+- Apnea Board Forum - CPAP | Sleep Apnea (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Public Area (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Public-Area)
+--- Forum: Main Apnea Board Forum (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Main-Apnea-Board-Forum)
+--- Thread: [Treatment] Need feedback on inconsistent results (/Thread-Treatment-Need-feedback-on-inconsistent-results)
Need feedback on inconsistent results - fog.apnea - 09-02-2017
First, thank you for all the members who have been helping others on this site with advising and sharing their experiences. This is my first post so wanted to start with a note of appreciation to that group.
A little about my history, diagnosis and treatment
- Had seen noticeable fatigue, brain fog, stuttering etc.. since Nov '16 to the point were I could sense something was wrong not attributable to stress from work, activities etc. I have kept a log of how I felt everyday since that time. Though these symptoms were noticeable since Nov, the same symptoms have been there though slowly aggravated over 2+ years now. Primary doc thought it is stress and chronic headaches (I get severe migraines and they got more frequent) when visited few times to complain of this issue between Dec-Apr.Thanks to my persistence, my PC doc recommended me to a neurologist who also happens to be a sleep doc to my luck.
- Was diagnosed with severe OSA with AHI at 37 in May. I had gone through several other tests (72 hr EEG, brain scan, auto-immune) during this time as my neuro wanted to rule out other possibliities and all came negative
- I am 72 days into my hose treatment, as of 9/1/17
- I did have some learning experience in the first week and thanks to the forums like this, was able to easily overcome those challenges. First 2 days woke up with dry mouth and problem resolved after wearing a chinstrap. I am a determined person so I have had absolutely no problem adjusting to the therapy (device, mask, sleep etc..). I also do not have problems with waking up in the night and usually sleep through before and after the therapy
- I use a APAP machine and my prescribed setting is 10-13 though I changed the low settings sometimes to 8.4 couple times and set it at 9 few times (10 days).
- I also monitor myself with an IP camera and NVR (network video recorder) software. (I am an IT professional with 15+ yrs experience in the field so am a bit comfortable with network/computer related stuff. I expect to write a separate article on how I use the technology to aid my therapy). I learned from watching the recordings that even the <2 AHI that I currently have are primarily rolling over etc so really my AHI is pretty much 0 in my analysis.
- Attached is my SH data summary as a screenshot
Edited per Moderator
I realize the therapy can take time (months) to see results and am likely a bit early to expect success so am willing to wait it out. However what's puzzling is how I felt and reacted to the treatment over the 72 days especially the last 12 days. The daily log that I maintain to see how I feel .. I use a 1-10 scale with 10 being worst which is benchmark for the worst feeling I had for before I started therapy.
Here comes my question that am looking some feedback and/or advise for
After the first week of therapy I felt pretty good for most part with 75% of the days feeling refreshed (between 0-4 on my scale which is pretty good given how I felt prior to the therapy) until past 2 weeks (12 days to be precise) where I have been pretty consistently feeling groggy to the point of the pre-cpap days (5-10 on my scale) which I find odd and trying to explore the possibilities of the cause(s) and reason for my post. There have been no changes on my side (sleep schedule, sick, routine etc..) and the SH data looks great (in my opinion) pretty much during all of the CPAP usage.
I should do note though that pre-cpap also I used to have ups and downs on how I felt during any day but they have gotten worse especially last few weeks prior to the start of the therapy and which really forced me to have my primary doc send me to a neuro/sleep doc. I DO can tell the difference between good days pre and post CPAP therapy and the post CPAP therapy good days are more refreshing so I have confidence the cpap treatment is working.
I have a follow up appointment with my neuro on 9/6 to discuss this issue but trying to be prepared for the visit and get most out of it.
Will appreciate any feedback and/or advise regarding my question.
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - Crimson Nape - 09-02-2017
Hi fog.apnea -
You are unable to serve or embed an image link from your home computer. You will need to use an image hosting service, such as imgur for this purpose.
Again, Welcome to the board!
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - fog.apnea - 09-02-2017
I apologize .. for some reason the screenshot didn't attach properly in my original post and showing binary data and I couldn't correct in time. I will try to send the SH data separately.
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - Crimson Nape - 09-02-2017
I forgot to mention that there is a 4 post minimum before a new member is allowed to post links. You can "break" the url address by inserting a space somewhere in the link to avoid this limitation.
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - fog.apnea - 09-02-2017
Thank you. I just realized that. I also couldn't add link until I post 4 replies so will try to get the SH data here shortly
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - fog.apnea - 09-02-2017
Re-post without the image data in the original post
First, thank you for all the members who have been helping others on this site with advising and sharing their experiences. This is my first post so wanted to start with a note of appreciation to that group.
A little about my history, diagnosis and treatment
- Had seen noticeable fatigue, brain fog, stuttering etc.. since Nov '16 to the point were I could sense something was wrong not attributable to stress from work, activities etc. I have kept a log of how I felt everyday since that time. Though these symptoms were noticeable since Nov, the same symptoms have been there though slowly aggravated over 2+ years now. Primary doc thought it is stress and chronic headaches (I get severe migraines and they got more frequent) when visited few times to complain of this issue between Dec-Apr.Thanks to my persistence, my PC doc recommended me to a neurologist who also happens to be a sleep doc to my luck.
- Was diagnosed with severe OSA with AHI at 37 in May. I had gone through several other tests (72 hr EEG, brain scan, auto-immune) during this time as my neuro wanted to rule out other possibliities and all came negative
- I am 72 days into my hose treatment, as of 9/1/17
- I did have some learning experience in the first week and thanks to the forums like this, was able to easily overcome those challenges. First 2 days woke up with dry mouth and problem resolved after wearing a chinstrap. I am a determined person so I have had absolutely no problem adjusting to the therapy (device, mask, sleep etc..). I also do not have problems with waking up in the night and usually sleep through before and after the therapy
- I use a APAP machine and my prescribed setting is 10-13 though I changed the low settings sometimes to 8.4 couple times and set it at 9 few times (10 days).
- I also monitor myself with an IP camera and NVR (network video recorder) software. (I am an IT professional with 15+ yrs experience in the field so am a bit comfortable with network/computer related stuff. I expect to write a separate article on how I use the technology to aid my therapy). I learned from watching the recordings that even the <2 AHI that I currently have are primarily rolling over etc so really my AHI is pretty much 0 in my analysis.
- Sleepy head data (please remove the space before .com to see the image. I had to do that am a newbie and couldn't post links)
https://imgur. com/a/LmQRJ
I realize the therapy can take time (months) to see results and am likely a bit early to expect success so am willing to wait it out. However what's puzzling is how I felt and reacted to the treatment over the 72 days especially the last 12 days. The daily log that I maintain to see how I feel .. I use a 1-10 scale with 10 being worst which is benchmark for the worst feeling I had for before I started therapy.
Here comes my question that am looking some feedback and/or advise for
After the first week of therapy I felt pretty good for most part with 75% of the days feeling refreshed (between 0-4 on my scale which is pretty good given how I felt prior to the therapy) until past 2 weeks (12 days to be precise) where I have been pretty consistently feeling groggy to the point of the pre-cpap days (5-10 on my scale) which I find odd and trying to explore the possibilities of the cause(s) and reason for my post. There have been no changes on my side (sleep schedule, sick, routine etc..) and the SH data looks great (in my opinion) pretty much during all of the CPAP usage.
I should do note though that pre-cpap also I used to have ups and downs on how I felt during any day but they have gotten worse especially last few weeks prior to the start of the therapy and which really forced me to have my primary doc send me to a neuro/sleep doc. I DO can tell the difference between good days pre and post CPAP therapy and the post CPAP therapy good days are more refreshing so I have confidence the cpap treatment is working.
I have a follow up appointment with my neuro on 9/6 to discuss this issue but trying to be prepared for the visit and get most out of it.
Will appreciate any feedback and/or advise regarding my question
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - fog.apnea - 09-02-2017
To see my SH data, please remove the space before .com and paste in the browser (had to do this being a newbie)
https://imgur. com/a/LmQRJ
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - Sleeprider - 09-02-2017
Looks to me like you're knocking it out of the park with minimum pressure 7 and maximum 12. Excellent results.
![[Image: FRNivQt.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/FRNivQt.jpg)
Quote: Here comes my question that am looking some feedback and/or advise for
After the first week of therapy I felt pretty good for most part with 75% of the days feeling refreshed (between 0-4 on my scale which is pretty good given how I felt prior to the therapy) until past 2 weeks (12 days to be precise) where I have been pretty consistently feeling groggy to the point of the pre-cpap days (5-10 on my scale) which I find odd and trying to explore the possibilities of the cause(s) and reason for my post. There have been no changes on my side (sleep schedule, sick, routine etc..) and the SH data looks great (in my opinion) pretty much during all of the CPAP usage.
I should do note though that pre-cpap also I used to have ups and downs on how I felt during any day but they have gotten worse especially last few weeks prior to the start of the therapy and which really forced me to have my primary doc send me to a neuro/sleep doc. I DO can tell the difference between good days pre and post CPAP therapy and the post CPAP therapy good days are more refreshing so I have confidence the cpap treatment is working.
I have a follow up appointment with my neuro on 9/6 to discuss this issue but trying to be prepared for the visit and get most out of it.
Will appreciate any feedback and/or advise regarding my question.
First, there is a lot of information we don't see in the summary statistics that might be interpreted from a Daily Details chart. Your AHI is great, but we don't see any of the other elements that might suggest respiratory issues, sleep disturbance or fragmented therapy. Your average hours per night are good assuming you sleep most of that. Nothing really pops out from the summary to me. It can take a while to feel refreshed using CPAP, and it does not solve other problems like low testosterone or other common problems related to fatigue. You happen to live in an area (like here) that has a Lyme's epidemic. I can tell you from personal experience that if you have it, it can be life-changing, and it's very easy to miss without a blood workup.
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - fog.apnea - 09-02-2017
The SH data as well as the ResMed min data is misleading. I have an APAP that has a ramp up with 7 as starting point (which only lasts 15 mins or so) but the low/high setting is actually 10-13 most of the days and 9-13 for about 20 days and 8-13 for about 5 days.
RE: Need feedback on inconsistent results - Walla Walla - 09-02-2017
I noticed that your sleep hours have started to increase. Some times if you sleep longer than your normal pattern that can actually make you feel tired. Depression is one cause of sleeping too much, but there are many others. Just throwing it out there to consider.