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+--- Thread: Brazen Therapy Thread (/Thread-Brazen-Therapy-Thread)
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Brazen - 09-14-2022
@Gideon
"Restorative sleep is peaceful." This feels subjective... subjectively I would say I slept incredibly peacefully (aka: like the dead.) prior to cpap but the objective data does not support that so I feel like I have to depend on the data.
Attached is two more nights OSCAR data.
I increased max pressure to 9.4cmw last night, I don't spot any improvement but I can certainly give that more time.
Is there anything in the data that explains not feeling rested? Anything I need to change?
I'm still waiting on my sleep clinic to send me the report from my sleep study. I've asked twice.
I find myself procrastinating going to bed at night because I don't want to put on the mask. I know I have to just get over that.
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Gideon - 09-14-2022
IMHO at this scale it looks as close to perfect as you will get
As a learning point, on the 13th look at a 2-3 minute view of your flow rate just after the initial break. That should be an excellent example of your awake breathing. Nothing wrong at all just look at it to see what it looks like.
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Brazen - 09-14-2022
@Gideon...
Sorry, I was posting and didn't see your reply...
Okay... Bi-level. What do I need to ask/say to my sleep doc to suggest going in that direction? What in the data suggests needing that? (explain like I'm 5, please) I have an appointment in October.
I'm on board, all in, if this is the direction I need to go to feel better I'll do it. I don't need subtle, I appreciate direct.
I'm also working on losing weight. I know that doesn't always fix things but I gained 25 pounds about two years ago when I started feeling incredibly fatigued and I don't know what came first.... apneas or weight gain. Losing weight can't hurt.
Thank you!
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Brazen - 09-14-2022
@Gideon
Do you mean right at 0121?
I purposefully took five deep breaths last night when I first put on my mask. I needed to relax and I wanted to see what they would look like on the flow limit.
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Brazen - 09-14-2022
@Gideon
I think I was awake for about 20mins, thinking the first 4 events of the night aren't "real".
Two CAs around 0248... could those be REM apneas?
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Brazen - 09-15-2022
So, I've increased my pressure (because I seemed to be maxing out?).
Is it possible it's making things worse?
I was at 7-9cmw
Increased to 7-9.6cmw
Last two nights my AHI is higher than it has been. In 100+ days I'm averaging AHI 2.ish. Last night was 4.
Attached last two nights.
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - DaveCar - 09-16-2022
This may be a rehash if I missed it while scrolling thru there but..
Is the basic air path okay ?
Intake filter is clean ? If you use a super-fine filter for pollen etc try just normal filter.
There should be no leaks around the mask/face junction. Its tricky to get our facial muscles to relax fully while conscious.
If very hard to seal, maybe wrong size mask ?
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Dog Slobber - 09-16-2022
Increasing the maximum pressure from 9cm to 9.4 would not have been responsible for the increased AHI.
The graph shows only on one occasion your pressure going above 9. It increased to abut 9.3 and a Central did occur, but all the other events occurred with the pressure less than 9. You maximum could have been set to 20cm that session and your graph would have been identical.
A better explanation is the normal volatility, that we experience every night.
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Brazen - 09-16-2022
@Dog Slobber -- Thank you, that makes sense. Just didn't like seeing highest AHI since starting treatment.
Last night was better.
RE: Brazen Therapy Thread - Dog Slobber - 09-16-2022
Sometimes, especially in our early days of CPAP, we tend to focus too much on the numbers, or one particular night and keep pushing buttons and twisting dials hoping to find the perfect numbers and sleep better than ever.
That rarely happens.
I believe in optimizing our therapies, but I also strongly believe that one of the best things for our therapy is just getting used to that darn thing we stick on our face every night.
We've spent the majority of our lives with nothing on our face, now we go to bed and strap on a mask, and our brains ging, WTF!
For me, I got some initial optimizing, but I had a few centrals going on, not unlike your own. They just gradually went away. When our bodies hit a specific level of CO2, our brain gets the signal to breath. With CPAP, and pressure a lot of the CO2 that hangs around gets washed out by the CPAP and we're getting less signals to breath because there's less CO2 build-up. Over a period of several weeks or months YMMV, we get accustomed to the new levels of CO2 because of CPAP and the centrals dwindle down to nothing.
These occasional Centrals are not a problems, sure we'd like a lower AHI, but a few centrals scattered through out the night is not a problem.
It's when we see huge clusters of centrals, that we should take a closer look and take steps to find out why and how to reduce them.