Ive been diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea – Advice Please

After undergoing a hospital sleep study I have been diagnosed with having severe sleep apnea.

So now finding this wonderful forum is a real bonus and gives me some hope that I’m not alone and can ask others here for help , guidance and advice.

So after many months of going to sleep and during the night and waking up with a sensation that I had either been choking on something or I had some thing stuck in my throat , which normally felt like I was having a dream . I went to see a hospital doctor who referred me to a sleep specialist.

After undergoing an overnight sleep test in the hospital the sleep specialist confirmed that I had severe sleep apnea and recommended that I purchase a Resmed Airsense 10 machine and a mask.

Along with the Resmed Airsense 10 machine I purchased a ResMed AirFit N30i along with a Phillips Respironics DreamWear Full face mask.

The hospital sleep specialist went through the Resmed Airsense 10 machine settings option and said that the machine settings were now set correctly .

So far I have not altered the settings option that the hospital sleep specialist had previously set.

So now after using the Resmed Airsense 10 machine for a couple of months with both the ResMed AirFit N30i and the Phillips Respironics DreamWear Full face mask , I am still experiencing the same past nightly sensations of either choking on something or have something stuck in my throat.

I am now wondering if I should attempt to change the settings previously set by the hospital sleep specialist in some way , to try and improve and hopefully reduce the number of times I still have the choking / stuck in throat sensation .

As for my self , I’m 69 years of age with no medical issues or taking any form of drugs and currently living in Vietnam.

I have looked through this forums topics , but as some one new to sleep apena , its a lot to take in but hopefully with the kind help of other forum members here I hope to some day be able to get my sleep apena situation finally under control.




I have attached the current Resmed Airsense 10 machine settings .




Any advice , suggestions or comments much appreciated

Thanks

Ben

Welcome to the forum.

Get this software below and lets see if anything on the daily detailed report gives us a hint as to how the therapy is going and if adjustments are needed....how much and why.

OSCAR https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... stallation
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... rpretation

Post a recent typical detailed report and for what we like to see read this thread as there are examples available.
You will get a ton of graphs but we don't really need all of them.
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html

How are you sleeping in general? Waking often or sleeping soundly for the most part?
How are you feeling during the day?

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 04, 2021 11:13 pm

Welcome to the forum.

Get this software below and lets see if anything on the daily detailed report gives us a hint as to how the therapy is going and if adjustments are needed....how much and why.

OSCAR https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... stallation
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... rpretation

Post a recent typical detailed report and for what we like to see read this thread as there are examples available.
You will get a ton of graphs but we don't really need all of them.
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html

How are you sleeping in general? Waking often or sleeping soundly for the most part?
How are you feeling during the day?

Hi and thank you ,

I have just downloaded OSCAR and put a SD card into my Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset Machine.

So hopefully tonight I will get to see whats going on and post back the report here .

Generally due to being awoken during the night time by the sensation that I have either been choking on something or I had some thing stuck in my throat , I have during the day time been feeling more tired , This constantly being awoken at night time after Ive gone to sleep is making me feel some what irritable. On average I would say that I am being awoken due to the choking / stuck in throat sensation , once or some times twice through the night , which is the same number of times as before I started to use my Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset Machine.


Ben.

Ben_Dover wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:47 pm

The hospital sleep specialist went through the Resmed Airsense 10 machine settings option and said that the machine settings were now set correctly .

Your minimum pressure is set to 4.0. That doesn't work well for most people. OSCAR will give us some answers.

Do you know how to get into the menu on your machine's display to check the daily summary? Instructions for your machine model can be found on youtube.

That choking sensation is definably an apnea event. Do what Pugs said and post a few nights of Oscar graphs so we can see what's going on. We are here to help you.

Sheriff

ChicagoGranny wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 05, 2021 6:53 am

Ben_Dover wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:47 pm

The hospital sleep specialist went through the Resmed Airsense 10 machine settings option and said that the machine settings were now set correctly .

Your minimum pressure is set to 4.0. That doesn't work well for most people. OSCAR will give us some answers.

Do you know how to get into the menu on your machine's display to check the daily summary? Instructions for your machine model can be found on youtube.

Thanks for your comments .

I’m not sure how to access the machines daily summery setting so I will check out youtube. Fingers crossed that the OSCAR info will shed some light on my situation .



Ben.

Sheriff Buford wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:07 am

That choking sensation is definably an apnea event. Do what Pugs said and post a few nights of Oscar graphs so we can see what's going on. We are here to help you.

Sheriff

Thanks for your thoughts, it appreciated.

To night will be the first night using my machine and OSCAR , so fingers crossed that looking at the OSCAR results may shed some light on my situation and possibly altering my machines settings.



Ben.

To access the summary numbers available on the machine LCD screen you just click on the sleep report in your menu.

Your screen shots showed "Essentials" set to "Plus" and that tells me the sleep report will show summary numbers.
It's not a lot of detail though which is why we us OSCAR that shows more detail.
The summary report just shows AHI and 95% pressure and 95% leak numbers.

The SD card must be in the machine when the machine is being used during the night to get the detailed data though.
So if your past nights didn't have the SD card actually in the machine you won't have detailed data for those nights.

The machine only stores the summary data files in the machines internal memory...any detailed data files have to be written to the SD card to be stored if we expect to see that detailed data.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:30 am

To access the summary numbers available on the machine LCD screen you just click on the sleep report in your menu.

Your screen shots showed "Essentials" set to "Plus" and that tells me the sleep report will show summary numbers.
It's not a lot of detail though which is why we us OSCAR that shows more detail.
The summary report just shows AHI and 95% pressure and 95% leak numbers.

The SD card must be in the machine when the machine is being used during the night to get the detailed data though.
So if your past nights didn't have the SD card actually in the machine you won't have detailed data for those nights.

The machine only stores the summary data files in the machines internal memory...any detailed data files have to be written to the SD card to be stored if we expect to see that detailed data.

Thanks for the information , Ive put a SD card in the machine and now when I switch it on the machines information screen shows this message for a few seconds ….......

[ Please wait Preparing SD card, do not remove power or your card. ]

Then the machine starts as normal.

Off f to bed now to give OSCAR a try


Ben .

Well I went to bed wearing my ResMed AirFit N30i , and as normal I slept on my side .

From what I remember I was starting to fall asleep but after about an hour I started to get the feeling that some thing was stuck in my throat along with the sensation that the air blowing into the N30i was becoming too forceful.



I’m not sure whats going on .

This is last nights OSCAR report .

Any advice or suggestions as to whats going on would be most welcome.


Ben.

From what I remember I was starting to fall asleep but after about an hour I started to get the feeling that some thing was stuck in my throat along with the sensation that the air blowing into the N30i was becoming too forceful.

Yes, if you look at the chart you'll see an obstructive apnea at approx 23:05. The machine responds by jacking up the pressure, and you then have a central apnea. The central is likely due to the arousal from the initial obstructive. You can also see that you had persistent leaks which went over the "red line" towards the end of the period.

You'll probably have a more comfortable sleep if you increase the maximum* pressure to 6.0, which is just above the median. If you make this change, you'll get a more constant pressure with fewer and smaller swings in pressure. It should also be more efficient at heading off nascent apneas.

The leaks can affect the efficiency of the machine if they go over 24 L/min (the "red line"). But even smaller leaks can disturb your sleep, especially if air blows into your eyes and/or the mask causes "face farts". So it's worth ensuring you have a really good seal - you machine has a mask check function which will blow at high pressure while you're adjusting the mask. It may also be that you're leaking via the mouth, which is a perennial problem with nasal masks. You might want to look up some exercises to keep the mouth closed, or else try taping your lips. Otherwise a full-face mask might be more suitable for you.

* That should be minimum, not maximum

I agree that you should raise your minimum, and 6 is fine for now.

Something to marvel at: you have severe apnea and your AHI was 1.89!

Can you say a little about why your usage time was fairly limited?

Respirator99 wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:32 pm

From what I remember I was starting to fall asleep but after about an hour I started to get the feeling that some thing was stuck in my throat along with the sensation that the air blowing into the N30i was becoming too forceful.

Yes, if you look at the chart you'll see an obstructive apnea at approx 23:05. The machine responds by jacking up the pressure, and you then have a central apnea. The central is likely due to the arousal from the initial obstructive. You can also see that you had persistent leaks which went over the "red line" towards the end of the period.

You'll probably have a more comfortable sleep if you increase the maximum pressure to 6.0, which is just above the median. If you make this change, you'll get a more constant pressure with fewer and smaller swings in pressure. It should also be more efficient at heading off nascent apneas.

The leaks can affect the efficiency of the machine if they go over 24 L/min (the "red line"). But even smaller leaks can disturb your sleep, especially if air blows into your eyes and/or the mask causes "face farts". So it's worth ensuring you have a really good seal - you machine has a mask check function which will blow at high pressure while you're adjusting the mask. It may also be that you're leaking via the mouth, which is a perennial problem with nasal masks. You might want to look up some exercises to keep the mouth closed, or else try taping your lips. Otherwise a full-face mask might be more suitable for you.

Thanks for the detailed assessment , its really appreciated .

To night I am going to use my Phillips DreamWear full face mask and see how I get on . I will also adjust the maximum pressure to 6.0 .


Ben.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:47 pm

I agree that you should raise your minimum, and 6 is fine for now.

Something to marvel at: you have severe apnea and your AHI was 1.89!

Can you say a little about why your usage time was fairly limited?

Thanks for the comment , its appreciated.

The usage time is possibly due to me stopping my machine when I woke up or had a problem. Its still early days and I'm still learning as much as I can with the kind help from your self and other forum members.

Can you please explain your comment ( Something to marvel at: you have severe apnea and your AHI was 1.89! ) should I be alarmed at that number ?


Ben.

Ben_Dover wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:13 pm

Can you please explain your comment ( Something to marvel at: you have severe apnea and your AHI was 1.89! ) should I be alarmed at that number ?

On the contrary. Severe sleep apnea means an AHI of greater than 30 and potentially much higher. 1.89 is a great number, especially just starting out. However, AHI isn't everything.