New to the forum. Looking for answers.

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Tue Feb 28, 2017 11:33 am

Got a little cranky yesterday.lol You all are my main support. Thank you.

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Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.

Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:43 pm

For those that are helping me, you are doing a great job. We just increased the apap pressure range from 8-12 to 9-12. For 5 days events got worse, but I had nasal congestion with a nasal mask. I never have it when I'm up and about, but get congested when I lay down. Of course it ebbs and flows, some nights worse than others. Things are looking better than ever for the last few nights.

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Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.

Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:51 pm

I found some doctor notes on my first sleep study from three years ago. AHI was 9, however it was up over 30 during REM says the doc. I downloaded my sleep studies and will try to figure out what parts to post.

Edit: Well, looking at the summaries, instead of doctors notes, the numbers are different. Looks like I have 3 nights in the lab to post.

_________________
Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.
Last edited by Rob K on Mon Mar 06, 2017 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 8:00 pm

Sleep study summary April 7, 2014. Slept very little and had to do it again a second night.
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Second night in the sleep lab May 5, 2014.
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After getting no relief from the first sleep study I had another study and second opinion from a different place on September 29, 2015.
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_________________
Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 8:29 pm

Those recent nights look good on paper.
I am quite familiar with OSA being worse in REM. I have that too. AHI in non REM around 12 I think it was but in REM I kick ass with 50 something plus I have some significant changes in pressure needs during REM.
I would be happy with those reports if it were me and I was feeling good and all that.

The nasal congestion...don't know what to tell you...is it possible that it is related to humidity (need more or less maybe) or is it something that comes and goes sometimes anyway?

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Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 8:36 pm

Felt real bad and very tired for a good part of a year so the doc sent me in to check for apnea. After the initial sleep study these are the pressure settings that were tried over the course of 1.5 years and didn't give me any relief.
cpap 8cm
cpap 9cm
apap 4-10cm

Still feeling horrible after being on the machine for 1.5 years I sought a second opinion from a different place. The initial assessment was that I was at the max of 10cm for 25% of the night and likely needed an increase of pressure. They said come in for another sleep study. So after the study they surprised me and said take it to your local sleep center where I had been and have them set the pressure to 5cm or go without the machine. So the next setting was as follows.
cpap 5cm

After being at 5cm for well over a year and feeling horrible. With many trips to the sleep lab telling them I feel horrible and them saying the ahi is good and the pressure is adequate, they kept sending me on my way. That's when I realized the doctors were not going to help. I did tons of internet reading after that and found how to adjust my machine. These are the pressures I tried next
cpap 6cm
cpap 7cm
apap 5-12cm

Still feeling really bad I finally found this forum. Looking at my data you all had me change my pressure settings as follows.
apap 6-12cm
apap 8-12cm
apap 9-12cm

All seems well so far. AHI is lower than ever. Feeling much better and improving. Would be doing better if I didn't stay up half the night every night reading stuff on the forum.lol

_________________
Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.
Last edited by Rob K on Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 8:45 pm

Rob K wrote:AHI is lower than ever. Feeling much better and improving. Would be doing better if I didn't stay up half the night every night reading stuff on the forum.lol
Well you gotta take to bad (staying up late learning) with the good (learning by staying up late).
Glad you are finally feeling the good numbers. Sometimes it takes just a little more pressure to hold the airway open just a little better to prevent some of the stuff that can disturb our sleep but might not be included in the AHI.
This is why we tell people to "show us the reports" despite their saying their AHI is supposedly "good".
It's not always about the AHI. Sometimes it's the little things that aren't included in the AHI and sometimes it's something as simply as the pressure itself moving around a lot (which it will if the minimum is too low) and those changes may be impacting sleep a bit. Sometimes it's a combination of things.
Your pressure isn't moving around a lot now. Most of the movement you see is the pressure probes (those spikey saw tooth looking spikes) and if you looked at them up close they aren't nearly as quick as they look at this scale.

Good job. Next task...work on the nasal congestion and try to figure out what might be making it worse or not.
Also...google "nasal cycle"...if you are having times when one side gets stopped up and then the other side ...that may be what is happening and it's actually normal. Annoying but normal...people have it that don't have OSA or need cpap.

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Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 8:54 pm

Yeah, often congestion is on one side or the other when I'm laying down. Sometimes both sides. It wasn't a problem years ago. I'll research it.

Congestion is still a mystery I'm trying to figure out. It only happens when I lay down for a long period with or without the machine. Sometime during the night I end up congested. Humidity does affect it. Sometimes it's not a problem and sometimes it is as you can see from the the ahi over the last week. I don't always find the right humidity setting right off the bat. And who knows what other factors are causing the congestion. It seems to vary from day to day. I try to keep the room humidity fairly consistent between 45-55%. The congestion certainly does affect my therapy since I use a nasal mask. That will be the next thing to figure out.

Would be awesome if my machine adjusted the humidity level automatically according to room humidity. Set it to whatever % that works best for me and the machine does the rest. Are there machines that do this? Things would be a lot more consistent and easier. Right now there's a lag with manual adjustment. You have to go through a little trial and error while adjusting manually and suffer through some occasional bad nights.

_________________
Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:20 pm

Rob K wrote:Would be awesome if my machine adjusted the humidity level automatically according to room humidity. Set it to whatever % that works best for me and the machine does the rest. Are there machines that do this?
Yep...yours will if you have the heated hose.
You have the 560 PR S1 machine...right? Does the hose have a black coupling on it where it attaches to the humidifier?

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Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
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palerider
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by palerider » Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:28 pm

Rob K wrote: but I had nasal congestion with a nasal mask. I never have it when I'm up and about, but get congested when I lay down.
a little trick taught to me by a brilliant ENT, you can use afrin nasal spray *AT NIGHT ONLY* for an extended period (a month or more), WITHOUT getting the rebound congestion.

if you use it day and night, then stick to 3 days only.... but that the 24 hour break between uses keeps the rebound side effects from happening.

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Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:42 pm

Thanks for the help and the tips.

My next mission is sleep maintenance. Why do I still wake fairly often? It has gotten a little better with proper pressure settings. These are the things that I know of that I need to look into.
1- nasal congestion - using nasal mask.
2- bruxism - I do grind my teeth at night. Not sure if this would cause awakenings.
3- limb movements - these were noted in the last sleep study, but not the first two.
4- internet - don't spend half the night on the forum.

Will see an ENT at some point this spring also. I can talk to them about congestion, why I often have food hung up in the back of my throat that I cough up hours later and take a look around in there to see what's going on in general. Maybe figure out why I have apnea and if anything can be done about it.

_________________
Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.
Last edited by Rob K on Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:48 pm

Does your hose have a black coupling on the end that attaches to the humidifier lid?

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I may have to RISE but I refuse to SHINE.

If you want to try the Eclipse mask and want a special promo code to get a little off the price...send me a private message.

Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:57 pm

Pugsy wrote:
Rob K wrote:Would be awesome if my machine adjusted the humidity level automatically according to room humidity. Set it to whatever % that works best for me and the machine does the rest. Are there machines that do this?
Yep...yours will if you have the heated hose.
You have the 560 PR S1 machine...right? Does the hose have a black coupling on it where it attaches to the humidifier?

Yes that is the machine I have. Heated hose and all. I don't use the heat though. I range from 0-3 at times for humidity setting. So it does adjust automatically according to room humidity? That might explain why I don't have to adjust it too often. Sounds like I need to read the manual again.lol

_________________
Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.

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Pugsy
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Pugsy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:14 pm

Rob K wrote:So it does adjust automatically according to room humidity? That might explain why I don't have to adjust it too often. Sounds like I need to read the manual again.lol
Yeah and a little bit of reading that isn't covered in the manual very well I don't think. It's been a long time since I have seen that manual.
This humidifier offers three levels of humidification (70, 80 or 90 percent) and the heated tube has five levels of temperature available, ranging from 4 to 16 degrees above the room temperature. These two features work together to deliver the optimum humidification level at the mask.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/pr-sys ... ifier.html

Here's how it works with the heated hose attached on a PR S1 machine.
You get to choose from 3 humidity levels...1 is 70%, 2 is 80% and 3 is 90%.
Let's say you choose the setting of 2.
The machine has a humidity sensor in it for the ambient room humidity...
Say the ambient room humidity is 50%...the machine will add heat to the water chamber to put out added moisture until the humidity delivered to your nose is 80%. I think there must be a humidity sensor in the hose somewhere.
It will try to maintain that 80% by varying the temp to the water chamber...more heat more moisture goes into the air.

So some nights if the ambient humidity is already fairly high the machine may not use much water because it doesn't need to add much moisture and on some nights if the ambient humidity is much lower it may use more water trying to maintain that 80 %.

The temperature part of the heated hose...that's totally independent...choose whatever feels good to you.

Please note...with the heated hose attached you have to go into the clinical setup menu area to change the humidity from 1 through 3. If you aren't in the clinical setup area and you turn that knob for humidity...all it is doing is changing the hose temp.
If all you have been doing is turning the knob thinking you were changing the humidity and you didn't go into the clinical setup menu area...all you were doing was playing with the hose air temp.

I use a heated hose...I love it...the humidity that I finally decided on is constant and consistently delivered to me.
I don't have to worry about the ambient humidity and trying to figure will I need more or less.
All I do is change the hose air temp to suit my needs...warmer for winter and cooler for summer and the humidity my nose gets never changes.
Also note that the heated hose air temp on this machine starts with ambient room temp. You can't make it colder than the ambient room temp. There's no coolant in there. The setting of 1 adds 4 degrees to the ambient room temp so that's what ends up in the hose....and it gets warmer the more you turn it.

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Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Additional Comments: Mask Bleep Eclipse https://bleepsleep.com/the-eclipse/
I may have to RISE but I refuse to SHINE.

If you want to try the Eclipse mask and want a special promo code to get a little off the price...send me a private message.

Rob K
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Re: New to the forum. Looking for answers.

Post by Rob K » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:36 pm

And here I thought the knob was doing something, like adjusting the humidity. Only took 3 years to figure this out; that's funny.

From reading the manual it sounds like plugging in the heated hose changes some things. When doing so the dial adjusts the temp as long as the heat is turned on. The humidity then has to be set from the menu.

I have the heated hose with the heat off so the knob is actually doing nothing. I have the humidity set to auto mode and now realize that I need to use the menu to adjust the level and not the knob.

_________________
Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier
Mask: AirFit™ N10 Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Resmed F10 Mask for colds. When camping on battery power I use P10 mask and PR 560p machine.
Last edited by Rob K on Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.