Puff 'n' Suck Phenomenon

[Centralea]

The specialist said:

A sleep study performed in June shows evidence of complex sleep apnoea. Interestingly there were quite prominent repetitive central apnoeas during three periods of sleep/wake transition (she had two prolonged wakeful periods during the night followed by these episodes). At other times of the night there were occasional obstructive hypopnoeas. ?The central apnoeas were the most striking feature of the stufy.
Assessment: A few central apnoeas at sleep/wake transition can be a normal phenomenon but they appear more pronounced in Centralia than is usually seen. Ventilatory control may be unstable at sleep/wake transition but this persisted for up to 15 minutes for Centralia after one wake period. Certainly these were associated with oxygen desaturation and sleep disturbance. If she was having frequent wakenings during the night this may be a reason for poor quality sleep and fatigue. The obstructive sleep apnoea component was only mild.
It is difficult to know the relevance of the central sleep apnoea to her symptoms.
At this point I think it is reasonable for Centralia to trial CPSP to see if it improves her fatigue and sleep quality. Sometimes stabilisation of the upper airway with CPAP will also ameliorate central apnoeas.
I will arrange for Centralia to loan a CPAP machine

[Centralia]

Oh, archangle, I wrote a long detailed reply and was just writing out the report before going back to face the machine again, when everything disappeared and Firefox told me I couldn't get it back. I'm sick!

I'll see what I can do tomorrow. I did save the card info, but there were only two nights that were ever recorded during sleep, those on the other machine, which were cleared before the card was put in this machine, and I haven't slept while being therapised on this machine. Still, I won't rewrite the whole thing again here now, I simply must say good night and go.

Darn! All that time typing gone the same way as the original card info.

[chrissv]

Regarding the pressure pulse; my machine will do that to me if I wait too long to start inhaling the next breath. Sometimes I am relaxing and still awake, and I notice a longer than normal pause after my exhale. The machine will do a pulse which I suppose is the start of detecting if I am having an apnea event. But this happens only when I am partially aware of the delay (not yet asleep).

$0.02,

Steven

[Centralia]

A good night.

Much to my amazement, I slept all night without, as far as I know so far, waking until morning, when I went back to sleep a few times. I had the machine going the whole time, which is only the third time in three weeks I've slept while connected up. Chunkyfrog suggested reading for a while, which I did (the printouts of my central sleep apnea research) and then when it seemed to be cooperating with me I settled down. I was reassured by the tip and glad of it, so thanks for that. While I had read on some previous nights before settling down, I may not have had enough confidence in the intelligence of the design to stay on course until it got used to me.

Archangle, I noticed that some people post charts as inserts in their posts, so I'm thinking that my report might be better included like that, when I find out how to do it. The typing up was tedious and possibly not as well laid out as the original.

Nothing that has rung a bell with me, whether heart or dropsy or breathing or state of lungs, has come from info on the card - it is only from my reading of reports and documents on line, and remarks by list members. It is all research so far, musing, connecting dots, not statements of fact/opinion/diagnosis. I have appointments now both with the local GP and the specialist, and we'll see what transpires. At least I do now have an all-nighter to download and practice on. Anything that was on the lost epistle last night will have to resurface in its own time, and I am going to feel I am repeating myself, no doubt, if I say it again. If I do repeat stuff, please excuse me.

Now I will go and get the card and download it, and sign off before I lose another posting effort.

Oh, one remark has come back to mind - I am not in America, so don't need to take into consideration your health insurance rules. I have to pay cash for the hire, though it is discounted somewhat to an age pensioner. Any more on that another time; I wrote about it and lost it last night.

Thanks again.

[chunkyfrog]

I have lost work many, many times; (note, my posts are generally concise --by design.)
Sometimes I suspect I have a permanent dark cloud following me, ready to zap me with my very own lightning bolt.
I copy and paste into a text file if I go further than a few lines--sometimes I compose in the text file and paste
into the message box. Yes, it might be excessively cautious, but it helps my blood pressure.

[Centralia]

Computer how-to's.


Chunkyfrog said: I copy and paste into a text file if I go further than a few lines--sometimes I compose in the text file and paste
into the message box

That sounds very worthwhile. I'll do that . . . next time.

Practical nuts and bolts stuff for a newbie re posting, if I may continue the "how to" theme briefly: I have got as far as viewing the overnight records - only last night's looks 'real', but my next question is - how do people get the image onto their post? Do they use print screen and copy and paste? Or are there instructions somewhere?
Similar question applies with reference to pasting or attaching or - what, how? - a scanned image such as a report.

I haven't even worked out how to 'quote' previous messages.

I also can't find where people put in their profiles/equipment details.

I'm old, you're patient. Thanks.

[Centralia]

Details Most Recent
AHI 3.39
RERA Index 0.68
Flow Limit Index 0.00
Hours per Night 07:22
Average Pressure 0.00
95% Pressure 0.00
Average Total Leaks 23.63
95% Total Leaks 27.00

I got this off sleepyhead for last night.
I don't know how to put the diagrams in, but have prepared some as jpg's - is that how to do it? Or GIFs?

[Pugsy]

How to post images of a report in a thread is discussed in this thread. You already have the jpg images so just skip that part.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81072&p=737779#p737779

How to add your equipment to your profile. Please use text option as the icony option creates very small images and we can't see model names.
wiki/index.php/Registering_Equipment_in_User_Profile

Your average pressure and 95% pressure numbers of 0.0 are whacko. Shouldn't be zero. Probably a SleepyHead bug.

Respironics machines report total leak which is the mask vent rate plus any excess leak...so your reported leak numbers are probably well within acceptable range. Vent rate will vary with pressure used and mask type and model.
Flow limitation index is not available unless auto adjusting pressures are used. If you are using straight cpap mode that 0.0 FL index is meaningless.

[Centralia]

Thanks Pugsy. I've had a go at that, so am just trying out Monday night's sleep (part).
http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... sort=3&o=0

Let's see if I got that right.

[Centralia]

No, I don't think I did get it right.
I've put some shots on Photobucket, to try, but . . .

http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... sort=3&o=0

Trying a different way

[Centralia]

You said:
Once the image is uploaded then copy the ENTIRE IMG address. Be sure to include the opening and closing IMG in brackets. Paste that copied address into a post here.

Copy the address from where? I tried from the image, so now I will try from the address line. I can't see anything that says IMG etc.




http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... sort=3&o=2


Okay, I might have found it:


It is on the right hand side of the page, under image links, then img code, if that is the right one.

[Centralia]

That seems to have been the right one. I will post the report of the sleep study first.



I believe that it's not necessary to post the whole of the home sleep records for a particular night, so I may need to edit the jpg down.
I'll study that info next.

Phew!

[Centralia]

As this one from Monday night is already on Photobucket I'll insert it here. It may be such rubbish that there is no need to post any more.




Okay, I'll leave it there for now and see what else I should do.
I slept with the mask on all night last night too, so will download that onto sleepyhead.
I woke this morning in such pain all over the body I could hardly move or get out of bed.

[archangle]

Note that there is no mention of CSR or periodic breathing in your lab report, or indications in your SleepyHead report.

Please post the left hand side of your daily SleepyHead report with AHI and other graphs.

If you click on the events tab, it will tell you when you had pressure pulses and you can see if these match the times when you had "puffs."

Click on some of the central events and it will zoom in on them and show you the waveform in detail.

[Centralia]

I tried to download the info for last night and this afternoon. It said no new data. Presumably I didn't put the card all the way into the machine, though it felt right.

I feel worse after the afternoon nap than before, as I did this morning after the night's sleep. Let's hope all that oxygen is fixing all my problems at once.

I don't feel clever enough right now to do more on the info I do have, sorry, really thick headed and stupid.

From discussions elsewhere here, I'm wondering whether the info is stored on the machine and will put itself on the card. That would be nice.

Did the graph on the previous night's recording look as if things were in the right place, masks etc? Did the gap in the middle mean the mask was dislodged? And what are the important parts to save. You mentioned the left hand side, so I will make a pic of that.