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Help - Bosslady - 04-07-2024
Just joined tonight. I'm a new Cpap user for approximately 3 to four months. My AHI is still higher than what my doctor wants to see, so later this month, I'm supposed to have a new sleep study done (not the full study, but just to determine enough data) for the doctor to recommend a bipap. Please see my latest result attachment, and if there is anything that you can suggest to make things better, I would like to try this before I have to go the bipap route.
Thanks,
Sincerely, Boss Lady
RE: Help - Deborah K. - 04-07-2024
Your apnea is mostly positional apnea. That's when your chin is dropped toward your chest causing your breathing to be blocked, kind of like a kink in a hose. No setting can fix this. Most people wear a soft cervical collar to keep their chin from dropping. I use a child-size, much flatter pillow that is raised at the front to keep my head tipped slightly back. This works well for me, but I think most prefer the soft collar.
You have quite a few CAs as well. Unless you had a lot on your sleep study they are probably treatment-emergent and will lessen considerably as time passes.
Don't be afraid of a bilevel machine. I recently switched to one and love it.
Also
RE: Help - staceyburke - 04-07-2024
welcome to the board. You had a lot of centrals and H events. We can't help much on the centrals but the H events can be helped.
You are having positional apnea. You can see positional apnea where either H or Oa events are clustered together. 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 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.
RE: Help - Bosslady - 04-08-2024
Thanks for the advice. I have caught myself waking up with my chin tucked at times, so I will try to work on changing that.