New to the Forum

[sleeplurker]

I have been kinda stalking for awhile, thought i'd join in the conversations. This is a very informative forum and glad that I joined.
I was diagnosed with sleep apnea a few years ago, been about 98% compliant but was still struggling to keep the CA's down. My doc suggested another sleep study and now I go back in a couple of weeks.

[quiescence at last]

I'd rather you be lurking than stalking. But, lurkers don't get caps, so I guess that'll do. Good luck with your therapy.

If you want to become more involved in your own care, then learn to use some sort of software, even if it is EncoreBasic.

By the way, how do you know you are having trouble with CAs? Is your machine displaying the different types, or are you having your information read by doctor's staff or DME?

Welcome.

QAL

[trish6hundred]

Hi sleeplurker,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck to you at your next sleep study, hang in there for more responses to your post and much success to you as you continue your CPAP therapy.

[Sleep2Snore]

Hi Sleeplurker,
Welcome to the forum and good luck with the treatment and your next Sleep Study.

I am also curious as asked

How do you know you are having trouble with CAs?

[Sleeprider]

Sleeplurker, welcome! The centrals are kind of a difficult problem, and I see you're using a BiPAP ST, so you should be seeing machine initiated breaths when you don't. It would be interesting to see your Sleepyhead data to see what's going on. If you need the software, or want to know how to post graphs, just let us know. I recently helped someone with complex apnea and a ASV go from over 10 AHI to less than one (tried to link but this site won't allow it). I'm still trying to figure out how we pulled that off, but it worked. Sometimes working together we get surprising results.

[sleeplurker]

Are you all sitting down..... contrary to what is written on the forums, I actually sat down face to face with my sleep doctor and we went over the summary and a few of the graphs. How cool is that!!!!

Here are some of the numbers:

total recording time 405.5 minutes
actual sleep time 206.0 minutes
Rem was 134 mintues
REM occupied 26.0% of TST
the remaing 74% of TST was light sleep
AHI severely elevated 33.5 events p/h predominantly central events
AHI in REM 14.6 events p/h consistently centrals
107 episodes of desaturation with a nadir of 81%
Using a ResMed VPAP Tx S7.... at 21cmH2O IPAP /' 16cmH2O EPAP is ineffective at controlling the disorder
limb movement indes elevated at 83.7
PLM index 19.2
PLM arousal index normal at 5.8
Arousal Index severely elevated 46.6

I understand some of it, but not all, anyway that's why i'll be going back for another study in a couple of weeks.

[Sleeprider]

Sounds like a complex sleep apnea and some other issues. Was that without the machine?
Other health conditions and any drugs you are prescribed should have also been part of your discussion with the doctor, but at least you're getting personal attention and professional help with this.

[sleeplurker]

Sleeprider thanks for the comments., hopefully i'll be able to get this under control with the help of the doctors and some insight from the members of the forum..
it's pretty frustrating to say the least.
Thanks......

[Sleeprider]

You're on track to resolve this with your doctor, but keep in mind, most of us have found we needed to verify the efficacy of our treatment and get input from others. The best way to do this is to get the Sleepyhead software so you can see detail of your breathing, apneas, pressures, machine initiated breaths and many other aspects. The ability to participate in your treatment is an important part of your ultimate success.

Download SH software here: http://sleepfiles.com/SH/index.html?TestingVersions
extract the files to your hard drive and create a shortcut on your desktop

Learn how to post graphs in full detail on the forum. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...pnea_Board

Good luck! We're here to help and support.