Tired of being tired

[pizzafan]

Hello everybody!

I am waiting for the doctor's office to order my sleep study, and in the meantime I have already ordered all my supplies.
Either I have sleep apnea and will file a claim with insurance once I get a diagnosis for the supplies, or I don't and I'll sell it on ebay for a loss. I'm projected to get all my supplies on wednesday. I plan on hooking the machine up same day and posting my sleepyhead data here for feedback.

I haven't been sleeping well for years, I am tired all the time. I have been relying on stimulants/energy drinks+ coffee for years and I want to break this unhealthy cycle. I always run out of my script early, and have multiple episodes per month where I don't sleep at all for 1-2 days at a time. I have put on 100 lbs in the past 3 years. I desperately need to lose this weight, but my energy levels are low.
The reason why I want to get the machine asap is to see if this will help me because last week I got into a car accident while driving my 2 year old to day care. I woke up that day exhausted as usual. Took my prescription, and off I went. There is a large gap in my memory before I crashed. I can recall driving as usual, followed by this gap (Did I fall asleep? Did I blackout/zone out? No idea!) to suddenly seeing that I am about to crash into the car in front of me that is at a complete stop. It literally feels like I was sleeping and woke up just to crash my car. I slammed on the brakes, and while I assumed my hands were on the steering wheel, I managed to hurt both. I don't know how. My left hand was swollen, thankfully no fractures. My daughter is okay. But I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I hurt her from driving while tired, or anybody else for that matter. That can't happen again. I saw a sleep physician same day. The office said I need to do to the home test before they can order the lab test for insurance reasons. Well I called my insurance, they said as long as the doctor requests it, it makes no difference to them if it is at home or in a lab, same wait. The office didn't even request the home test yet! So I expect them to take their sweet time. If it matters the doctor said I have a very narrow throat.
My 2 year old is also going for a sleep study at the end of the month (for other reasons.)


Questions for first night

1.) Can I use melatonin if I need to?
2.) Should I adjust any of the default settings?


Equipment I ordered:

ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet (37207) Auto CPAP Machine with Heated Humidifier - APAP Machine
Mask: Airfit P10 with medium pillow and ResMed Climate Line Air Heated Tube For Resmed Airsense 10

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

Yes...you can use some melatonin the first night if you feel the need and you have used it before without problems. If you haven't ever used it before...look up the side effects. While mostly not horrible side effects...it doesn't come without some baggage as with just about anything out there that we take.

The default settings in auto/apap mode are 4 minimum and 20 maximum. Most people find that the starting pressure of 4 isn't so comfortable. Less air movement and a bit stifling...we won't suffocate but it can sure feel like it.

Here are my suggestions for settings for the first night...hopefully you can get some sleep and then we can look at the software reports and see what adjustments might need to be made.
If you don't sleep well it's real hard to evaluate pressure needs.

Mode....AutoSet/Auto mode
Minimum pressure....6
Maximum pressure....20
EPR...turn it on and set it to 2 and set it to "full time" and not ramp only.
Ramp....turn it off...starting out at 6 and using EPR it drops to 4 anyway during exhale which is where the ramp would start you. You shouldn't need ramp at these low settings. Now if later it is determined you have much higher starting pressure needs and it's uncomfortable to do those higher settings...then we can add in ramp.

For humidifier settings.....plug in the climateline Air heated hose and let it just do the default settings which are "auto" for right now.
There is a reason those are the default settings...most people do well with them.

[pizzafan]

Thank you Looking forward to wednesday

[Pugsy]

Just in case you don't get the clinical/provider manual with your machine...you can find it here if you haven't already.
https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf
It explains how to do the secret handshake to get into the clinical setup menu along with some other features on the machine better explained.

Good luck. I did just what you are doing to my my sister and her husband some years ago. It can be done with just a little education and patience.

[pizzafan]

Shipment delayed until Thursday .

Less than two hours of sleep on monday, 3 hours last night. Ugh. Need so much coffee to function and then I cant sleep without melatonin.

[pizzafan]

My nostrils are a bit sore, going to use the small pillows tonight, but I slept like a baby!

Not sure if it's placebo, but I feel nice and clear headed.

Feedback on the data ?

https://imgur.com/aWeUKxY
https://imgur.com/v59XgT2
https://imgur.com/hqtXgTX
https://imgur.com/Qqu5Jh7

https://imgur.com/Onk7wxa

[Pugsy]

First of all you have the wrong machine chosen in your equipment profile....let's fix that to avoid confusion later.
Edit your equipment profile for machine and scroll down to the R section and you will see the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet machine with is what you are using.

For the nostril soreness or tenderness...fairly common. Go to WalMart or similar store and look in the baby aisle for a product called Lansinoh lanolin cream/ointment. It's used by nursing mom's to help sore nipples. Great stuff. Use liberally during the day to promote healing and sparingly at night (sparingly because if you use too much it melts a lot with body heat and your nasal pillows might slight all over the place. I speak from personal experience I though it a little was goo then a lot would be better and woke up with the nasal pillow in my ear).

You don't need to do so many images...we don't need to see all those graphs. You can get the basic graphs all in one screen shot with a little sizing adjustments and moving the graphs and turning off one the masked pressure graph. We don't need to see both pressure graphs....the masked pressure graph is mainly only needed when zooming way it..so turn it off (lower right corner is the area to turn off graphs).
See this thread for examples of what we like to see.
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html
You can omit the snore graph...not much going on with it anyway and no need to take up the space with it.

How did you sleep last night? Your report looks really good....those CAs/Centrals may be more of an indication of some awake time if you woke up very much last night...and we really can't do anything about them at this point so you have to set them on the back burner for now.

[pizzafan]

I feel great! I went to sleep at around midnignt and didn't wake up until my alarm went off at 5:30am.

When does it show CA/look like im awake ?
I went to a different doctor and in a month or so i will have a sleep study and nap study next day

[Pugsy]

I would say continue as is...work on the mask fit thing and the nostril soreness.
It's common with the P10 especially. When I used it my nose felt like it had run into someone's fist for the first 5 nights.
And I had used nasal pillows for years before I got the P10....your nostrils are total virgin territory and not used to anything pressing or touching them.
The soreness will fade with some time.

Otherwise you are doing a great job and I don't think you need to do anything but gain experience.

And don't forget to correct your equipment profile when you get a chance.

[pizzafan]

Would i need to do anything different before the sleep study ?

[Pugsy]

Which sleep study?
Without the machine or with the machine figuring out pressures.

[pizzafan]

My doctor is scheduling a lab sleep study for me in the next month

[Pugsy]

If the sleep study is a diagnostic sleep study to prove you have OSA then I would suggest that you not use the machine for 3 nights prior to the sleep study just in case there is any hold over effect from you using the machine. We don't want a chance of a false negative happening.

Now if you have already has that diagnostic sleep study done and this upcoming sleep study is the titration sleep study to help figure out pressure needs it doesn't matter.

[pizzafan]

No testing of any kind yet
It will be the lab sleep study and next day nap study to cover all bases because of my concern that i fell asleep while driving.

[pizzafan]

*Fixed attachment, don't know how to delete posts