Potential palatal prolapse?
I just read about palatal prolapse (thank you to SleepyCPAP for creating your thread) and I think I might have this issue too, but I want a second opinion to make sure I'm not just latching onto an explanation because I'd like to finally figure out what's causing me to wake up suddenly.
My main issue is that I often wake up suddenly about 15-20 minutes after falling asleep, often repeatedly. I'll have nights where I take 4-5 naps back to back instead of normal sleep, which results in feeling like I haven't rested at all. I don't feel short of breath when I wake up, and OSCAR doesn't report any events at this time. In the flow rate waveform, there's almost always a large up and down spike that's noticeably larger than the surrounding peaks and troughs recorded at the time when I wake up. I know the exact time when this happens because I take a screenshot of my phone's lock screen to record the time. Some screenshots:
I think it may be palatal prolapse because of some strange waveforms I've seen that look similar to other palatal prolapse waveforms I've seen posted (will post screenshots in a reply to this post), I feel throat irritation right around where the end of the soft palate is, I don't feel shortness of breath whenever I wake up but do feel something like my throat expanded, and Advil helps me stay asleep for some reason.
Any thoughts?
RE: Potential palatal prolapse?
RE: Potential palatal prolapse?
Palatal Prolapse has a very distinct from normal wave form. I don't see it here. I see one arousal and small bit iof tossing but not what you are looking for.
The main symptom is the inability to exhale.
RE: Potential palatal prolapse?
The flow rate pattern for palatal prolapse is a normal start to expiration with a sudden cutoff to zero-flow. The image below is a classic example what it looks like in Oscar, (we need to get this into the wiki), and we have a member that eventually treated this with an AlaxoStent. Link to thread
http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...AlaxoStent
RE: Potential palatal prolapse?
Thank you Sleeprider and Gideon for the replies. I will keep experimenting with my CPAP settings to see if I can fix my wakeup problem, I will try enabling EPR to see if it helps. It's almost like the CPAP isn't or can't react quick enough to the sudden flow limitation.
I've ruled out a positional component because the issue happens when I'm on my back and on my side and also when elevating my head.
RE: Potential palatal prolapse?
Turning on EPR to 3 made a HUGE difference. Overnight, almost all my flow limits disappeared with that one change and I had 0 of the sudden wakeups that characterized previous nights. Fingers crossed that this night wasn't a one-off and I can get consistent and uninterrupted sleep.
EPR 0:
EPR 3:
RE: Potential palatal prolapse?
The flow limitation was clear in the zoom of your flow rate above. Flattened and multi-peak inspiration waves. I guess we should have said something, but instead focused on PP. Good job figuring out the solution.
RE: Potential palatal prolapse?
No worries! It's my fault for not realizing that to find the solution to my problem I had to search for "flow limitation" instead of trying to describe my symptoms to the search bar.
I greatly appreciate all the help you've given me and everyone else here.