Kbh209's CPAP questions and updates

[kbh209]

Okay something strange I've encountered.

I went to my sleep specialist because it felt like I wasn't getting good sleep with my DS2. So he raised the air from 10.0 to 11.0. This was on September 8th.

On September 16th, I had went up in the foothills here in California for a retreat. When I got up to the retreat, I noticed my breathing was a bit heavier, but it slightly adjusted. Mind you there was some smoke from a fire about 30 - 40 miles away further up the foothills. When I got back down from the foothills back in the Central Valley, on September 18th my breathing remained heavy. No smoke here in the valley.

This past Tuesday something told me to look up my AHI on my machine, and I noticed I had a 10.0 for my AHI, and then Wednesday I checked my seven day average and it was 9.5. Last night I reduced my air from 11.0 to 10.0, it partially helped my AHI bringing down to 6.5.

My roommate suggested that my ear infection possibly could be affecting my breathing? Mind you she was only a medical assistant for 3-4 years back in the late 90s.

My thought could be either A) my mild asthma is acting up or allergies. B) my weight gain isn't helping. 175 lbs to 188 lbs. C) Stress?

Any thoughts?


Side note: SD Card won't read in DS 2 machine, so no access to Oscar.

[kbh209]

Something definitely isn't right, and I'm not sure what it is. It feels like something is preventing me from getting air from the machine deep into my nostrils and throat. My AHI is 18 with 2.5 hours of attempting to sleep. I noticed when I woke up yesterday (10/18) my AHI was 16. Something is wrong. I'll call the ENT doctor and the sleep specialist Monday to see what they say.

For now since it feels like I'm not wearing a CPAP machine due to my inability to get the air into my body, I'm wondering if I should sleep without it or keep using it. =/

[kbh209]

Well I finally bit the bullet, and emailed my sleep specialist via the health portal. We had an appointment last week via Zoom. He wants to rule out central sleep apnea so I'm having a sleep study done on December 1st. If my DreamStation 2 would properly read my SD card, instead of shooting out error messages, I'd whip up an Oscar report.

[robysue1]

Well I finally bit the bullet, and emailed my sleep specialist via the health portal. We had an appointment last week via Zoom. He wants to rule out central sleep apnea so I'm having a sleep study done on December 1st. If my DreamStation 2 would properly read my SD card, instead of shooting out error messages, I'd whip up an Oscar report.

Asking the obvious, but ...

Have you tried using a brand new SD card in the DS2?

[kbh209]

Well I finally bit the bullet, and emailed my sleep specialist via the health portal. We had an appointment last week via Zoom. He wants to rule out central sleep apnea so I'm having a sleep study done on December 1st. If my DreamStation 2 would properly read my SD card, instead of shooting out error messages, I'd whip up an Oscar report.

Asking the obvious, but ...

Have you tried using a brand new SD card in the DS2?

No but I'm not sure why I gave my SD card another chance and put it into my machine. No error messages whatsoever. Last time I tried putting the SD card in the machine was in June when Oscar released their new release. I must have not put the SD card in correctly. The good news is, so far I have at least one report for Oscar now. I can share it with the forum in the next day or so when I'm not so busy.

I apologize RobySue1 for deleting my original response to you. After I responded I did decide to try the original SD card again.

[kbh209]

Evening of 11/13/22
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tLAJd9zk4EVVRauV7

Evening of 11/12/22

https://photos.app.goo.gl/euVt24SYLGhTxaHH9

11/04/22
Didn't have my chip in this date so the flow rate didn't get captured. Sharing due to a concerningly high AHI
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ytjrry1ezQpJYU6FA

[Pugsy]

You need more pressure than the fixed cpap at 10 cm you are using.

[ozij]

Didn't have my chip in this date so the flow rate didn't get captured. Sharing due to a concerningly high AHI

As are your snores when captured.

You need more pressure than the fixed cpap at 10 cm you are using.

[kbh209]

I raised my pressure to 11 again last night. I feel like I got a little better sleep than with on the 10. My AHI still registered about 6.3. I'll keep the pressure at 11 for 2-3 more days so I can at least capture data to see what my flow looks like compared to 10.

[kbh209]

Pressure still at 11, and my AHI was 7.2 today. I've been having fog brain all day. My flow rate is the same as it was when the pressure was on 10, per Oscar. I'm thinking about going into Auto mode tonight to see if I can figure anything out via Oscar to see where I can set my CPAP setting to. I digress though, only a week until my sleep study to see if its central sleep apnea that's creeping in.

[robysue1]

Pressure still at 11, and my AHI was 7.2 today. I've been having fog brain all day. My flow rate is the same as it was when the pressure was on 10, per Oscar. I'm thinking about going into Auto mode tonight to see if I can figure anything out via Oscar to see where I can set my CPAP setting to. I digress though, only a week until my sleep study to see if its central sleep apnea that's creeping in.

Using Auto mode is a reasonable idea. I'd suggest having Min Pressure set at 10 (your current pressure) and Max Pressure at 20 to see where your machine would like to go once your events start to happen.

Why are you worried about central sleep apnea? The data you shared back on November 14 indicates that your problem seems to be OAs and Hs. There are also a whole slew of RERAs and snoring scored as well. All of that points to a probable worsening of your OSA, not a problem of central sleep apnea starting to emerge.

[kbh209]

Pressure still at 11, and my AHI was 7.2 today. I've been having fog brain all day. My flow rate is the same as it was when the pressure was on 10, per Oscar. I'm thinking about going into Auto mode tonight to see if I can figure anything out via Oscar to see where I can set my CPAP setting to. I digress though, only a week until my sleep study to see if its central sleep apnea that's creeping in.

Using Auto mode is a reasonable idea. I'd suggest having Min Pressure set at 10 (your current pressure) and Max Pressure at 20 to see where your machine would like to go once your events start to happen.

Why are you worried about central sleep apnea? The data you shared back on November 14 indicates that your problem seems to be OAs and Hs. There are also a whole slew of RERAs and snoring scored as well. All of that points to a probable worsening of your OSA, not a problem of central sleep apnea starting to emerge.

When I spoke to my sleep specialist earlier in the month, he wants to do the study to rule it out.

I bit the bullet and put AutoCPAP mode on. I decided against putting the max at 20 as I didn't want to risk feeling like I was behind a jet engine last night. I had my minimum pressure set at 11 per my new prescription blower strength, and set the max blower speed at 15. I definitely felt like I had a better night's sleep. It's been a while for that. My AHI is still not exactly where I want it, so I'm going to raise the max pressure to 16 tonight to see if that helps anything.

Here's my Oscar report from last night https://photos.app.goo.gl/kKqMumZwSZvKgSwy6

[robysue1]

During the first half of the night your machine definitely wanted to go higher than 15cm to address the OAs, RERAs, snoring, and flow limitations. Any chance you were on your back during the first half of the night and then changed positions for the second half of the night?

Clearly this experiment is in the right direction: Not only is your AHI much lower, but you also say, "I definitely felt like I had a better night's sleep. It's been a while for that." And that's really the name of the game here: Getting a better night's sleep consistently.

[kbh209]

During the first half of the night your machine definitely wanted to go higher than 15cm to address the OAs, RERAs, snoring, and flow limitations. Any chance you were on your back during the first half of the night and then changed positions for the second half of the night?

Clearly this experiment is in the right direction: Not only is your AHI much lower, but you also say, "I definitely felt like I had a better night's sleep. It's been a while for that." And that's really the name of the game here: Getting a better night's sleep consistently.

I'm unsure as I know I do turn in my sleep. For the sake of clarity though, it does take me an hour, or 1.5 hours to get to sleep. Last night it felt like it was the latter.

[kbh209]

just went over my results of the sleep study with the doctor, no central sleep apnea. Based off my AHI numbers, the lowest I got during my sleep study was a 3.3 and this was at 14, so he was going to set my machine to CPAP mode 14. I was transparent with him and told him that I was trying out automated mode and he was fine with the idea. He told me to set the minimum air pressure to 14 and the maximum of 20 but I can play around with the maximum if it is too high.