New and Struggling

[llada]

Hello,

I'm newly diagnosed with mild OSA and I'm really having a hard time with CPAP.  When I was diagnosed, I was diagnosed with low AHI (1.8), and an RDI of 13.  With my CPAP I'm still getting very low AHI numbers and I'm able to keep my mask on all night no issue (working on mouth leaks), but I feel even worse than before.  I was having issues with aerophagia, but I bumped the pressure down and that seemed to help.  I downloaded OSCAR and the attached screenshot is my first night with data, 7th night on therapy - would it be accurate to say that flow limitations are more of an issue than the AHI/event numbers?  Was I correct to drop the pressure down?  Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, there's SO MUCH to  learn with all of this and I feel like I'm flailing at this point.

[staceyburke]

I can explain more if needed but flow limits are apnea just the same as Oa and H events. We control flow limits with EPR not adding pressure. So to make it work we need to increase the min and EPR.

Set your min to 7

Change your EPR to FULL TIME

Set EPR to 3

Let us see your OSCAR after those settings.

[llada]

Will do, thanks so much!  Is max okay at 10?  I was worried that might be too much of a correction, but I was so tired of feeling like I was getting blown up like a balloon every night.

[staceyburke]

No in fact the EPR will make it very possible that you will not need it that high but we will see when you post again.

[llada]

Here's the file from last night with the recommended adjustments.  I did also wear a cervical collar for the first time last night for mouth leaking, so I woke up a few times from that (had it way too tight initially), but on balance I do feel much better today than I have yet with CPAP.  Does this look like an improvement that you would expect with the changes to pressure and EPR?  Thanks again 

[staceyburke]

Yes much better. You could go a day or two to see how you feel at these pressures. We could raise both min and max by one but you are doing good