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+--- Thread: [CPAP] Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR (/Thread-CPAP-Declining-Effectiveness-Interpreting-OSCAR)
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Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - chad0 - 01-17-2023
Hello,
I am posting here in hopes of getting some assistance with my sleep. The men in my family have a history of sleep apnea (regardless of weight) and this has unfortunately affected me. I took a sleep study last year and was prescribed a CPAP and have been using it for nearly a year. At first I had some minor improvement and I no longer felt like death every day (extreme fatigue, migraines, brain fog, lethargy, etc.) but it has been slowly creeping back and now a year later I feel pretty much the same as I do off the treatment. I tried different masks but I prefer the nasal pillows, and I can start the night with a good seal and no leaks. But in the morning my leak rate is always high in the sleep report. I've tried taping my mouth (on suggestion from people on the Reddit), replacing my mask, and adjusting it to all kinds of positions and tightness/looseness levels. Occasionally I will have a morning where I wake up refreshed, but generally I feel terrible. My sleep doctor has generally been very unhelpful. Attached is an overview screenshot of OSCAR, I'm happy to add more data if requested. I need help interpreting this data to understand what I'm getting wrong that I can improve upon.
Thanks so much,
Chad
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - staceyburke - 01-18-2023
welcome, I suspect that your flow limits are a problem but your flow limit chart is not where we can see it on your screenshot. You can resize the charts by taking the mouse and clicking on the bottom line of a chart, hold down the mouse button and drag it up to make the chart smaller. Then all of the Flow limits can be seen. Post again with the flow limits showing....
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - Sleeprider - 01-18-2023
You're going to love the change we can help you make in your therapy with just a simple settings tweak. Just add 3-cm of EPR. This will give you a starting pressure of 8.0/5.0 (inhale/exhale). No need to make any other changes. Enter the clinical settings and turn EPR on full-time at an EPR setting of 3. You don't have any obstructive events, and EPR may raise central events, but will stabilize pressure and eliminate flow limitations and related arousals. You have some leaks to deal with and we can address that as we move forward. Try the EPR and post results tomorrow.
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - chad0 - 01-18-2023
(01-18-2023, 09:56 AM)staceyburke Wrote: welcome, I suspect that your flow limits are a problem but your flow limit chart is not where we can see it on your screenshot. You can resize the charts by taking the mouse and clicking on the bottom line of a chart, hold down the mouse button and drag it up to make the chart smaller. Then all of the Flow limits can be seen. Post again with the flow limits showing....
Thanks for the response. Attached is the same data but with the flow limits visible.
(01-18-2023, 10:28 AM)Sleeprider Wrote: You're going to love the change we can help you make in your therapy with just a simple settings tweak. Just add 3-cm of EPR. This will give you a starting pressure of 8.0/5.0 (inhale/exhale). No need to make any other changes. Enter the clinical settings and turn EPR on full-time at an EPR setting of 3. You don't have any obstructive events, and EPR may raise central events, but will stabilize pressure and eliminate flow limitations and related arousals. You have some leaks to deal with and we can address that as we move forward. Try the EPR and post results tomorrow.
Thanks for the reply, Sleeprider. I will give it a try tonight. Does EPR generally seem effective at helping reduce leaks?
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - Sleeprider - 01-18-2023
EPR can be a piece of the puzzle, but let's see where it takes us. Something else to try is to pull a corner of your pillow between your shoulder and jaw to help keep your jaw closed. Sometimes that is enough.
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - chad0 - 01-19-2023
Attached are my results last night using an EPR setting of 3 and without taping.
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - staceyburke - 01-19-2023
take a look at your pressure graph. Last night was very even, no real up shot of pressure and the first night looked like a huge increase and decrease in pressure. The EPR did that... Your flow limits look fine in last nights OSCAR.
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - Sleeprider - 01-19-2023
(01-19-2023, 08:47 AM)chad0 Wrote: Attached are my results last night using an EPR setting of 3 and without taping.
Would you care to expand on that? I see some obvious improvements in leaks and pressure stability, but our goal is comfort and better sleep. Toss me a bone. How was it?
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - chad0 - 01-19-2023
To be honest, I don't feel much (if any) improvement this morning. Hopefully this is just because my body is recovering from a few months of terrible sleep. I'll update tomorrow morning if there's any change. Thanks again for your time responding and helping me with this, it means a lot. Like I said, my sleep doctors office has been very unhelpful for most of my inquiries, and insurance doesn't care since I bought out of pocket.
RE: Declining Effectiveness / Interpreting OSCAR - chad0 - 01-20-2023
Update this morning, I feel like I slept much better last night. It looks like I had a few large leaks, though I did try taping my mouth again. Any ideas or recommendations based on my Oscar data?