New to sleep apnea with some questions

[stringbean018]

Last year I was diagnosed with some heart problems, long story there but among other tests I wore a heart monitor for 2 weeks and while I was sleeping at times my heart rate would momentarily spike to over 200 bpm.  In December my doctor had me get a sleep study done suspecting some of my heart problems could be related to sleep apnea.  The study came back with mild sleep apnea: AHI=6.4, RDI=18.9, 20 apneas 5 central apneas, 86 hypopneas) and the recommended a starting pressure of 6cm H2O.  My doctor wanted me to get an auto cpap; last night was only my second night with it.  I got the Philips dreamstation and nose pillow masks.  Also, to note I have a deviated septum an ENT diagnosed 6 years ago that never got fixed because insurance refused to get it fixed, as a result I have a hard time breathing through my right side of my nose.  

I had some questions I wanted to get some advice on

• My first night was misserable trying to get used to it, but last night I slept and didn't wake up, so the oscar screen shots for that are attached.
  
• It shows my ahi went up, is that normal when starting out as I get used to the cpap?
  
• With the nasal pillows I feel like i am not getting enough air to breath, should I try a face mask or should I stick with the nasal pillows for a bit?  Keeping my mouth closed doesn't seem to be a problem, but I feel a tad suffocated.  
  
• It looks like the 90% pressure on thursday was 9.6 cm and last night was 8.8 cm should change the minimum pressure for 6 cm more in line with what the study came back with?
  

[harrywr2]

recommended a starting pressure of 6cm H2O

Your minimum pressure appears to be set at 4 from the screenshots you posted. Not many adults will feel like they are 'getting enough to breath' at 4cmH20.

[JoeyWallaby]

Your screenshots have your full name in them at the top, you might want to remove that.

Please post your complete sleep study with personal information censored. Your sleep study results being mostly hypopneas poses a problem, hypopneas are not sub-classified into obstructive or central (unless done voluntarily). You could have a lot of central hypopneas, which won't be treated by anything but ASV.

[Gideon]

Welcome to the forum.

See if you can swap this dreamstation for a ResMed AutoSet.
You have RERAs and Flow Limits showing here and RERAs mentioned in your Sleep Study. Respironics don't perform nearly as well as the ResMed in treating those.
ResMed does a better job of treating Hypopneas (most of your obstructive events), Flow Limits, RERAs, Snores (you don't have any) and UARS. ResMed's EPR is more flexible than PR's Flex in managing Central Apnea (EPR can be reduced incrementally potentially reducing central apnea)

Thus in general the ResMed AutoSet is a much better machine to treat your Apnea. Make a fuss NOW and see if you can make it happen. There is a BIG difference between these machines for you.

[stringbean018]

Thanks for the replies, I’m not home so I can’t post my sleep study or edit the previous pictures I attached.  

I did just call the place I got it from in town and they said I can swap it out for the ResMed autosense 10 if I wanted to(within the next 30 days). They said it’s a better machine and all I would have to do is pay the fee difference.  Is that the machine you were referring to?

[Gideon]

AirSense is a model line, there is no such thing as autosense, AirSense 10 contains
CPAP- (BRICK - NO Data) you don't want this, ever, at all.
Elite - CPAP with data
AutoSet - APAP very good machine
AutoSet for Her - APAP very good machine with an extra algorithm that may apply to you even though you are male.

If the machine is one of the AutoSets then yes.
ALL of these machines are the same "Billing Code" as the machine that you have, that means your insurance pays the same for any of them. What is the fee difference? Call your insurance company to find out about this.

[stringbean018]

Yes I meant the autoset, I googled it and found out I typed it wrong. My insurance only will pay for the base model so I had to pay an extra $100 for my Dreamstation and the autoset is slightly more then the dreamstation so I would have to pay the difference in the two charges.

[Gideon]

I am 100% convinced that your therapy, once optimized, and ALL machines need to be optimized, will be better with the AutoSet. Note the retail price for both AutoSet machines is the same.