / get used to it.   Happy to answer any questions  and I added the last few days since moving to the new mask from OSCAR data as well.


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#2
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Let's add some EPR for comfort and see if that helps. Your numbers are awesome. Now it's comfort first.

Min Pressure = 7 (to give room for the EPR to work.)
EPR=2, Fulltime
Ramp off, at these pressures you shouldn't need it.

Then post your daily chart and tell us how you feel, be critical and very specific. Why did you stop?, x was bothering me, Karen wouldn't shut up. I didn't like this.
Note: "I feel fine" means all is well and no further help is needed.
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#3
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks.  I'm looking at it now and it says


Quote:EPR
Full Time
EPR Level
3 cmH2O

So I'll get that down to 3 and get the other adjustment to the max and see how that goes tonight.  (Now to go look up how to find that I at least know where to find the Ramp...)
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#4
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Nothing lower than 7 on Min Pressure.
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#5
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Alright I am back with some feedback making the suggested changes posted above.  I don't feel rested at all today. 

1. It took me way longer to fall asleep. You can see at the top I ended up having to stop and restart to readjust and it was just a struggle.  It felt like way too much air with ramp being off. 


2. I woke up twice, once and got back to sleep the second is when I gave up and took the mask off and fell back to sleep for another 3 hours.  It felt like so much pressure to wake up to and it was hard to get back to sleep. 


Also, the back of my sinuses/throat was feeling kinda dry so not sure if I'm having a humidity issue or what. (When I woke up my mouth was still wet, it was just the back of the airway so I don't think my mouth opened while sleeping.


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#6
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Well, last night I woke up to having ripped my mask off my face and it being down by my feet, so I don't really know what to think about that.  (it's not happened before)


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#7
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Try putting you machine in CPAP mode with 6cm pressure and if needed an EPR of one if you need a little pressure relief.
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#8
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
I tried those adjustments.  (Plus I put ramp back on for 25 mins because I never fall asleep the first time that fast and in my head it just made it a lot easier)  

0 events either night.   I'm still going crazy waking up a lot though?  (I never used to wakeup at night) I'm not sure if it's something waking me up or it's just random but it feels like I never get to get any good sleep because I'm constantly waking up. 

Clearly it's working.  However, I am increasingly frustrated with the waking up bit and trying to get comfortable constantly again.

Oh I should note I changed my nasal pillow side up to L prior to these couple nights and that seemed to really help too. (I can't believe they were insisting I must be a S because I am a woman)


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#9
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
I understand that you're using nasal pillows, but what specific mask are you using?
Paula

"If I quit now, I will soon be back to where I started. And when I started I was desperately wishing to be where I am now."
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#10
RE: New User - Advice greatly appreciated.
Oh! It's on my profile so I didn't even think to mention specifics, but I use the Resmed P30i after a massive failure with the F30 and slightly more success with the P10.
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