I’ve been using APAP for about a year and half with some success but still feel really quite frustrated that I'm not sleeping well or restoratively. I've been around these boards for about the same length of time and have picked up quite a lot of good information and through I’d lean on the experience here in terms of next steps.
Basically, I’ve had a rough time with health issues. Fit and healthy a few years ago, contracted a gastro virus in India, lost 25kg, developed pneumonia and heart infection and then end up in a wheelchair due to muscle wasting. I’ve manage to claw back a lot in the last 6 months (regained the weight and are putting on muscle with yoga/ exercise) however non-restorative sleep is still holding me back.
In terms of apnea, I have only performed a home sleep study that showed a moderate rate of 25 events per hour. For right or wrong, I brought a APAP machine secondhand (resmed S9 Auto) and addressed the problem on my own (insurance and delays it he public system were issues).
I started with wide open settings 4-20cm and are now running 7-9cm with 2 ERP. While this helps (I wake gasping without it) there is something missing.
I’ve posted a graphs from the last couple of night however these are the key points that think are contributing:
- Flow limitation is high despite AHI being low.
Nasal congestion is bad. I rise the sinus often however seem to have an ongoing infection.
Flow patterns seems to have a lot of oscillation. Disappearing at one point and increasing another.
Tidal volume seems low. I’m 6’2 and use to have a large lung capacity however breathing at night is shallow.
The more uneven the flow patterns are and more changes in tidal volume, the worse I feel the next day.
Leaking from the mouth was a problem however it is virtually fixed with using more tape to close the mouth at night.
I recently read the article on UARS and the immune system. Some research seems to point to UARS being a cause factor in chronic infections.
What I’m hoping for in this post is to get advice to change setting on my current resmed S9 Auto based on the data and to generally point out any factors that could improve sleep. A sleep study is obvious however I need to work within public funding and do what I can for now.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Gary
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