APAP newbie looking for advice on how treatment is going

Hi everyone, I was recommended to post here from r/SleepApnea from Reddit.

I had my sleep study a few weeks ago, and got the results on Friday - I have moderate-severe sleep apnea. I was told I stopped breathing 30 times per hour, and I'm having a little trouble understanding the AHI as I was given 3 numbers - 28/hr, 30/hr whilst supine and 55/hr in REM. Nadir saturation at 81% which is consistent with my Wellue O2 ring.

I got my machine on Monday (Resmed Airsense 10 for her with AirFit P10 nasal pillows) but with the the precautions that are being taken at the moment with COVID-19, the handover was little more than 'here's the machine, and here's how you turn it on'. I've used it for 2 nights now, and I feel like I'm sleeping better and my oxygen levels were better (still a few drops, though just not as many). Last night I adjust the APAP range to 6 - 20 from the default 4 - 20. I still had a few SpO2 drops below 90% though, so I was wondering if anyone could take a look at my OSCAR output and let me know if things look as they should? Is it expected to have drops in SpO2? I have an appointment with the CPAP clinic on Monday, but if I can make improvements in the meantime I'd much prefer that.

Any advice any can offer will be very appreciated

Wow, are you ever off to a great start! You logged some good hours on the machine with an excellent AHI and negligible leaks, and best of all you report feeling better.

I'm not sure what the 28 number was for. On the night of your sleep study, you had more problems with apnea when you were on your back or in REM sleep -- both pretty common patterns. To go from an average of 30 events per hour down to 1 is exactly the way this whole thing is supposed to work.

You had a good instinct raising your minimum pressure. Many people feel a little air-starved at 4. In fact, I would suggest going up to 7 so you can get the full benefits of your EPR of 3 all night. (EPR drops your pressure when you exhale, and it makes breathing more comfortable for lots of people. The minimum pressure the machine can deliver is 4, so the minimum pressure where you can have a full EPR of 3 is 7.)

I would also suggest either turning off the ramp or resetting the ramp minimum as well.

Are you getting just little blips on the drops below 90%, or are they sustained? Do you have a graph for O2 that you could include with another Oscar daily chart? Little blips may just indicate a brief problem with the contact between the measuring device and you.

One little bit of housekeeping: could you put your machine and mask information in your profile? That way it'll be right there whenever people read your posts.

Thank you Mis Emerita - I've attached another screenshot including the SpO2 readings, and the drops under 90% don't seem to be prolonged, but there are some in the low 90's that are which I hadn't realised before (1:50am - 2:30am being one example where the level sits at around 92-93%)

I wish I could take credit for increasing the pressure, but that came at the recommendation from someone on Reddit, but it felt more comfortable. I'm going to turn the ramp off for tonight, I don't particularly like it a great deal - I feel like I’m constantly trying to figure out what it’s doing.

I have added my machine and mask information to my profile. I added it in User Control Panel > Profile > Edit Equipment - is that right spot? I noticed that it's appearing on top of the screenshot in my original post, but in the 'post a reply' screen when I scroll down and view the previous posts it's not there

I'm sorry - I'm going to be a little obnoxious and 'bump' this post, because last night I had another bad SpO2 levels night, and I'm not sure how concerned I should be. I've also attached last night's OSCAR screenshot. I think it's important to point out that the pulse oximeter and the APAP machine don't have identical times, so it's possible there's a few seconds different in the SpO2 & pulse readings to the remaining readings.

bump