A Little Help with my Oscar Info

First off thanks so much everyone for sharing your experience and info. The doc wasn't going to be much help.

Spent my second night last night and slept pretty good. First night not so good. Last night was at least as good a night's sleep as any in the last 3 years without therapy, which has been extremely rare using a boil and bite device. Also was aware of being in dream state 3 or 4 times which almost never happened in the last 3 years. I feel at least as refreshed and probably more refreshed as the best day of the last three years and I really owe this all to this forum as I started here right after my sleep test and OSA diagnosis.

I take small dose blood pressure med and use a nasal spray for allergies and small dose of a statin as a preventive. One immediate benefit has been much better daytime breathing!

Woke up four times during the night. Didn't really need to pee, but did anyway since I was already awake and fell back asleep pretty quickly each time. You can see the breaks where I shut the machine off.

AHI the first night was 5.75 by the way.
Should I start by increasing the min pressure to 6 to bring AHI down?
Should I expect the machine to learn and work pressure changes to bring the AHI down more?
Really appreciate any help and thanks in advance.

maninchicago wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:36 pm

Should I start by increasing the min pressure to 6 to bring AHI down?

Try that and see.

maninchicago wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:36 pm

Should I expect the machine to learn and work pressure changes to bring the AHI down more?

The machine does not learn. It only records and reacts your breathing (Obstructive apneas, REAs, flow limits, snores and ect.) irregularities.

Come back and let the experts take a look at your progress. On this thread.
They can give you more/better advice than I. (I said me. tsk, tsk, tsk)

Good luck.

JPB

You're off to a good start, and just think: you'll never again have to have a first night on PAP!

I agree with jimbud that it'd be good to try raising your minimum pressure. Your machine is pretty conservative in its algorithms, so to handle obstructive events you need to rely a fair amount on the minimum pressure. It is also not very responsive to hypopneas, flow limitations, or RERAs.

Going up to a minimum of 6 should feel OK. Post another chart so we can see what, if anything, changes. That will tell us what your next steps might be.

Thanks for your help and so I did try 6 min last night and feel somewhat refreshed this morning. The air flow seemed more aggressive and took more time to get used to and fall asleep. I felt the one longer period in the middle that I slept pretty soundly. It's rare for me to sleep for 4 hours so that's encouraging!

I did have more issues with my allergies and had to kind of snort to clear them several times which I'm guessing would interpret to a snore event or obstruction? I was actually awake about 90 minutes to 2 hours of the time. I'm also having skin irritation around where the face mask contacts my skin. Would lanolin help with that or is there a better solution?

And it was mentioned my machine can't prevent Hypopnia. Is there a different machine you'd recommend? I'm still able to switch this one for anything I want. Thanks again.

And one more question- seems like I should make a donation to the site. Is there a way to do that?

It's good to hear you're feeling a bit more rested. I'd recommend sticking with these settings for at least a few more nights while you get used to them. By the way, next time you post a chart, you can turn of the VS2 flags. Not clear what they measure, and they clutter up the landscape.

Please ask for a ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset (ideally the For Her version, which has an extra mode of operation that is helpful for some women and men alike). It's great you can swap the PR machine out!

For the skin problem, see if there's a mask liner that would work. One place to try is Pad-a-Cheek.

I believe that this site is fully supported by cpap.com. They take a hands-off approach re content, which is good.

maninchicago wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:02 am

And it was mentioned my machine can't prevent Hypopnia. Is there a different machine you'd recommend? I'm still able to switch this one for anything I want. Thanks again.

The way these machines prevent Obstructive (OA and HA) is for the user to get the pressures optimized. When one hits that "sweet spot" the airway is splinted open and they don't have a chance to develop. You strive to get as close as possible to zero, but that doesn't always/often happen.

The Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset is currently the best machine (for most people) to achieve that goal.

JPB

Thanks miss Emerita and Jimbud. Will do and will post again in a few days to let you know.

Here's my latest and feeling more refreshed this morning. I've switched to a Resmed quarto full face mask a few nights ago. Curious that although the machine's set to min 6.0 it starts at 6.5 the last couple of nights on its own. Thanks for any help at how to improve my results.

maninchicago wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:11 am

Curious that although the machine's set to min 6.0 it starts at 6.5 the last couple of nights on its own.

I know very little about Respironics machines, but see how the Flex pressure line (green) starts at 4 and goes up to 4.5 and takes a dip at the break in therapy. I have no idea why the min. pressure (red) line does not mirror that, but I think all is OK.

When you feel comfortable with your current pressure you probably need to start increasing your minimum until the OAs reduce.

JPB

By the way, good job with the chart.

Very good. I agree that the next step is to raise your minimum. Try 7 and see how that feels. If it feels OK, then stick with it for a few days to see what happens to events, plus RERAs, snores, and flow limitations. (I don't know why the machine is starting at 6.5. Is it maybe a ramp setting?)

When you post again, be sure to include the Events graph. You can scrunch the graphs by grabbing the grey bars that separate them and pushing them up.

Are you still on the trail of a ResMed machine?

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:13 am

When you post again, be sure to include the Events graph.

jimbud wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 10, 2021 9:04 am

By the way, good job with the chart.

Except for lacking an Events graph.
Missed that

JPB

Thanks for the advice and will do and be back in a week or so.