No luck with cpap but want to try again

[intemperance]

Morning,

Keeping my progress on this thing updated. Last night I wore the f20 airtouch full face mask and my dreem device. Lots of leaks on it but less issues with my mouth opening. Did wake up earlier than I wanted with Pugsy's described "chipmunk cheeks." Wasn't able to get back to sleep after that. Might try the full face mask and some mouth tape. I also have a night guard that brings my lower jaw forward I can try to wear but it gives me a headache.

The dreem said I got an hour of deep sleep. My AHI is still really good. I'm quite tired today with some residual headache but don't feel like crying like I did yesterday.

Some progress though so trying to remain hopeful.

Solomon

[khauser]

Lots of leaks on it but less issues with my mouth opening.

Hi Solomon,
I do not see the leaks you reference in the graphs. There are zero large leaks, meaning whatever leaks existed were not bothering the machine.
[EDIT] I see there are a couple of Large Leaks I missed (tiered eyes) ... but really very short.

Did they bother you? Is that what you meant? Otherwise, they are a non-issue.

-Kevin

[intemperance]

Did they bother you? Is that what you meant? Otherwise, they are a non-issue.

They didn't bother me at all, I was just worried they might effect the treatment. If that's a non-issue, that's great. I'll try that mask again tonight.

[Pugsy]

Those very brief large leaks aren't enough to seriously impact long term therapy and if they didn't disturb your sleep I wouldn't worry about them.

less than 1% of the time over the red line and you barely made it to 30 L/min....The machine still does a decent job up to around 35 L/min...I wouldn't give it a second thought if it were me.
Heck even if it had been 50 L/min..1 % of nearly 7 hours....is about 4 minutes....not a big deal at all. Even if leaks are big enough to impact therapy it only affects it the time in large leak.

[intemperance]

Morning there,

Last night I tried a different mouth tape and it held quit well. No problems with the mask or mouth but still woke up after six and a half hours of sleep quite tired. My arm was numb so I think I slept on it weird and woke up from that. I think I'm also waking with the sun so I might try a face mask tonight.

Besides not sleeping long enough my numbers from last night are super good
AHI: 0
O2: never below 90
Deep sleep: 75 min
Rem sleep: 194 min
light sleep: 120 min

Here's my current process for the posterity
6pm start my intermittent fasting
8pm put my phone down and don't use it the rest of the night
8pm put on my blue light glasses and wear until bed
11pm get ready for bed by putting on
1. Viatom o2 meter
2. dreem head band
3. f20 AirTouch full face mask
4. 3m micropore mouth tape
5. taking some magnesium and cortisol support supplements

morning: sit in front of my 10k lux happy light for a bit

It seems like things are going in a good direction - hopefully soon I'll start feeling better.

[Pugsy]

Adjusting to the ASV way of going about its job can be a lengthy process. It's rare that someone starts on ASV and has an overnight miracle because often there are so many other factors involved in terms of sleep architecture in general.

Heck, even just the hours of sleep itself (even if the numbers are super good) can impact how we feel. I feel pretty much like total crap if I don't get near 8 hours of sleep no matter how good my numbers might be. It's rare that I can get more than 6 hours. It's not from the sleep apnea though...it's from other stuff that life deals us.

We just have to keep plugging along though. We didn't get our bodies into this state overnight and we can't heal it overnight either.
Not to mention we have other things that can and will mess with our sleep that are totally unrelated to sleep apnea and the best cpap therapy in the world isn't going to fix a problem that is unrelated to sleep apnea or the airway. No matter how much we might want or expect to fix that problem.

[intemperance]

Adjusting to the ASV way of going about its job can be a lengthy process. It's rare that someone starts on ASV and has an overnight miracle because often there are so many other factors involved in terms of sleep architecture in general.

It seems like it. I think I'm on a good path now so I'll just keep plugging away. I get jealous from reading all the stories of people having life changing events with cpap. Hopefully that's still coming for me at some point.

Heck, even just the hours of sleep itself (even if the numbers are super good) can impact how we feel. I feel pretty much like total crap if I don't get near 8 hours of sleep no matter how good my numbers might be. It's rare that I can get more than 6 hours. It's not from the sleep apnea though...it's from other stuff that life deals us.

I'm the same way. When I was a kid I needed 9 hours or I was super grumpy pants. Sorry your sleep is still crap It's quite kind that with all that you're still here helping people everyday.

We just have to keep plugging along though. We didn't get our bodies into this state overnight and we can't heal it overnight either.
Not to mention we have other things that can and will mess with our sleep that are totally unrelated to sleep apnea and the best cpap therapy in the world isn't going to fix a problem that is unrelated to sleep apnea or the airway. No matter how much we might want or expect to fix that problem.

For sure. That makes everything so tricky. When I first started cpap and my AHI was 5-7 the doctor said I was cured and I'm likely having other issues. Seeing better numbers now makes me think he was wrong then, but I still can't prove it until I feel better really.

I think for now I'll chug away with my current setup and maybe checkin next week or so. Thanks so much for everything !

[Pugsy]

I get jealous from reading all the stories of people having life changing events with cpap.

You and me both...I turn a bit pea green with envy when I read about people having those miracles. Secretly I want to send my alien friends to go screw with them and give them a taste of what a lot of others are experiencing.

I wish, wish that feeling those good numbers was as easy as getting them. I take a medication that is known to cause fatigue but I must take that medication for other health issues. I take a medication for pain that can cause insomnia....well, crap...let's see I can either not sleep well from pain or I can not sleep well from the medication I take for pain management.... Screwed either way.

I do the best I can and accept that life isn't always perfect and continue to work on anything and everything that I can to feel better.
I won't give up but I also won't blame cpap for not fixing a problem it was never designed to fix in the first place which is what a lot of people do.

It's not about perfection....it's about progression. We keep trying and striving and working on anything and everything to get to our goals.
We just don't give up.
And turn pea green when we read about others getting there before we do.

[intemperance]

Hello ! I'm back. I've been using my ASV machine every day for the last six months and just not getting better

I'm wondering if there was any advice on adjusting the machine or if I'm wired in as can be. My AHI is consistently very low. I'm starting to wake several times during the night again and the odd day I sleep through I still feel terrible. I recently went back to the f20 mask after the bleep for the last six months. The first night I used the f20 I felt not bad ! but now I can't seem replicate that.

I've heard talk that you want to limit the flow limitations for UARS and I do seem to have a lot

Thanks for any help or advice,

Solomon

[Pugsy]

ResMed ASV machines tend to REALLY make mountains out of mole hills when it comes to the flow limitation graph.
I wouldn't put much worry into the FL graph...when I used their ASV I had horrible FL graphs but on the AutoSet my FL graphs were boringly free of much activity at all. It's simply the way the ASV reports FLs...Your's isn't bad at all. Mine was worse than yours.
I don't think FLs are your problem but if you want to play with some settings to see if anything changes...
You might try increasing the minimum EPAP to 7 and see what happens. I wouldn't change anything else though...not at this time.