Optimising Treatment - Help interpreting OSCAR

[teaspoonofsugar]

Thank you! As mentioned even getting down to this level [from 100+ AHI on my intake test] has been pretty incredible, so now it's just the "competitive spirit" in me wanting to do even better. I actually "fired" my primary care doctor over this due to her initial reluctance/insistence that I could just sew a tennis ball to the back of my shirt/it'd go away if I just lost ten pounds. 

[apparently had a little venting to do]

[staceyburke]

Flow limits are smaller apnea. If you look at the bottom of the post you can see how apnea is Categorized. If they are high they disrupt sleep, stop you from getting into a deeper sleep or even wake you up.

[SarcasticDave94]

Yep that's typical of the joker Dr. McQuack types. You stick around here for a bit and our members will teach you enough to self advocate, your other docs will go on vacation.

[teaspoonofsugar]

Funny enough, I saw my current doctor as a walk-in for a totally unrelated matter and within about three minutes he had clocked my loud breathing and asked if I had ever gone for a study. So good(ish) ones exist.

[Geer1]

Positional apnea is probably part of the issue but I think there is more than that at play. I think your flow limit and snore are maxing pressure (your average pressure was 19.3 cm indicating it was maxed most of the night) but the high pressure isn't helping reduce your flow limits or snore and instead is just making it more difficult for you to breath.

I would try limiting your max pressure to 12 cm (with your current min of 12 that means your pressure will stay fixed at 12 cm). This will either decrease AHI, flow limits etc or it will make them worse but the only way to know what will happen is to try it.

Feel free to try a night or two of different pillow arrangements, sleeping on side etc first to see the difference that position makes before trying this.

[staceyburke]

This is incredibly helpful! That also tracks, I sleep on my back as a default AND I've lately been propped up on a couple pillows that I got used to while I had an ear infection earlier this year.

Can you help me understand what you saw in the charts to tease that out [I believe you! Just want a greater understanding of what's going on]

Positional apnea is usually found by looking at the O and H charts. “Clustered in either or both indicates positional apnea. This is not 100% but yours is very likely to be positional.