Flow Limitation and UARS?

Not really any cheap alternatives that are all that much effective to adding much water to the air...maybe some sort of small container of water set near the air intake behind the machine. Gotta be careful so it can't spill though.

Might try 5 or 6 and see if that dries out the nose to much...you were already using that much anyway.

Also..you might try spraying with something like Simply Saline right before bedtime and doing a lot of it to help hydrate the nasal mucosa to ward off the drying effect.

I had forgotten about the lack of humidifier...that puts a crimp in what you may need to do.

secondwindcpap has 50 and 60 series humidifiers for 70$

Here's last nights data. I feel a little data. I "only" woke up 4 times which has been good for me lately. I put a glass of water next to my CPAP and I think it helped a little. I'll try raising the pressure tonight.

http://imgur.com/X0GcMsS

The flow rate looks a little better today too...

Your leak line also looks better last night and more in line with what we would expect to see with your mask at your pressure.

That red line for leaks...that's for ResMed machines. You can change it so it reflects where your large leak territory might be (we aren't ever told a set number because it varies with pressures used) but I suspect up around 70 to 80 L/min for your mask at your pressures.

If you right-click (control-click on a mac) on the y-axis of your pressure graph, a menu appears that has "y-axis" as third from the bottom. Click on it and a submenu comes up which you can select "override" and set the minimum and maximum to your actual range (4 and 7 would be good probably.) That way you can tell if the machine is taking you to 6.5 and wants to go higher, or just takes you there briefly and then you come back down. But, anyway, sometimes the "auto-fit" isn't real smart about things, and you really don't need all that graph real estate to tell you that your pressure isn't going to 25 when the machine is limited to 6.5!

Cathy...the machine is no longer limited to 6.5...I think she has it wide open now and last night's report shows max of 7.4. It isn't going any higher because it doesn't want to..not because it can't.

Pugsy wrote:Cathy...the machine is no longer limited to 6.5...I think she has it wide open now and last night's report shows max of 7.4. It isn't going any higher because it doesn't want to..not because it can't.

Ah, cool -- because the min and max are exactly 4.5 and 6.5 I figured those were set as the min and max. So it's probably just a weird coincidence that the numbers just happened to come out even that way.

Sorry I am a day or too late joining this discussion.

Like musculus, I too have UARS and agree with all of the suggestions made so far.

jwuzy wrote:

Do we know if UARS is dangerous to your health like sleep apnea is advertised as?

There is very limited research into the health effects of UARS because not everyone accepts that it isn't just mild OSA. From what I have been able to read in what little is published, there are health effects, but they are different from OSA. For example, because O2 sat levels do not decline as far as OSA, the long term cardiac complications should not be there. On the other hand, the frequent micro-awakenings with UARS destroy sleep architecture and limit the amounts of the higher sleep levels. This results in daytime fatigue and increased stress. There are also theories that the vacuum created in the esophagus is sufficient to pull acid out of the stomach and cause issues in the lungs, throat and sinuses in addition to GERD.

Tan asked for personal history, so here goes.

I was diagnosed using an esophageal pressure measurement (Pes) in addition to the normal sleep study wiring harness. I was found to have an AHI of 8, but and RDI of 28. So I was having micro-arousals about every 3 minutes which resulted in me being very tired every day in spite of 8 to 10 hrs of sleep. During my titration study, the normal OSA rig indicated I should be treated at 8. However, the Pes was still quite ragged at 8.5 and did not smooth out until 9. I now run my machine at 9-12. I also was able to adjust the algorithm on my machine to be more sensitive to flow limitations, so most mights run at 9, but I do hit 12 for short times on some nights.

However, the real test is that I am now able to function quite well during the day, feel rested when I get up and only need 5.5 to 6 hrs of sleep each night. When reviewing my data, I think that I can also see where I am now reaching the higher sleep levels several times each night.

The only "complication" is that I have a very low heart rate due to my fitness level (and before someone asks, I was forced to consult with a cardiologist). I believe that the respiration rate required to support my low heart rate is occasionally triggering the machine into thinking that I am experiencing apneas and hypopneas. Sorting these out just complicates interpretation of the results, which are already messed up simply because the machine is being used to treat UARS, which was outside of the scope of the design of the machine's algorithm.

Ruthsmith, you're running on a pressure from 9-12? Do you have a humidifier? I don't have a humidifier yet so when I was trying 6-7 I was getting bloody noses.

Has it helped you going that high?

Yes, I have a humidifier. I also have a large humidifier in the room (got it at a chain drugstore).

As for running at the higher pressure, I tried backing off from my prescribed level of 9 to 8 when I was having aerophagia problems early on. It helped the gas problem, but I was starting to get higher scores from the machine. So I interpreted this to mean that I was probably having a few more episodes at the lower settings (which would be consistent to the ratty Pes graph during my sleep tests).

@Rustsmith, thanks for sharing! I consider your story a great success! Do you use the EPR function?

My heart rate, when I am well rested after the sleep (occasionally), hovers around 50 bpm and I dont have POTS on such days, but not so after my usual nights with awakenings: my heart races, blood pressure spikes, anxiety is present -- all this put undue stress on my body, of course.

palerider wrote:secondwindcpap has 50 and 60 series humidifiers for 70$

I see it... Does anyone know if Secondwindcpap.com is reliable? 70 bucks out of pocket isn't too bad.

Yes, I use the function on my machine that is comparable to EPR on yours. I have it set at the max values.

To give you an idea of my heart rate, my resting rate while awake is 45 and my blood pressure is on the low side. I had to warn the techs about this when I had my sleep test because I didn't want them to come in and wake me when my pulse fell to much lower levels. They let me know the next morning that it was good that I warned them because otherwise they would have awakened me and ended the test.

jwuzy wrote:Does anyone know if Secondwindcpap.com is reliable? 70 bucks out of pocket isn't too bad.

Totally reliable.
I purchased a humidifier from them a while back...and I know several people who have purchased machines from them with zero complaints. Good people there.

So I've raised my pressure to 6-6.5. Not much is showing up on Sleepyhead but I'm still waking up about 5 times a night! I have no idea what to do... I got the humidifier now so if I need to raise my pressure, I could give it a shot.

http://imgur.com/GLd8AUz

BTW, does anyone get constant headaches? I've been getting them a lot lately and wondering if it could be related to my sleep or something more serious.