Titration study -

After a month of CPAP use, I did my titration study last night - although my AHI in the first study was 30, during the titration, the tech only really noticed respiratory problems when I was in REM, and a setting of 10 eliminated all of them. So my prescription is for a CPAP with a continuous pressure of 10. She also noticed that I still had restless legs in this study (though less that in the first study), but that they disappeared completely with the pressure of 10, so I hope that means they will be eliminated with the new setting.

I do a follow up appt with Dr. Alan Douglass in a month - he's the head of the sleep lab at the Royal Ottawa.

Despite sleeping pretty well for the first few weeks on the APAP, last week was awful for sleep, and of course, sleeping in a lab covered in wires is not exactly restful. I get so anxious when I don't sleep well, and I feel like any progress I have made as been wiped out. But things will get better, right!

That is good news. Finding a pressure that resolves most of the issues is a big step.
Now get the software (SleepyHead or Encore) so you can follow your treatment and see how things are going without having to guess.

A therapeutic pressure of 10 cm on CPAP does not mean that it has any relation to the best pressures in APAP mode. For me the sleep lab tech decided that 13 cm was most optimized. I started with 13 cm as max in the APAP mode but ended with other pressures as you see here:

Are you using fixed CPAP pressure of 10 or a range? My APAP (Resmed S9) is set at 10-20 but spends most of its time 10-13 and has pushed my AHI down from almost 40 to under 2.

englandsf wrote:Are you using fixed CPAP pressure of 10 or a range? My APAP (Resmed S9) is set at 10-20 but spends most of its time 10-13 and has pushed my AHI down from almost 40 to under 2.

I have a fixed pressure of 10, and in a month I will give the doctor all the data and he will assess if it's right for me. I tried it last night and found it pretty good! I have a 20 minute ramp, which is good for settling in a night.

It's tough to see the downside of a range centered on your titration pressure in APAP mode but my titration was unclear ( some events even at 29 but mask issues too).

But I am addicted to the " blast" so use no ramp and just use almost dry air to blow open my passages every night.

We're all so different, I am learning.

englandsf wrote:It's tough to see the downside of a range centered on your titration pressure in APAP mode but my titration was unclear ( some events even at 29 but mask issues too).

But I am addicted to the " blast" so use no ramp and just use almost dry air to blow open my passages every night.

We're all so different, I am learning.

Englandsf: I seem to be lucky - during my trial period with the apap, my RDI just gradually went down over 5 weeks. Then after my titration study, it is even lower - .5 or below on the last two nights. I do think I lucked out because I am a patient of a very good and precise lab at a hospital here in Ottawa (Canada). Many labs here don't score events under 10 seconds, and so many people with breathing disorders are missed altogether if they don't have full-blown apnea. Maybe as a result of the quality of the data analysis, this lab is able to give better titrations. Or maybe it's just luck.

Glad you're doing well. I suspect your doc will put you on a range from 10 up when you see him. Sounds like he knows his stuff.