Newbie Intro

Hi All,

I have been lurking for a few months now and have a couple of months under my belt using my new (first) CPAP machine. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea by a homekit which had me scored at 8.1 AHI. The reason i started on CPAP was because i woke up one night with my heart beating wildly. I went to the ER and was diagnosed with Afib which converted on its own after 27 hours in the hospital

Anyways, i recently also purchased a CMS50F pulse oximeter to help monitor my heart rate at night.

Some history: I have been really struggling with sleep for the last 9 years. As time has gone by i have found it harder and harder to sleep on my side (which i am most inclined to do). Basically, it started out with typical palpitations at night (sinus tachycardia) which progressed to waking me up in the middle of the night from a nightmare with my heart racing. I stopped drinking over a year ago as alcohol was making sleeping unbearable. Eventually, AFIB struck last month and that was the wake up call for me. Unfortunately, even after a month or so of CPAP use and very good AHI ( i average .1 to .9 AHI every night) i am still struggling with the nightmares and waking up with the pounding heart. I am terrified that i will just go into AFIB again with no way to stop this.

My main issue right now is interpreting data to help determine if my night time awakenings are coinciding with the apnea events. Unfortunately i simply cannot sync up my CMS50F with sleepyhead. I have read multiple versions of how to do this in this forum but i think the latest version of sleepyhead has changed the way you import the oximetry data. After the data downloads is it best to select the box to sync the oximeter with the start of the CPAP session? (ive had tried every combo available and nothing works).

Lastly, and this one is slightly embarrassing, ive noticed since i started the CPAP, my stool has been very hard and difficult to push. I am regular in the sense that i go at the same time every day, and its a fairly large quantity, but its very hard and strenuous The only other thing that has changed in my routine is that i am taking metoprolol for my heart/BP 25mg, however my cardiologist says he has never heard this med doing this. For the record, I used to go #2 in the early early hours of the morning and the consistency was somewhat loose. I was like this for years until i started on the CPAP.

Anyways, I will try to post my latest results from sleepyhead tomorrow morning, but just wanted to get my initial intro and questions out there.

Thanks all! this forum has been fantastic so far! I welcome your all's thoughts on my condition.

Sisyphus

What are your pressure settings?

6 to 9.

Thanks!

Maybe you need to point your doctor to the list of potential side effects for metoprolol
constipation is a common side affect and so is diarrhea. Happens with a lot of meds...they just mess up the GI Tract.

https://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/metoprolol

https://www.healthline.com/health/metop ... blet#about

https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-8814 ... ideeffects

Doctors can't possibly know all the potential side effects for all medications....always research yourself and always look at multiple sources for reference.

Thanks Pugsy!

So i think i interpet that this is not a common issue with CPAP use. Well I'm trying Colace now to see if it helps. Getting older is the pits!!

I will post the sleepyhead data tomorrow.

Attached are screen grabs from last night. For whatever reason my Resmed import does not seem to reflect daylight savings time so its ahead by an hour. My oximeter did not catch my heart rate of 98 (n bad nights its gone as high as 150 bpm). This occured at 4am last night(apple watch registered the 98 bpm).I tried to shift the start time of the oximeter to align with the start time of the resmed recordning. This seems to be the closet i have aligned the two.

There's a clock you need to reset on your AirSense 10 for the change in time. The machine doesn't do it automatically for you and SleepyHead's check mark for using DST doesn't seem to fix it either.
Easiest thing...just change the clock.
The clock is down in the menu area where you can erase all data or see the total run hours and software version.
You can change it.
Be careful though. It won't let you go backwards when there is already data written in that session (and a new session starts at Noon per the machine clock)...so if you take a nap after 12 PM..Noon...it may not let you do it. Just wait until right before bed to change it and see if it will let you then.
It will let you know if it doesn't want to make the change.

Excellent. That menu on the machine is rather inarticulate. I will look for the clock setting. Hopefully that resolves my timing issue. Thanks again!

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:47 pm

There's a clock you need to reset on your AirSense 10 for the change in time. The machine doesn't do it automatically for you and SleepyHead's check mark for using DST doesn't seem to fix it either.
Easiest thing...just change the clock.
The clock is down in the menu area where you can erase all data or see the total run hours and software version.
You can change it.
Be careful though. It won't let you go backwards when there is already data written in that session (and a new session starts at Noon per the machine clock)...so if you take a nap after 12 PM..Noon...it may not let you do it. Just wait until right before bed to change it and see if it will let you then.
It will let you know if it doesn't want to make the change.

Well, my machine does not give me the ability to change the clock. The main menu is very limited - all i can do is adjust the temp of the hose and the type of mask.

I am still struggling to get the CMS50F to align with the resmed device in sleepyhead but i guess that's a limitation of the sleepyhead software. Another deal that is annoying is that i cannot get SPO2 assistant to recognize my device. I am running 3.04 version which i think is the latest, as well as having tried several previous versions to make sure it wasnt a recent limitation. I wanted to see if there was a way to import SPO2 assistant data to help me sync up the time on the recordings better in sleepyhead but no dice. (yes i am using the right cable and have the latest silicon labs driver for the cable but SPO2 assistant simply will not see my device).

As far as an update, all is still the same. Some nights are better than others but i am always around 0.5 AHI every day which my doctor is happy about. I also had a septoplasty over the xmas break to fix a deviated septum. I was hoping that better breathing would help but things still feel the same even with the better nasal airflow. By the way, if anyone is considering having a deviated septum fixed i highly recommend it. The surgery was easy and recovery was fairly painless. I did end up getting too much air at night which caused me to burp alot at night. They cut my pressure down a small amount which resolved the belching. I still feel like i get a little too much air but the nurse is reluctant to lower my pressure.

The main issue for me now is that I usually still have two to three times a night that i wake up feeling really overheated, almost always when i sleep on my side, then as soon as i rollover my heart rate will shoot up. I now sleep with a bowl of water next to me with a wet rag so i can drape it over my head to cool down quickly. I have always had a problem with the heat but nowadays i am severely limited in physical exertion. My daytime palpitations are slowly worsening. I used to be able to do alot more physical exertion but now i can't even walk a mile without the heart producing PAC's. Two years ago i was jogging 3 miles a day. Meh, life sucks and im only in my mid 40's

My wife thinks i look comical with all the devices strapped to me at night but this is the way its just gonna have to be.

Sisyphus22 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:15 pm

Well, my machine does not give me the ability to change the clock. The main menu is very limited - all i can do is adjust the temp of the hose and the type of mask.

Well you just need to go to a different menu...that's all and it's super easy.
Get the clinical/provider manual and it will explain how to and show you where it is at.
You can request it here.
https://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap- ... tup-manual

Might want to get it and read it....some good information in it that isn't in the typical user manual.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:21 pm

Sisyphus22 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:15 pm

Well, my machine does not give me the ability to change the clock. The main menu is very limited - all i can do is adjust the temp of the hose and the type of mask.

Well you just need to go to a different menu...that's all and it's super easy.
Get the clinical/provider manual and it will explain how to and show you where it is at.
You can request it here.
https://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap- ... tup-manual

Might want to get it and read it....some good information in it that isn't in the typical user manual.

Okie dokes. Will try again. Thank you

Sisyphus22 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:15 pm

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:47 pm

There's a clock you need to reset on your AirSense 10 for the change in time.

Well, my machine does not give me the ability to change the clock.

If Pugsy says something, you should ask 'how do i do that" instead of saying you can't.

Indeed!!