SleepyDawg OSCAR Review (Self-Titrated)

[SleepyDawg]

Hi All - 
I was recently diagnosed with OSA with a home sleep study AHI of 57.2. 
I'm a 55 year-old female with a BMI of 54.8.  
I have recently changed my diet and increased my exercise.  I have dropped 30 pounds in 3 months.

The hospital sleep lab is backed up, (hence the home sleep study was all I could get scheduled through them and that took 3 months to get an appointment).  
My titration study, (overnight in the lab), won't be for another month.
I ordered my equipment from Supplier #1 and started to test it out.  
I just completed my first week, having inputted a min of 7.00 and a max of 12.00 for pressures as a starting point.  
I also put an EPR of 2 to start.  I use the humidifier and the FFM AirTouch F20.

I am a mouth-breather.  I have tried the chin strap and don't like it, (too hot on my head).  I have also tried SCC and could not overcome the choking feeling, (quite chubby around my neck with a 17-inch measurement).  I am using the Contour CPAP Max pillow and trying to train myself to sleep on my side.

Attached is last night's OSCAR data.
I would really appreciate any feedback from the Forum!

Thank you in advance.

[staceyburke]

Welcome to the board.  The way you showed OSCAR makes it very hard to see how you are really doing.  The segment you show is only about 10 seconds long.  You need to zoom out to see the entire night, right now the only part of the night we can see is the light part of the top chart.

Your numbe AHI looks great and you have the mahine set up ok.  When you post again make sure we can see the full night in the bottom charts.

[Narcil]

You'll have to post your data for an entire night, the screenshot you posted is a 3 min zoomed in view and we can't see much. you can right click the graph title "Event Flags" and select "100% zoom".

Good luck with your therapy, your AHI looks very good. down to 0.6 so looks like you did a good job with the settings.

hopefully someone that uses a FFM comments on your mask issues cuz i have no experience but have you considered mouth taping? i think that's the last option if you tried a SCC and chin strap. or you need a more comfortable chin strap.

[SleepyDawg]

I've attached an updated view with the 100% zoom.

[staceyburke]

You have high flow limits. To help they set min 8
EPR 3

Post tomorrow

[SleepyDawg]

Good morning!
I adjusted the lower limit to 8.0 and increased the EPR to 3.
In the middle of the night I had rainout which woke me up, so I turned the temperature and humidity back to Auto.  That solved the moisture issue.  I don't think the rainout had anything to do with the pressure and EPR changes as I had rainout on the night of the 13th as well, (when I switched to manual mode and lowered the temp but forgot to lower the humidity!)

Attached is the chart from last night.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Narcil]

You still have a lot of flow limits, meaning your airway is partially obstructed when the machine is giving you the max pressure of 12 and with EPR on 3. I would start raising max pressure slowly so the machine has more room to work to try to get that airway open.

I would do 1cm at a time until 15 to start with, give yourself 2-3 days to get used to the new pressure before increasing again if flow limits are still there.

[SleepyDawg]

Thank you!

Do you think any of this could be positional apnea due to the excess fat around my neck?

[staceyburke]

I would raid the min by 1 not the max. I don’t think it is positional. We need to get the machine to get to a higher pressure quicker - that is why I would raise the min.

[Narcil]

i don't think it looks positional.