First time OSCAR sleep screen post....

[Blutarsky]

Hello...

I've been using my machine to good effect since being diagnosed with sleep apnea in June, 2018. I've been wanting to post a graph, but realized Apria never included an SD card. Finally got around to buying one the other day, so here goes. I hope the screenshot is arranged properly. I read...and re-read Pugsy's excellent tutorial.

screenshot-20191227-105834.png (94.32 KiB) Viewed 7909 times

[zonker]

Hello...

I've been using my machine to good effect since being diagnosed with sleep apnea in June, 2018. I've been wanting to post a graph, but realized Apria never included an SD card. Finally got around to buying one the other day, so here goes. I hope the screenshot is arranged properly. I read...and re-read Pugsy's excellent tutorial.

screenshot-20191227-105834.png

is there a question?

are you sleeping okay?

[Blutarsky]

Sorry Zonker...

I definitely feel better than when I don't use the machine. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I need the humidifier or not. My nose seems to get stuffy when using it, so I've been trying it off lately. I really have no idea how to decipher the info, so I thought I'd post it up and let some of you make comments/suggestions of whether or not my settings appear to be solid or not.

Thanks,
Bob

[palerider]

Your numbers are good, but there's a lot of variation on your pressure curve. I'd bump the pressure to 9 (and after a few days, maybe 10) and see if that pressure line won't smooth out.

Every time the pressure jumps up, it's in response to some breathing problem that's very likely disturbing your sleep.

[Blutarsky]

Thanks palerider....I'll do that, then post another screenshot in a week or so.

[palerider]

Thanks palerider....I'll do that, then post another screenshot in a week or so.

The reason I suggest leaving is that you're 'close'... and so you need to work on averages, since sleep varies from night to night.

Hope that makes sense.

[Blutarsky]

Thanks palerider....I'll do that, then post another screenshot in a week or so.

The reason I suggest leaving is that you're 'close'... and so you need to work on averages, since sleep varies from night to night.

Hope that makes sense.

Much thanks. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get. I, of course, started off with the seemingly prescribed '4' min/starting pressure. I had a heck of a time falling asleep to that....which led me to come here months ago. Much easier to drift off on the higher pressure.

[palerider]

Thanks palerider....I'll do that, then post another screenshot in a week or so.

The reason I suggest leaving is that you're 'close'... and so you need to work on averages, since sleep varies from night to night.

Hope that makes sense.

Much thanks. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get. I, of course, started off with the seemingly prescribed '4' min/starting pressure. I had a heck of a time falling asleep to that....which led me to come here months ago. Much easier to drift off on the higher pressure.

Yup, there are a few people that 4 is good with... but like any bell curve, that's a very small number.

[Dog Slobber]

Thanks palerider....I'll do that, then post another screenshot in a week or so.

The reason I suggest leaving is that you're 'close'... and so you need to work on averages, since sleep varies from night to night.

Hope that makes sense.

Much thanks. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get. I, of course, started off with the seemingly prescribed '4' min/starting pressure. I had a heck of a time falling asleep to that....which led me to come here months ago. Much easier to drift off on the higher pressure.

The reason I like palerider's wait a week advice is to re-enforce that we are looking for trends, and a single night means nothing.

There are too many people here who give too much credibility to a single night. They have a single AHI 0.0 night and they think they're cured, or worse a, a bad night and start chasing numbers by making adjustments. They then don't know if it's the changes or normal variance.

Here's my numbers for the past month. Almost every night I'm getting 0.0 or 0.1 then completely out of left field a 0.8 or even a few nights of 0.5 or greater.

Untitled.png

One of the nice features of OSCAR is, under statistics tab, near the bottom you can see your stats, and every prescription change creates a new line item. So long as you are pretty good about letting each change become a little more statistically significant you can track the impact on AHI.

[Blutarsky]

Thanks palerider....I'll do that, then post another screenshot in a week or so.

The reason I suggest leaving is that you're 'close'... and so you need to work on averages, since sleep varies from night to night.

Hope that makes sense.

Much thanks. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get. I, of course, started off with the seemingly prescribed '4' min/starting pressure. I had a heck of a time falling asleep to that....which led me to come here months ago. Much easier to drift off on the higher pressure.

The reason I like palerider's wait a week advice is to re-enforce that we are looking for trends, and a single night means nothing.

There are too many people here who give too much credibility to a single night. They have a single AHI 0.0 night and they think they're cured, or worse a, a bad night and start chasing numbers by making adjustments. They then don't know if it's the changes or normal variance.

Here's my numbers for the past month. Almost every night I'm getting 0.0 or 0.1 then completely out of left field a 0.8 or even a few nights of 0.5 or greater.


Untitled.png

One of the nice features of OSCAR is, under statistics tab, near the bottom you can see your stats, and every prescription change creates a new line item. So long as you are pretty good about letting each change become a little more statistically significant you can track the impact on AHI.

Thanks for that info regarding Oscar. I'm just getting my feet wet using it, so that's good info. I usually see AHI numbers under 1.XX per the ResMed MyAir info, with a few 0.0's every now and then. I don't think I've ever exceeded 2.xx in the 18 months I've been using it. I was originally diagnosed with 31 AHI's....so I'm pretty happy I've been able to stick with it.

[zonker]

Thanks for that info regarding Oscar. I'm just getting my feet wet using it, so that's good info. I usually see AHI numbers under 1.XX per the ResMed MyAir info, with a few 0.0's every now and then. I don't think I've ever exceeded 2.xx in the 18 months I've been using it. I was originally diagnosed with 31 AHI's....so I'm pretty happy I've been able to stick with it.

this is why i like to point out to newbies that we are each different. you took to your machine right away and started getting good therapy. (no with paleriders help, maybe excellent therapy.) not all of us are so lucky.

it literally took me 3 years to get my therapy optimized. or as close to it as i think i'm going to get.

good to know you are doing so well!

[Blutarsky]

Thanks for that info regarding Oscar. I'm just getting my feet wet using it, so that's good info. I usually see AHI numbers under 1.XX per the ResMed MyAir info, with a few 0.0's every now and then. I don't think I've ever exceeded 2.xx in the 18 months I've been using it. I was originally diagnosed with 31 AHI's....so I'm pretty happy I've been able to stick with it.

this is why i like to point out to newbies that we are each different. you took to your machine right away and started getting good therapy. (no with paleriders help, maybe excellent therapy.) not all of us are so lucky.

it literally took me 3 years to get my therapy optimized. or as close to it as i think i'm going to get.

good to know you are doing so well!

Thanks Zonker. It did take me quite a few months to get to a point where I realized I needed to suck it up and get used to wearing the mask. For awhile I was just doing enough to stay compliant. I wish I wasn't a mouth breather...I'd love to give a nasal mask a go. Seems less obtrusive to me. I've been using Aller-Flo (Flonase) lately to keep my nasal passages drier, and I'm really liking the difference. I can't imagine suffering through 3 years of working out all the therapy issues. Glad you worked it out.

[palerider]

Thanks for that info regarding Oscar. I'm just getting my feet wet using it, so that's good info. I usually see AHI numbers under 1.XX per the ResMed MyAir info, with a few 0.0's every now and then. I don't think I've ever exceeded 2.xx in the 18 months I've been using it. I was originally diagnosed with 31 AHI's....so I'm pretty happy I've been able to stick with it.

this is why i like to point out to newbies that we are each different. you took to your machine right away and started getting good therapy. (no with paleriders help, maybe excellent therapy.) not all of us are so lucky.

it literally took me 3 years to get my therapy optimized. or as close to it as i think i'm going to get.

good to know you are doing so well!

It took you two and a half years to find us. (or something like that)

[Miss Emerita]

Great job on the chart! You should definitely try out pr’s settings for a week, changing nothing else, to see how that goes. Be sure you have the CA report function turned on.

Later on, you might try increasing the EPR to 3. The reason I say that is because you have a moderate amount of flow limitation and the EPR might help. It’s conceivable that this would give you sounder sleep.

[zonker]

Thanks Zonker. It did take me quite a few months to get to a point where I realized I needed to suck it up and get used to wearing the mask. For awhile I was just doing enough to stay compliant. I wish I wasn't a mouth breather...I'd love to give a nasal mask a go. Seems less obtrusive to me. I've been using Aller-Flo (Flonase) lately to keep my nasal passages drier, and I'm really liking the difference. I can't imagine suffering through 3 years of working out all the therapy issues. Glad you worked it out.

thanks. i had to work through a lot, but i made it.

but what i wanted to say (and i hate being THAT GUY) but are you completely sure on that mouth breather thing? i thought the same way, going into cpap. i'm a full bearded guy. i kept reading that a full face mask wouldn't work for me unless i shaved of the beard. uh, no. that wasn't going to happen.

so i tried ffm and nasal but i just couldn't seem to get my leaks under control. on top of that, i'd always assumed i was a mouth breather. out of desperation i finally tried the p10 nasal pillow mask. and wasn't having much luck with it until i saw forum member jay and his brilliant idea-

viewtopic/p1089718/viewtopic.php?f=1&t= ... s#p1086296

this is what i use now. i've modified the system somewhat. but it works very well for me. the very first night, my ahi dropped by one point. his rig has helped me to become a nose breather, which is healthier for me anyway and really helped me down the path of getting things sorted out.

the p10 IS much less intrusive and the whole shebang is part of my success story.

you might want to try it out.