New to Cpap + deviated septum rhinitis

[BB6078]

I have been just walked through getting Sleephead on my mac and getting a print screen to share back in a msg here. When you are ready for that, give me a holler and I'll pass it forward.<g>

Thanks - anytime you can upload the screen would be great.

I just downloaded the Sleepyhead mac version. Can't seem to get the F&P InfoUSB 2 card to import to it - so any info you have much appreciated. I was able to transfer the info to the provider via the internet using its App store app.

I actually slept (I think) from 1:45 to about 4:30 with the cpap on! I hope.

Thanks so much this board is a lifeline for sure.

[frapilu]

Hi,

Deviated septum with rhinitis for me too. I ended up having the septoplasty and it has helped some but I still have some rhinitis. I use Flonase and I find that it works if I use it every day. I use a full face mask (called "full face" but it really just covers the nose and mouth) instead of just a nasal one (like you use) because I find that I mouth-breathe most of the time, even if my nose is no longer stuffy.

For the septoplasty surgery, I had gotten permission from the surgeon to use my cpap in the recovery room but the nurses refused to allow that so my oxygen alarm kept going off every time I feel asleep

As to getting used to using a cpap, hang in there. It takes some getting used to it but I hope you'll keep trying. I've been at this for 11 years and I think it's worth it. Do I wish I could get magically cured and not have to sleep with a cpap mask? Yes! But I can live with it since it makes a difference for me.

Welcome to sleeping with cpap. Good luck to you.
France

[BB6078]

Thanks for the encouragement frapilu. This is incredibly frustrating. It is good to hear from others on their experiences for sure. Many thanks for the call today from lliann. We didn't yet get Sleepyhead and the InfoUSB 1 card from the F&P Icon figured out but I will keep trying.

The ENT said she would not recommend surgery. Flonase seems to help. In fact the best sleep I've gotten lately is with just flonase and the nasal strips - it is sad to say albeit broken with many awakenings. last night I used the cpap for a few hours finally at about 130 after not getting to sleep (and think I slept but unsure)

I was hoping to see the data this morning using Sleepyhead but apparently the F&P icon doesn't work well with the mac version (0.9.4). I will keep trying.

My AHI was 8.1 - mild OSA apparently. That means I wake up an average of 8 times an hour from apneas?

Too much to learn. But I know it's essential - I can't keep going on this way. Thanks to everyone here who contributes. It's a life saver.

[Pugsy]

My AHI was 8.1 - mild OSA apparently. That means I wake up an average of 8 times an hour from apneas?

You may or may not wake up enough to remember but probably do have some sort arousal and while 8 is considered "mild" it is enough to make a person feel like crap. Duration of the apnea event needs to be factored in...like is it the minimum 10 sec duration or is it a 45 second duration or somewhere in between. The greater the duration the greater the chance for negative impact on sleep quality along with negative impact on the body in general.
Your machine doesn't flag duration I don't think. Sometimes we can manually eyeball duration using SleepyHead zoomed in and count the seconds but that's a lot of work and it isn't always so easy to see the beginning and ending of the event when zoomed in close enough to count seconds. If SleepyHead won't work though..you can't even try the manual thing.

From my own personal experience. My RX pressure wasn't optimal and I was seeing AHI of 8 to 10 and feeling like crap.
It wasn't until I got the pressures set more optimally that my AHI dropped to below 3 that I saw any improvement with the typical OSA symptoms. YMMV.

Also....when evaluating AHI you need to know the event category breakdown.
Centrals vs obstructive apneas and hyponeas. It's important to know because we don't treat centrals with more pressure using this particular machine...it won't work and might make things worse.