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+--- Thread: OSCAR Help (/Thread-OSCAR-Help--46026)
OSCAR Help - aperez440 - 08-21-2024
Hello Everyone,
My first post but from what I have seen, the people here seem to be very friendly and helpful and would love a little assistance with my treatment. I have been on CPAP for about 5 months now at the pressure I was diagnosed with 15 - 17 on my Aircurve 10. I'm mostly good but I there are stings of time where I am quite tired, albeit nowhere near as much as before. I have looked at my reports on OSCAR and I think I may need to raise my pressure more.
I was using FFM's but I had a hard time finding the one that fit my face or that wouldn't leak with my high pressure as well as one that allowed me to breath with my severe deviated septum. After several masks, I tried the P10 pillows and I love them when I combine them with mouth tape. That combo dropped my AHI to around 2. All that said, I would appreciate it if all you helpful people would take a look at my stats and gave my any help you could. Thank you.
RE: OSCAR Help - staceyburke - 08-21-2024
You still have flow limits that can be taken care of with ps. To do this we need to lower the min and raise the ps.
I would suggest the following.
PS 4
Min 11
max 17
or as your as your left column would show
PS 4 over 11-17
PS is added to the min 11 to get the 15
Your max stays the same with 17
Your exhale now is 11
That will help with your flow limits. Flow limits are apnea also they just don't last at least 10 seconds to be recorded as a H or O event. I have how they are classified in my signature if you are interested.
RE: OSCAR Help - aperez440 - 08-21-2024
Interesting. I'll give it a go. Is there more info on what the PS value and flow limits that I can look at? Why did you recommend 4 and not 3 or 2? I'm just very curious. Thank you.
RE: OSCAR Help - staceyburke - 08-21-2024
usually people do not get the Aircurve (bi-pap) without needing more ps than 3. The Airsense cpap has EPR which is a little bit of bi-level but it is limited to 1, 2 or 3. The Aircurve also has many more settings that can be used than the airsense. The lower exhale pressure should also give you better sleep.
RE: OSCAR Help - aperez440 - 08-22-2024
Hello again!
I tried the settings as recommended! I' was very rested today, though that might have something to do with no have any large leaks. Looking at the flow limits, I still seem to have some there. Is one of those things where we want them all gone or are we just hoping to reduce them as much as possible?
Also, it was easier to breath out but I also felt kind of a hitch when I did so. I adapted but it was kind of weird. I'm assuming that's the PS?
So what's next? Should I keep these settings up for a bit? Or is further PS required?
Thank you all again for the help.
RE: OSCAR Help - aperez440 - 09-02-2024
Hello again. I've been using my F20 for a few days but last night I switched back to my P10. On both I'm still experiencing a lot of flow limits and wanted to ask if I should consider raising my PS some more. I wanted to try going to PS 5 but I'm not sure what the formula is here. If I raise my PS do I always need to lower min EPAP? So would I have to do PS 5 over 10 - 17?
There's also the possibility that I don't need to do that at all but something else. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Here are the last few days for me.
RE: OSCAR Help - staceyburke - 09-02-2024
Yes your flow limits need to come down. I would try ps 5 Min 10.
But you have another problem. 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 your 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.