LBartek03 - Therapy Thread

[LBartek03]

Hi all!

I'm looking for some advice/tips after recently getting an SD card and OSCAR for my sleep apnea. Attached you will find some of my data from OSCAR and the Home Sleep Test Diagnostics from my doctor.

I am a 22-year-old, 6'4", 195lbs, male. I got diagnosed with mild sleep apnea eight months ago but have slept horribly as far back as my memory goes. In the past 10+ years, rarely have I ever felt like I have slept well and I have nightmares every night (which might be related to childhood Trauma that happened at night or sleep apnea, not sure). I have consistently been using my CPAP for the past 10 days after not using one for several months due to insurance issues -- the non-usage has left me spiraling into intense memory loss, fatigue, rough mental health, etc.

I sleep with mouth tape as my mouth hangs open and I drool if I don't (my chin is slightly recessed and I have a small palate). My leakage seems to be better with the medium nasal pillow compared to the large so that is the size I am using. Also, I am naturally a stomach or back sleeper but in the past two months, I have been mainly sleeping on my side, although I sometimes wake up to find myself not doing so. My sleep schedule is from 10pm - 6am and I take no naps during the day (naps make it hard for me to fall asleep at night).

On the OSCAR summary, some of the older data is from a pressure of 4 cm/H20 - 9 cm/H20 and with different mask sizes.

All in all, any help would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to ask any clarifying questions.

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CPAP At Home Test Screenshot

[LBartek03]

I used a cervical collar last night for the first time and had zero OA's but still slept poorly. What I am noticing is that despite my sleep doc denying I have central apnea, my OSCAR reports for the past two weeks repeatedly show a majority of CA events. These events are usually in clusters towards the mid-to-tail end of my sleep and seem to be usually post-awakening.

Since my AHI is low (usually 2-5/hour with APAP, 5-10 with no machine) and I am currently transitioning job/insurance and that getting an ASV through prescription often takes a long time, I am seeking advice on how to mitigate my apneas at the moment and confirmation that I would likely do better on an ASV. I am struggling and barely capable of supporting myself so I need a solution relatively soon - meaning, that I will just purchase an ASV myself, but I want to make sure that the expensive buy is the right move.

Any help would be hugely appreciated! Also, I have been reading about lowering my max pressure to 9 or 10 cm/H20, does that sound like a good temporary idea?

[pilothaz]

I will let others who have more expertise chime in but from the info you show in the screens I don't know if your doctor would prescribe a ASV since you don't show any report's of CSRs happening.  That would be the waxing and waning with Central apneas in succession.

Again I will let others add to this, good luck with your treatment.

[OpalRose]

Hi LBartek03,
While researching, I noticed that you had another thread started. I merged the two threads together. If we can keep your history to this one thread, it makes it easier for others to advise.

I was originally going to ask you if you had a sleep study, which I found you posted a summary of in your previous thread.

My question: Did your sleep study show any Central Apnea? If you have more pages to your sleep study, please post it here. The additional detail is beneficial to know.

If there were no central apnea on your study, what you are seeing now is Treatment Emergent and will most likely settle down as you adapt to therapy.

[LBartek03]

Thanks for your input and kind words

[LBartek03]

Thanks for finding and merging the two threads!

That is all the information that is available to me about the sleep study, although, I just messaged my doc to try and get any more data/info. I asked my sleep doctor about if I had central apnea after the sleep test and they were adamant that I did not (and prescribed me APAP).

Got it. I saw only CA's and no OA's on my most recent charts (and a winning majority of CA's vs OA's since I started keeping data 2+ weeks ago) and was concerned I was targeting the wrong thing. Didn't realize it could be treatment-emergent. Thanks a ton for helping - if I get any more data from my sleep study I'll post them.