[Treatment] Chuu's Therapy Thread

[Chuuclysm]

Hello you bloody legends! Before getting into anything else I wanted to say thank you to all you great humans that I see tirelessly helping people deal with sleep apnoea. I've been reading a lot over the past few days and it's been very insightful. 

TLDR: Just saying hello for now, thanking you lot. No OSCAR postings yet as still gathering some days.

I was told about this forum from a very, very nice person called RippingLegos from the SA Reddit. I'm unsure of their username here but wanted to shout them out as they said they were an advisor here and it showed from the help they gave me back on Reddit but seeing all the help that is provided here I wanted to move here and hopefully slay my SA dragon fully in the future with your help.

Some context: I'm from the UK, will be 39 soon, overweight at 132KG (I was 155KG end of Feb!) and diagnosed with severe SA at 44 AHI. I won't go into why I was overweight too much but suffice to say I used to suffer with depression but kicked that dragon to the curb without any medication but my vice was comfort eating to the extreme ^^; However, in late Feb of this year I started to take my health seriously and I've been trying ever since to fix as many problems with my body as I can. I'm currently working closely with my doctor and undergoing various tests such as an echocardiogram that I'm due to get next month and others that aren't relevant here but suffice to say I'm doing my very best now to make life worth living.  

I recently got my CPAP machine after waiting from April (when I was diagnosed) and I've had it 7 days now. The NHS is an amazing organisation but sadly has many issues I wish I could fix but nonetheless I'm glad to have the machine now and thankful for their support with accessories and the like. Sadly though, when I spoke to the NHS worker who issued me my machine they openly admitted they only care about the AHI number and so long as that's low they don't really bother beyond that... He also went the 'lazy sleep doc' route as RippingLegos put it leaving it with APAP 4-20CM ramp on etc, lol. The default settings vs the first batch I got from RippingLegos was a night and day difference as I couldn't sleep at all with the default on the first day but the 2nd night I got 3 hours of use in and now I can comfortably keep the mask on for as long as I want.


Settings I'm currently using as per RippingLegos:
RedMed AirSense 10 Autoset
APAP mode
Max Pressure: 15.4cm
Min Pressure: 7.4cm
EPR on @ level 3 and EPR type is fulltime
Full face F20 mask (I normally get one side of my nose blocked which alternates so I went for full face) and climateline heated tube. Currently looking into nasal sprays that can be used long-term to deal with this.

Right now my AHI is good according to MyAir app but I know that's not the full story as I'm still waking up a few times a night. With my SA I've never really felt overly tired once 2-3 hours have passed and decent enough energy to go about my day so it's a little difficult to judge how much of an effect I'm getting at the moment but it's still very extremely early days for me having only had the machine for 7 days! I feel comfortable with the mask on and the sensation of air being forced in, thankfully. 

I intend to gather a bit more data before looking at OSCAR but I've had an SD card in for a few days now. I've also got a Wellue Checkme O2 Max to monitor my O2 levels to make sure they are okay as I've been a bit worried about them as my Samsung watch has noted a few drops below 90% when I've forgot to use my nasal spray before bed. 

I'll leave it there now but I'll be back once I've got a bit more data. If I've missed anything important I'll add it then but for now thanks for reading <3

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

Happy to help anytime mate. Be sure to read the links in my signature for “Download OSCAR” and “Formatting OSCAR Charts”. They explain the details of what we like to see in the charts.

No idea who “RippingLegos” may be, but their advice is similar to what we would suggest. Glad you found someone who can get you started right proper.

[Phaleronic]

Welcome to the forum Chuuclysm! Thanks for the shout Glad to help here too, are you waking up for any specific reasons you recall??

[Chuuclysm]

Happy to help anytime mate. Be sure to read the links in my signature for “Download OSCAR” and “Formatting OSCAR Charts”. They explain the details of what we like to see in the charts.

No idea who “RippingLegos” may be, but their advice is similar to what we would suggest. Glad you found someone who can get you started right proper.

Thanks, I've gone ahead and tinkered with OSCAR and I'll be attaching two days of data now and I *think* I've got it set up correctly but the PC I'm using at the moment isn't the best so the resolution might be a bit off or not zoomed in correctly. I'll do my best to correct ASAP if so.

Welcome to the forum Chuuclysm!    Thanks for the shout  Glad to help here too, are you waking up for any specific reasons you recall??

Thanks! Nice to see you here too

I don't wake up feeling like I'm gasping for air as far as I can recall and the O2 monitor said I only dipped below 90% for 30 secs. Last night wasn't the best in-terms of waking up though as I distinctly recall waking up around 1 hour after going to sleep and then the following hour after that where I decided to try sleeping on my back to see how that affected things before getting a few hours in only to wake up again. I normally sleep on my side and last night the AHI was as high as it's ever been since the 2nd day of using your settings. I normally sleep on my right side too.

Even on the 12th where my AHI was zero I'm sure I woke up once or twice. It's frustrating as I would really like to sleep through since I don't mind the mask/pressure when going to sleep at the moment but then that's why most of us are here, lol.

I've gone ahead and attached two OSCAR reports but I have more if needed. One from the 12th where my AHI was zero and the latest one from last night where I woke up 4 times and the AHI was 4. According to my Samsung watch on the 12th my O2 didn't drop below 90% on the 12th.

       

[Chuuclysm]

Had quite a rough night last night. Woke up twice around 1 hour after each other but after waking up the 2nd time I couldn't get back to sleep for love nor money! I'm dreading looking at the OSCAR for last night so any help from my previous post would be greatly appreciated.

[Narcil]

i think you need to post yesterday's night. your previous charts show your therapy is working. i assume you were awake until 00:10 on jul 15th? looks like a bit of positional apnea while you were trying to sleep, maybe trying to sleep on your back?

did your sleep study show any centrals?

[Chuuclysm]

Hey Narcil, thanks for the assistance.

Yeah, when it comes to the 15th I think you're right with regards to me trying to sleep in the supine position. Silly I know but I was just curious to see the difference now I had the machine but I'll be sleeping on my right side as I normally do. I only really tried it out of curiosity and because I woke up twice. 

I've attached the OSCAR from last night to this post. I'm not really sure how to read them properly myself but after I woke up the 2nd time I was awake until I turned my CPAP off around 6AM as I wanted to keep the routine. 

I don't have access to my sleep study report. I did just call the sleep office but it seems they're a bit cagey about giving them out in the UK for some reason but I'm going to be called back Thursday and the receptionist will let me know if the manager will send it to me. As far as I'm aware I was only told I had OSA and no other details. Regardless, I'll post back in the morning after I know if I'm getting it or not.

The most annoying thing for me right now is I seem to wake up one hour after falling asleep and then another hour following that one. I'm prepared for the long fight to get to the point where I can have my 4-6 hours without waking up which I'm sure wouldn't be possible without you all. I've got a CPAP pillow and I'll be sticking to being shaven every 2-3 days now as I think my stubble might have been affecting things.

[Chuuclysm]

Here are the last three days worth of OSCAR data. Comparatively to my sleep study 44 AHI this is obviously good but I keep waking up every few hours which is my main issue I'd like to solve as I'm working hard via a stupidly healthy diet to carry on losing weight to aid things further. 

Right now I'm exclusively sleeping on my sides with a normal pillow and then a CPAP pillow I got from Amazon that has two half cutouts on each end which I angle my head on the higher part of the pillow letting my mask have the cutout space to avoid leaks. Normally when I wake up I'll switch to the other side and sometimes check the phone to see roughly what time it is when I wake up but I'm blind as a bat without my glasses.

No reply from my request to get my full sleep study data but I'll post back when I get it but due to the global tech issues at the moment I'm cutting my GP some slack.  One good development is I've started to use a nasal spray called Beconase which has kept both nostrils open compared to how I always used to have one blocked

I'll post again in another three days with more data but if I could get any insights into tweaking things more and potentially getting a night of sleep without waking up it would be very much appreciated and dare I say I'd even bring out the cookie bribes.

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

I do not think there is anything to tweak further at the moment. It looks quite grand. 

Not every night will be the same even with the same settings. You have the sleep apnoea well under control at the moment, now you need to focus on sleep hygiene. 

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene

[Chuuclysm]

@PeaceLoveAndPizza
*leaves a Pizza* 

Thanks for your support. I'll try to get better at sleep hygiene. 

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A general question for anyone that is reading but for those who have been through this themselves roughly when did you start sleeping through the night without waking up?