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First off, thanks to all for this forum! I am lost! New to Cpap with just a week under my belt now. have ups and downs with it so far and the doc is no help as of yet. It seems a lot of my apneas now stem around pressure increase and leak rate because of the pressure. I have woke several times to what feels like a leaf blower straight into the mouth and to disrupts my sleep. Day one the doc had the unit set to 5min 15max flow rate zero EPR. I switched the EPR to 1 now which is better so far. He now wants me to get a sleep Titration study to get the numbers closer and will not adjust ANYTHING for 5 weeks. I'm not sure I can last that long! Any advice and help would be greatly appreciated!
The clusters of apneas are usually positional apneas from bending your neck. If you sleep on your back, try sleeping on your side, if that doesn't work try a soft cervical collar. Also, your minimum pressure appears too low, for now, I would set it at 8cm or perhaps 9cm and leave the EPR where it is. Try for a few days and see if it helps then post some more charts.
IMHO
Set Min to 7
Set EPR=3
To help with the flow limits which are what is driving your pressure up.
Also see the clusters of obstructive events? This is typically the positional apnea others are talking about. Try a pillow adjustment, use 1, not 2, pillows.or a flatter, less firm pillow. Failing that try a soft cervical collar, read the link in my signature. I would be very surprised if your doctor recognizes this.
IMHO, and assuming no medical conditions indicating otherwise ( you are healthy), you do not need a titration study. The actions I have suggested will go a long way to improving your therapy. I don't think your doctor wants to take the effort to do this himself.
Once you have done this you need to post another set of charts and go from there.
Gideon - Project Manager Emeritus for OSCAR - Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter
Thanks! I really appreciate your response! I did switch it to 7min 17max EPR 2 before your response. I will try it tonight and then EPR to 3 tomorrow then see what’s best for me. I did ask the doc to adjust and he flat out said “no” and that I had to wait till my ti test and our next appointment in 5 weeks. Insurance paid for my unit in full so I feel I have full right to make myself comfortable. I will post a screenshot from tonight’s session tomorrow and hopefully have great results
You will likely hear that you shouldn't do that, make your own settings. And likely hear it several times.
IMHO what you should not be doing is "dial winging", making random changes to see if they work. Changes should always have a plan, you should know what to expect from a change, and why you expect it. Then evaluate what actually happened both objectively (the numbers) and subjectively (how you feel, comfort) even the best do not know what will happen, they only know what to expect to happen. It doesn't always happen the way you expect. You evaluate and with your newfound knowledge make another adjustment.
Gideon - Project Manager Emeritus for OSCAR - Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter
Teach me Sensei! This is all so new and overwhelming. I have no idea what I’m looking at in Oscar and am frustrated so far. I just want to sleep better and feel good!
12-04-2023, 09:41 AM (This post was last modified: 12-04-2023, 09:43 AM by chaos58503.)
RE: New to APAP
Here is the last three nights of data. The first night I tried a higher minimum and max pressure (7min 17max). It wasn't a good night! Night 2 I tried the max pressure at 13 since I've been having problems with max pressure (7min 13max). Again, it was a bad night, worse by numbers in fact so night 3 I brought the max back to 15 and well it was better than the other two nights, it still wasn't great. any recommendations to really get this dialed in?
