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+--- Thread: [CPAP] Hello, new to all this. (/Thread-CPAP-Hello-new-to-all-this)
Hello, new to all this. - BRANDONCON - 04-22-2021
Hi everyone. I see this is an active community and feel the need to post. I've never posted on a forum in my life I think. Anyone who can help me in current situation, please do. I would greatly appreciate it!! Sorry for the essay.
I have read the intro materials for new members.
So where to start... I've always had a very poor memory so up until I've been with my currently girlfriend I didn't know or realize how bad my mouth breathing, snoring and breathing pauses were. I got a sleep study done when I was somewhere between 10-12 years old and the results were that I was too mild to worry about it. I remember being awake for half the study though
.... I dismissed it as just being normal to have chronic fatigue my entire life so far and never had an idea of how to fix it. I've tried a lot, yoga, exercise, supplements, diets, etc. So fast forward 15 years and I'm 27 with the most brain fog of my life, especially in the last year. I've thrown away my memory foam bed with poor support and just sleep on the floor now. Almost was ready to give up trying to fix this. My career is being impacted severely as I need to run my business and make decisions daily. I jumped the gun and ended up buying a reasonably priced Philips Auto BiPap. Since I didn't know what type of apneas I have I got this one that has cpap and bipap functionality. The good news isI slept the last two nights with it on auto bipap with a max IPAP 20 and Min EPAP of 5. I woke up with better sleep than I've had in months and definitely have WAYY more clarity going about the day. I'm seeing on OSCAR and dreammapper an AHI of 19 with mostly clear airway apneas showing(119 clear, 9 obstructive). Based on what I've read I have moderate central sleep apnea??
I DID sleep way better though! So something is improving 
In the interest of not hurting myself, how should I go about improving my sleep if a sleep study is currently out of the question, at least for the next 7 or so months. I don't have private health insurance or the time to get it done. I really wouldn't know where to start at this point in time. Getting a doctor's appointment with Medi-Cal is difficult to say the least 6months appointment scheduled out currently. Lost my job about a year ago and started a business so I'm busy with that also. Thanks for listening to my TED talk
and I'm also kind of excited to improve this sleep thing. Again I appreciate any help
TLDR. I've bought a bipap without a sleep study and notice a big improvement with my sleep. How to, in the near future do I continue to use this machine I've bought to improve my sleep.
RE: Hello, new to all this. - BRANDONCON - 04-22-2021
Also to add. I've just ordered a CMS50D Plus for blood sp02 compatible with OSCAR and a 4in soft cervical collar as most of the admins have it recommended. I'm 204 lbs and 6'2 so not overweight also.
RE: Hello, new to all this. - Gideon - 04-22-2021
Welcome to AB.
We need to see your OSCAR charts so we can see you settings. We much prefer to advise based on data instead of guesses.
There is a form of Central Apnea called Treatment-Emergent Central Apnea. What happens when you start using a PAP machine, ANY PAP machine, your breathing becomes more efficient. This causes, in some "lucky" individuals, you to remove too much CO2 from your blood. Why is this important? Because it is the need to purge high(er) concentrations of CO2 out of our system that is our main drive to breathe, not low oxygen, but "high" CO2. Anyway, enough CO2 is flushed from your system to below your apneic threshold at which point you stop breathing thus a central apnea. Now that you have stopped breathing CO2 builds up and you start slowly (small but growing volumes) breathing until you have too much CO2 so your breathing slows down (smaller volumes) (Note the breathing rate is fairly constant except during the apneic periods) eventually once again reaching and going below your apneic threshold. The cycle repeats.....
The 'fix is to decrease the efficiency of your machine. Thus the need to see your OSCAR charts. Expect us to recommend your Pressure Support/PS, the difference between your inhale and exhale pressures. How much and other changes depend on what we see. This will decrease that efficiency.
Obviously the above is the simple description.
RE: Hello, new to all this. - Gideon - 04-22-2021
FYI I don't think you need a collar, I don't think you have enough obstructive events to justify it, the tell here is that your obstructive events are clustered together.