suddenly a lot of OA's

[cberistain]

Last night my AHI was 3.8 .. that may seem OK for many, but usually I'm between 0.0 and 0.3. I suspect that I'm sleeping on my back during those events, as I hurt my hip I side sleep on, so I'm moving around more than normal. Can you tell from the attachment what is causing this?

[Sleeprider]

We can see the pattern of increasing flow limitation leading into the obstructive apnea, and a clustering of events. This is "positional", or more precisely chin-tucking. It is probably related to your change in sleeping position. Chin tucking can occur on your back or side and is simply the chin dropping toward the chest causing an obstruction in the airway. This is so common amongst members we have a wiki http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...onal_Apnea You may be able to deal with this by being aware of the problem and taking steps like removing extra pillows, or avoiding the chin-tuck in another way. When laying on my side, I often pull a corner of the pillow between my jaw and top of my shoulder. In serious cases, and I would not consider this serious, a soft cervical collar might be used.

[cberistain]

I  should have mentioned I do use a cervical collar and a breathe right on my nose. and I have a cpap type pillow with cutouts .. 

I do like your idea of tucking the edge of the pillow under the neck. I'll start doing that tonight.

I was pretty sure the cause of the OA's was positional and I know from the past if I wake up at night sleeping on my back that I can expect some OA's. Happy you were able to support my feelings with some OSCAR facts.   :-)

charlie

[KeepSmiling]

cberistain,

It would be good to have older scans to see the what is happening.

The scan shows the machine worked like a CPAP at the maximum pressure the machine was set at.

It could be that you were on your back, the level of sleep you were in, the position of your neck.

Sorry to hear about your hip. Are you taking meds, that may cause changes to your sleep?

How do you feel? The question asked to judge treatment, instead of just data, may be difficult to judge now while in pain.

I do not know your history of why your pressure is set like that. If there is no medical reason that you are not allowed to sleep on your back (right side) and it is more comfortable do that and readjust your CPAP pressure to allow you to sleep comfortably and lower the AHI.

[cberistain]

my sleep study said most of my apneas were when sleeping on my back .. hence  my desire to not sleep that way if I can help it.

hip injury is from mountain biking .. nothing serious but will take another few weeks to fully recover. ( yes I know an 85 yr old guy should not be mountain biking, but it is in my blood)

as far as how I'm feeling.. really not much different on days with 0.0 AHI and days with over 3.0 AHI's

I got lots of advice on the machine settings from this group .. seems a constant setting works best for me ..

[Brazen]

Good on you being out there doing crazy sports at 85yrs old! 

KeepSmiling asked a good question. 

If you still feel just as good at AHI 3s...  and you know it's temporary based on sleeping position due to injury...

Why not just leave it be?

Maybe take a look at trying to solve the chin tucking a little more but your settings worked well before and there's no reason to think they won't work again - as soon as you can comfortably sleep that way again.

I bet you have more fun things to do than chase cpap settings when you feel good. 

(Like some other crazy inappropriate activity for your age! Lol)

[Old Steve]

85 years old! Good for you, you make me feel like a kid again, I'm only 75...

[cberistain]

"Why not just leave it be?"

guess I'm not 100% sure it is a temporary condition .. doesn't hurt to learn more and be prepared if everything goes south.
 
at my age, I have learned to stay on top of any/all health concerns .. that is just me.