After 4 months, suspected problem with machine

[zonker]

Does anyone know, is it worth uploading the data from the SD card to this thread after just one night (last night), or should I wait until I have a few more days? I'm mainly speaking of the graphs and more detailed info, since you can still get the basic info from the machine.

go ahead and upload. you may need the practice, if you are anything like me. i had to do it multiple times before i got it right!

keep in mind that the experts here are looking for, among other things, long term trends. for example, if someone suggests, based on your graphs, that you raise the minimum pressure, then they would like to see how that affects your ahi over several nights.

good luck!

[palerider]

Does anyone know, is it worth uploading the data from the SD card to this thread after just one night (last night), or should I wait until I have a few more days? I'm mainly speaking of the graphs and more detailed info, since you can still get the basic info from the machine.

Yes, it's worth it.

[LordoftheBeans]

Thank you to all the replies! I was out of town all of today but I will be working on uploading the data tomorrow, and post it here.

[LordoftheBeans]

Okay, here is my data from 8/8/2019. Hopefully the pictures is the correct size.

[zonker]

Okay, here is my data from 8/8/2019. Hopefully the pictures is the correct size.

i'll let others do the technical advice. i just want to ask how you slept on this particular night?

[LordoftheBeans]

Okay, here is my data from 8/8/2019. Hopefully the pictures is the correct size.

i'll let others do the technical advice. i just want to ask how you slept on this particular night?

Pretty typical of the last two weeks. Waking up every few hours. The next day (yesterday) being super tired all day. I did wake up with a headache as well.

[zonker]

Okay, here is my data from 8/8/2019. Hopefully the pictures is the correct size.

i'll let others do the technical advice. i just want to ask how you slept on this particular night?

Pretty typical of the last two weeks. Waking up every few hours. The next day (yesterday) being super tired all day. I did wake up with a headache as well.

oh, dear. i was hoping for an overnight miracle!

now i'll try to sit quietly while my betters offer advice.

[LordoftheBeans]

Yeah, I don't know how to read the info I posted, so hopefully somebody has a good suggestion. I just don't get it, from what I can tell, no settings have been changed but over the last month it's effectiveness has disappeared almost entirely. I imagine I'll have to do another sleep study and get new settings. But as I originally said, I suspect it's not putting out as much pressure as it should to keep me asleep. However, my fear is that I have a feeling someone that can read the data on here will say it is increasing it enough, which leaves me with more questions.

[Pugsy]

Waking up every few hours.

Any idea why the wake ups? Frequent wake ups mess with the normal cycles and amount of each sleep stage that we get and when that happens it messes with how we feel. It is normal to wake after REM stage sleep though...and we might have 4 to 6 REM cycles during the night.

Normally get at least 7 hours of sleep?

I don't see anything standing out screaming "fix me and you will feel better" on your report. I know it's not what you wanted to hear.
I suspect your problem lies elsewhere.

The headaches...probably should be talking to your doctor about them. Lots of things can cause headaches and some of them are serious and need to be ruled out.

[LordoftheBeans]

Waking up every few hours.

Any idea why the wake ups? Frequent wake ups mess with the normal cycles and amount of each sleep stage that we get and when that happens it messes with how we feel. It is normal to wake after REM stage sleep though...and we might have 4 to 6 REM cycles during the night.

Normally get at least 7 hours of sleep?

I don't see anything standing out screaming "fix me and you will feel better" on your report. I know it's not what you wanted to hear.
I suspect your problem lies elsewhere.

The headaches...probably should be talking to your doctor about them. Lots of things can cause headaches and some of them are serious and need to be ruled out.

Before starting any of this I would wake up every 2-3 hours, which, once I was diagnosed I assumed was due to apnea. I would get around 6 hours of interrupted sleep. When I first started the apap I would maybe wake up twice all night, and in the morning wake up feeling awake (instead of still tired). I was still getting around 6-7 hours of total sleep. I wasn't getting headaches during this time, so the fact that I am now and also waking up just as much as I used to before starting therapy suggests to me that it's all sleep related, but obviously I'm not a doctor. I'll just have to tell all this to the Kaiser RT and maybe best case scenario at this point is they have me do another sleep study... Maybe something with me changed. I haven't started any medications, my routine is still the same. I work tomorrow, so I'll try to go to bed pretty early and see if I can get a solid 7 hours total. But even when it was working well I was only getting about 6:30 average.

[LordoftheBeans]

Also, I'm curious what would happen if it was set to a constant higher pressure instead of auto. I don't really want to mess with it before my appointment (I'm sure they'd just claim it was my fault for messing with settings), but just as an experiment to see if I would stay asleep.

[D.H.]

Also, I'm curious what would happen if it was set to a constant higher pressure instead of auto. I don't really want to mess with it before my appointment (I'm sure they'd just claim it was my fault for messing with settings), but just as an experiment to see if I would stay asleep.

Try setting the min to 8. Also, you might to try a different EPR. I never heard of anybody losing their machine for changing the settings.

[LordoftheBeans]

Also, I'm curious what would happen if it was set to a constant higher pressure instead of auto. I don't really want to mess with it before my appointment (I'm sure they'd just claim it was my fault for messing with settings), but just as an experiment to see if I would stay asleep.

Try setting the min to 8. Also, you might to try a different EPR. I never heard of anybody losing their machine for changing the settings.

What is EPR? I'm not worried about losing my machine because I had to pay for it in full. I'm more worried about if I change a setting before my appointment and the RT sees that, they can claim that's the reason why my sleep sucks now and change it back to the original settings which leaves me where I am now. That wouldn't make sense, since I've never touched the settings until this point, but dealing with these people is ridiculous at times.

[D.H.]

Also, I'm curious what would happen if it was set to a constant higher pressure instead of auto. I don't really want to mess with it before my appointment (I'm sure they'd just claim it was my fault for messing with settings), but just as an experiment to see if I would stay asleep.

Try setting the min to 8. Also, you might to try a different EPR. I never heard of anybody losing their machine for changing the settings.

What is EPR? I'm not worried about losing my machine because I had to pay for it in full. I'm more worried about if I change a setting before my appointment and the RT sees that, they can claim that's the reason why my sleep sucks now and change it back to the original settings which leaves me where I am now. That wouldn't make sense, since I've never touched the settings until this point, but dealing with these people is ridiculous at times.

If the problem was happening before you changed your settings, you need to explain this politely, but instantly. You can always change it back.

Basically, EPR means that when you exhale, the pressure lets up a bit to make it easier to exhale. The timing maybe off because of your personal breathing idiosyncrasies. If this is the case, you might do better with EPR turned off.

Another thing. If you find that the initial pressure seems too weak, reduce the ramp time, increase the initial ramp pressure, or turn off the ramp completely.

[LordoftheBeans]

Update:

I just got off the phone with the Kaiser RT. They of course said the machine is working fine. They ordered me a chin strap just in case my mouth is opening slightly (I don't think it is cause I've never been a mouth breather, and I'm pretty sure a leak would be detected). They are going to follow up in a month, but in the meantime they basically said talk to my regular physician about anything else that could be interfering with my sleep (nothing else at all has changed in my life). So now I have an appointment with my regular doctor on Monday.

I did change my settings from 6-20 to 8-20, and turned ramp off. It was slightly uncomfortable the first few minutes but I was able to fall asleep fine. I seemed to wake up just as much throughout the night. The first morning after switching settings, in the morning I had a headache but I didn't feel nearly as tired. Then I ate lunch (nothing heavy), and afterward could barely keep my eyes open. *sigh*

My EPR is set to 3. Any suggestions on what I should try changing it to? Thanks to everyone for all the help so far. Also, would it be helpful to post the OSCAR data from after I changed settings?