yedi144 - Therapy Thread

[yedi144]

        Trying to understand my data from Oscar  and i have no idea what I'm looking at or where to start to improve my sleep quality . All i know is that my data doesn't look good. I've been playing around with my air pressure but with no success , found this forum and is praying someone can help me . Feel like giving up on my treatment just about out of hope for getting good nights rest .

[staceyburke]

Welcome to the board. To k ow what is going on with your therapy please turn off the calendar and let us see the top of the left column that shows the machine you are using, it’s settings and AHI. We need those to know where you are in therapy.

[yedi144]

Thanks for the reply stacyburkes


hope this is better.

[staceyburke]

I think we can help your therapy with some basic changes. 

Change from fixed 14 to

Auto Cpap
Min 9
Max 15
EPR full time
EPR 3

Give it a night with these settings and post tomorrow your OSCAR charts and tell us how you are feeling with the new settings - we will tweak it from there.

[yedi144]

Will do.  Thank you you have no idea how much I appreciate your advice

[yedi144]

Data from last night

[staceyburke]

Sorry I'm so late responding, I had a lot to do today...  Looking at your night there are 2 things that we would want to try and fix.  First you still have very high Flow Limits and we already have you at EPR 3 - the highest we can go.  So the next is to raise the min by 1.

The second problem is you are showing positional apnea.   We can see those when there are grouped O or/and H events in the events chart.  Getting rid of as many as you can will lower your AHI.  Positional apnea can NOT be controlled by pressure changes.  You have to find out what position you are getting into and cutting off your own airway.  Have you changed your sleep position?  Sleeping on your back?  Using more (or new) pillows?  These things can cause positional apnea by your chin dropping to your sternum and cutting your airway.  Think of it of a kinked hose – nothing can get through – you have to unkink the hose…

IF you can’t make a simple change like changing to a flatter pillow helps then you will need a collar.  I have a link to collars in my signature at the bottom of the page.  It shows people who are not wearing a collar and the SAME person wearing a collar.  There is a huge difference between the two.

[yedi144]

Thanks for the reply .

I'm a side sleeper but I'm pretty sure my chin drops as soon as I fall asleep .

Which cervical collar do you recommend  ?
 Is my leak rate ok or is it too high ?

[staceyburke]

Your leak rate is fine but it is something you will always need to watch especially when you get a new mask or as you get worn head gear...  I have not worn a collar but the main measurment is the distance between your chin and sternum - that is the height of the collar you need.  Other than that is for it to fit around your neck confortaely.  Not to tight you need to be able to put 2 or 3 fingers betwwen the brace and neck.  and of course your chin will not go down.

[yedi144]

Thanks again .

Will get a collar and will post my results.  Hopefully it works