Do I need a doctor?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
Sleeprider
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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by Sleeprider » Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:13 pm

Julie wrote:Are you sleeping on your back? Do everything you can not to do that as it provokes many more apneas (and encourages mouth breathing).
I dunno...I'll freely admit to being a back-sleeper, and with the APAP, it's pretty much under control and I don't have leaks from a nasal pillow mask. So YMMV, but it's how I sleep and I'm not changing. I totally understand the urban mythology behind this, but for OSA, I'd say with proper APAP therapy, it's a non-issue.

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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by palerider » Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:18 pm

Sleeprider wrote:
Julie wrote:Are you sleeping on your back? Do everything you can not to do that as it provokes many more apneas (and encourages mouth breathing).
I dunno...I'll freely admit to being a back-sleeper, and with the APAP, it's pretty much under control and I don't have leaks from a nasal pillow mask. So YMMV, but it's how I sleep and I'm not changing. I totally understand the urban mythology behind this, but for OSA, I'd say with proper APAP therapy, it's a non-issue.
i don't think she's talking to you...

and it's no myth.

and the OP clearly doesn't HAVE 'proper apap therapy' yet. (though your point is technically correct.

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Pesser
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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by Pesser » Sun Jan 25, 2015 5:47 pm

dancinci wrote:I'm reasonably sure I have obstructive sleep apnea because I lose the ability to breath before I fall asleep. My mouth is open and I'm snoring loudly whenever I'm relaxed enough to sleep. I bought the machine in hopes of a easy fix (naïve I know)

I set the pressure min at 6cm and the max at 12cm. Per the Sleepyhead software, and 3 nights with the machine the daily AHI numbers were 33, 56, 32.

I usually get up half way through the night (bathroom). The first half of the night goes well. I wake up comfortable with the machine running at about 8 to 10cm. Best sleep I have had for as long as I can remember.

Second half of the night not good. I wake up several times with the machine on my set max of 12cm. My mouth opens and the extra pressure, now flowing out my mouth, gives me a drowning, feeling. Sleepyhead shows constant apneas, hypopneas during this second half of the night.

Not sure if I should crank up the pressure, or maybe try same pressures but sleeping in a chair. I could also try a full face mask in case sinuse(sp?) nasal problems are part of the problem. I'm not sure I can tolerate 16 or 18 of pressure or if I should jump into the more extreme settings.

Any thoughts? Thanks
My stuff was never as bad as yours. However I would keep doing what you are doing.....it's still very early. You may improve. It took about two weeks for me to see real low numbers.

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dancinci
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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by dancinci » Sun Jan 25, 2015 5:51 pm

Hope this works. This was by far the worst of the 3 nights. I was sleeping on my back here. The other 2 nights had very few clear airway events.


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dancinci
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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by dancinci » Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:05 pm

This is last night.
I guess there are a lot of clear airway flags here also, but I think I was awake during the cluster moving around trying to get comfortable.
First half of the night was so much better??

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palerider
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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by palerider » Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:07 pm

well, you certainly needed more pressure to stop the obstructives that night, but the centrals are troubling.

what did your non back sleeping nights look like?

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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by surf_rower » Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:57 pm

kaiasgram wrote:
dancinci wrote:
If you have plain old OSA then you can usually find your pressure settings at home on your own with an APAP machine. When you start posting your data we can certainly help troubleshoot.
... or a CPAP that has AutoIQ - my machine has this and it lets you perform testing APAP-style for up to 30 days (do not have to be consecutive days). I just found this out today by reading the web page for my machine. I haven't had to use it because my SleepyHead data looks good, but you may want that option.
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archangle
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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by archangle » Mon Jan 26, 2015 7:59 am

The centrals are worrying. Increasing pressure may be a bad idea. Go to the events tab, expand out the CA, click on some of the events and look at the duration, severity, and space between the central events.

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dancinci
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Re: Do I need a doctor?

Post by dancinci » Mon Jan 26, 2015 4:32 pm

Thanks for all the advice, I will check this thread for any other posts. I think I will try using a full face mask instead of the nasal pillows. Without the cpap I normally mouth breath because it's a bit easer to get a breath. I hope will lower my numbers without increasing pressure.

The centrals concern me, and at least a couple other posters. If I do need more pressure, I'm more comfortable checking with doctor first. With a doctor, sleep study it's not only a money, but a missed work problem.

I do need some advice on full face masks but will start another post for that. Thanks all.