[Treatment] Treatment not working for me.

[villarst]

I recently got diagnosed with OSA and have to say that treatment for it has really been hell for me. I originally, during my in lab sleep study, received a 107 AHI. This is really bad so the doctor prescribed me a BiPAP machine with 11/16 as the settings. I think the 16 is exhale and 11 being the inhale but I could be wrong. I know this is how the numbers looked on the prescription for the machine. Well, fast forward to two months later, and I am not where I want to be. I currently hover around 10-17 AHI nightly and can not for the love of god figure out why I am still somewhat higher than normal in terms of AHI. I know that 0-5 is considered normal while 5-15 is mild and 15-30 is moderate. I am frustrated too with how the doctors responded to my request for another look at my settings. From what I remember they told me to bump the 11 to a 12 which imo has not done anything. They even told me it could be the mask which I changed from the Amara View Mask to a F20 which also I feel has not really done anything. I have gotten used to sleeping with the machine and it feels good but I am starting to notice that during the day I still feel very tired to the point where I need coffee or I will fall asleep. I asked some people on reddit about this who referred me here and they told me it could be that I am tucking my chin at night so a cervical collar could work but I am kind of doubting that mainly because I slept with a thin and thick pillow on alternating nights and still received the same readings. I even tried to keep my head position up but who knows my neck stays in that position when I actually sleep. Is there anything I can do or should I try to get an appointment with the sleep lab in my city again and hope they can actually help me? I will attach a few days of the readings from OSCAR.

https://imgur.com/a/cp4SD2d

[staceyburke]

You have positional apnea. This is when you sleep in a position that cuts off your airway. No machine can help with positional apnea. You have to find a way to sleep without cutting off your airway. 

Think of it as a garden hose with a kink in it. The water will not flow until you get the kink out of the hose. 

Most of the time when you have positional apnea bit is because your chin is dropping down to your sternum. Yours is bad enough that you would need a collar to keep your chin up. You can get them at any drug store. The main measurement is the height of it needs to be the distance between your chin and sternum. 

Also please look at the link in my signature (bottom of the page) on collars. It shows charts of people without a collar and the same people with collars.  HUGE difference!!