Where did all the help GO??

[racprops]

Sorry to bother you again BUT:

I am reaching a near braking point.

Currently I seem to only sleep an hour of two at a time.

Four days ago I thought I had a break though when I had a good night, during that night I had a long sleep of 4+ hours, with only want seems to be only 2 Hypopneas and one snore events.

I figured I was making head way.

BUT The three nights sense have been horrible. As above, only an hour at a time and only when I am so tired I fall asleep at a drop of a head.

And the reports are also horrible: the 12th only 6.21 hours of sleep with a AHI of 14.78, the 13th 4.53 hours of sleep on the machine and a AHI of 25.52.

Tonight with only 2.52 of sleep with the machine and a AHI of 27.90 (so far)

I even gave up and tried to sleep in my bed without the machine, sleeping on my side.

No good: one hour later I woke up sore and upset..I checked the O2 recorder and sure enough I had a lot more trouble with sats during that hour, so far on desating below 88 % for a few seconds…but I feel the many more ups and down during that hours shows I cannot sleep safely.

It looks like I have to figure this out, I have no other choose.

BUT It is getting harder and harder to sleep on the machine.

I am running into two main problems, ONE I have had to tighten the mask to the point of pain, because even when I lower the max pressure the machine will blow so hard it make the mask fart..a leak like a fart and this wakes me up.

OR I wake up with so little air flow I feel like I am suffocating from lack of air. For the first time I felt closeaphobtic , trapped in a too tight a place.

Yesterday morning around 5PM this happened for the third or fourth time and I could NOT put the mask back on, so I got up.

Another too tired day with me trying to fall asleep on and off all day.

AS I have said before IF I cannot stand the mask and machine even if the treatment is not as good as I need, then it will fail completely. It nearly has.

Then there is the machine over reacting as I try to fall asleep, and taking over my breathing..or jumping to max pressure and blowing the mask off…waking me as I am just about to drop off…

AND I find that the higher the EPAP Pressure the more the machine wants to be in control.

At 9CM it follows my breathing and if I hold my breath takes a few seconds to react. And will return to my controlling breathing.

BUT at 11cm it does NOT follow my breathing but instead does its own breathing and if I fail to keep up reacts with higher and higher power pressers blows. It takes over. It seemly will not allow me to be in control.

IS this normal?

So I am going nuts: Is the settings wrong (for me) of is the machine going bad??


Is it me OR the machine OR the settings and can they be set better??


Rich

[JohnBFisher]

racprops, I'm on the upswing from an ugly chest cold. They always knock me down (mentally and physically). I will try to look at your information and post a note later today .. but it might be tomorrow.

[racprops]

Thanks get well.

Rich

racprops, I'm on the upswing from an ugly chest cold. They always knock me down (mentally and physically). I will try to look at your information and post a note later today .. but it might be tomorrow.

[racprops]

BREAK THOUGH!!! NO EVENTS!!!!

I felt it was time for a desperate act, so far I have not slept over 4 hours at one time on the machine..and that seemed to only happen after many nights of one hour at a time..

So last night I took a Zantac.

I woke up a little stiff and need a bathroom break.

Then I relisted I have slept for seven hours..nearly a full night’s sleep.

I had to see how I did.

So I plugged in the SD card and downloaded it.

First I felt: ON NO it malfunctioned, it failed to scan my last night how did I mess it up..

AND then I relised it had not malfunctioned that many of the readouts were reporting breathing.

Then I had a OMG moment.

I HAD A PERFICE NIGHT ZERO AHI, ZERO APNEAS, ZERO EVERYTHING.

SEE:











This would and could not have happen with out all your support and help.

Rich

[49er]

Rich,

I am so happy for you after all the struggles you have been through. This has really made my day. Much continued success.

49er

BREAK THOUGH!!! NO EVENTS!!!!

I felt it was time for a desperate act, so far I have not slept over 4 hours at one time on the machine..and that seemed to only happen after many nights of one hour at a time..

So last night I took a Zantac.

I woke up a little stiff and need a bathroom break.

Then I relisted I have slept for seven hours..nearly a full night’s sleep.

I had to see how I did.

So I plugged in the SD card and downloaded it.

First I felt: ON NO it malfunctioned, it failed to scan my last night how did I mess it up..

AND then I relised it had not malfunctioned that many of the readouts were reporting breathing.

Then I had a OMG moment.

I HAD A PERFICE NIGHT ZERO AHI, ZERO APNEAS, ZERO EVERYTHING.

SEE:











This would and could not have happen with out all your support and help.

Rich

[NateS]

Congratulations, Rich!

Very happy to hear the good news!

Regards, Nate

[DoriC]

To everyone who has given Rich their support, expertise and Patience, please take a bow!! AMAZING!!

[HoseCrusher]

This is great news.

One night doesn't make a trend so now the challenge is to develop a trend of good nights sleep. It looks like you have all the pieces in place so this may be as easy as falling asleep...

[racprops]

It took 29 days to reach this.

And as I tried to go back asleep and got another 2.75 hours of sleep the machine the racked up 3.24 events 1.05 CA and 2.19 Hypopneas.

So I do know this will not be every night, but I also now know it can happen and that I am on the right track.

Rich

PS I will point out it took a Xanax and sleeping in my recliner is a near upright position. There is still work to do.

This is great news.

One night doesn't make a trend so now the challenge is to develop a trend of good nights sleep. It looks like you have all the pieces in place so this may be as easy as falling asleep...

[Claudio]

"I keep waking up and ripping off my mask as I feel suffocated..."

I don't have much technical knowledge in CPAP but could only share what happened to me when I felt suffocated and had to rib off my own mask.

This may not apply to most people and may somewhat help a few but it is worth mentioning in case it is the same happening to a few as it has happened to me.

The first thing that has happened to me was that my nose is usually congested and needs to be clean, sometimes very minor but hard to breath. Even when it is clean, when I lay down, my nose air passage gets smaller and hard to breath. Sometimes it is hard to breath from the start and other times it is later own when sleeping.

One remedy was to use nasal pillow mask and I usually need to use nasal strips as well. This worked the best for me, along with a few other things.

The other problem (because of my nose problem), was my pressure was too high; it was set that way at first because I needed the air flow. Then I had a hard time expelling air and suffocating, the ramp, inspiratory and expiratory pressure had to be adjusted. The auto CPAP machines must adjust to each individual. I tried a ResMed VPAP ADAPT machine for the first time last night.

When I felt suffocated in the past, it was a combination of nose problem, air intake, air out, air pressure and sometimes rain out. I also had it bad in certain positions of my head on my back, the air flow got worse.

Once I learned the best mask to use and fit, the best position, humidity, in/out air pressure and better nose air flow, things are way better.

For those who have no problem breathing properly, that’s great, but for a few of us it is a learning experience.

[NateS]

It took 29 days to reach this.

Everyone told you it would take a month!

Regards, Nate

[sleepinow]

Keep up the good work racPROPS, you have helped me through my struggle too. We both have the same machines so yeah it was hard. Good to see things change for you and thanks for your help!

[RandyJ]

While every night might not yield as great a result, at least you know that your current settings are good and you can relax in that regard.

Good luck!

[JohnBFisher]

Zantac as in an antacid? Hmmm... It's possible the stomach acid was causing you to awaken during the night. That would trigger sleep state transition apneas - which appear to be a real struggle for you. Yes, I can believe that that's what helped.

But don't panic if it doesn't always work. It sounds as if getting to you fall asleep and stay asleep can be a struggle. Those nights always are lousy for me, as well. Be patient. You will find you tend to sleep better more frequently. But it requires patience on your part.

And here's hoping you will have found the secret to help you get better sleep. Best wishes for much more!!

[racprops]

Sorry I misquote it was xanax.

Rich