Could use your expertise.... please...

Hi all,

At my doctor's urging, I had a sleep study late last year and was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea. I've attached a snapshot of the report. I was not happy. I knew that I had terrible snoring, but I had no trouble sleeping, felt rested when I woke, and basically thought that all this sleep apnea stuff was just a bunch of nonsense.

However, I found this forum and started to do some research, and agreed to try a CPAP machine, with every expectation that I would not be able to deal with it and would quit. Everything was on backorder and I didn't actually get a machine until February. Long story short, I had little difficulty acclimating to the machine, and I've been using it since I got it.

I guess my main question is, can you tell me how I'm doing by looking at a typical night of OSCAR info? Do I need to tweak anything? I'm trying to learn how to interpret the OSCAR info, but *whew* there is a lot to try to understand.

Since I didn't really consider myself to have any issues before CPAP, it is hard for me to judge if the machine is helping me. I had been using the MyAir app and because I scored 100% most nights, I didn't think I needed to do more investigation. I recently read enough posts to know that score is irrelevant, so I'm here.

I've read a lot of posts over the last few months and I really appreciate all the time and effort you all put into helping new users. I don't yet know if the machine is working, but I do know that without this board, I wouldn't be using a machine at all. So, thank you!

https://imgur.com/gallery/rFUkMi0

Sleepless

sleeper4365 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:04 pm

At my doctor's urging, I had a sleep study late last year

Your doctor must have had reasons to send you to that study. Was it only complaints about your snoring? Or did he/she have other concerns that may be related to sleep disordered breathing? Is the doctor tracking anything to see how the therapy affects you?

sleeper4365 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:04 pm

Do I need to tweak anything? I'm trying to learn how to interpret the OSCAR info, but *whew* there is a lot to try to understand.

The data you presented shows that you spend half the night at a pressure of 8.54 or above it. That's the meaning of the term "median".
You don't show the "flow limitations" graph - but if you look at it, you'll see the machine responding to what it identifies as flow limitations. On Resmed machines flow limitations have their own graphs.
We don't know what happens to your oxygen saturations when the flow limitation start.

All this brings up the question: is your minimum pressure of 4 good enough to help you sleep properly? To keep your oxygen where it should be?
Your minimum of "4" is non-therapeutic pressure, by definition.
Is there any reason, given what we see, to let your machine start at non-therapeutic pressure, and drop down to it (or close to it) through the night?
This is a one night snapshot, so you really should look at others - and see what your median pressure is there.
If you're spending half the night at 8.54 or more, I see no reason to start at 4 and wait for flow limitations, or obstructions or respiratory effort to inform the machine that the pressure is too low.
In other words: set the minimum pressure where it can preempt more breathing disturbances.
I would raise the minimum pressure to 8 or so, and see how it affects you. And if it's not intolerable, I would keep it like that for a week, or preferably two.

You present machine settings, a Min of 4 and a Max of 20 could be fine for finding a preferred minimum pressure, but those are not the preferred therapeutic settings for most people.

My recommendation is to increase your minimum pressure to 8 or 9. You are spending most of your night at that level anyway.

Hi ozij,

Your doctor must have had reasons to send you to that study. Was it only complaints about your snoring? Or did he/she have other concerns that may be related to sleep disordered breathing? Is the doctor tracking anything to see how the therapy affects you?

I wanted to lose a bit of weight and out of the blue, my doctor said that my sleep might be causing weight gain and that is how the conversation around a sleep study began. After the sleep study was completed, I visited the sleep clinic once to find out the results of my sleep study and once after 90 days of use with my machine. To my knowledge, I'm now on my own. I only go back to the sleep clinic once a year. So... I've been trying to learn on my own, by reading this board.

In other words: set the minimum pressure where it can preempt more breathing disturbances.

I think I understand what you are saying about setting the minimum pressure to 8 to see if I can tolerate it. The machine came with preset minimum and maximum pressure of 4 to 20. It was my understanding that the "automatic" nature of the machine would adapt to whatever pressure I needed -- however, what you say makes sense to me. If I increase the pressure, I preempt/prevent apneas, rather than the machine reacting to apneas.

Now. I just have to figure out how to increase the pressure.

I appreciate your thoughtful response!

Okie bipap wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 1:29 pm

My recommendation is to increase your minimum pressure to 8 or 9. You are spending most of your night at that level anyway.

Thanks, Okie bipap, I'm going to give that a try!

sleeper4365 wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 09, 2022 3:55 pm

Now. I just have to figure out how to increase the pressure.

find out how at this here link-
https://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap- ... tup-manual

Thank you, zonker!

That worked!

sleeper4365 wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 09, 2022 5:05 pm

Thank you, zonker!

That worked!

do us a favor, won't you? this is now your therapy thread. so as you progress through your journey, keep posting here. this will make it easier for the "old hands" here to keep track of what you have tried and may yet need to try.

would appreciate it!

Hi zonker,

I'll do that!

I hope I followed all the rules. I spent some time trying to make sure I posted correctly, but there are a lot rules and ways to post Oscar, etc, etc. I just hope I at least got most of it right!

Thanks again for your help!

sleeper4365 wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 10, 2022 4:09 pm

Hi zonker,

I'll do that!

I hope I followed all the rules. I spent some time trying to make sure I posted correctly, but there are a lot rules and ways to post Oscar, etc, etc. I just hope I at least got most of it right!

Thanks again for your help!

no one is born knowing everything. you should see the horror that was MY first oscar(originally sleepyhead) chart posting. didn't REALLY get it right for what seemed like the first one hundred times.

do your best and we'll see. when you do get around tuit, use the PREVIEW button below to see just what it looks like. if it needs no correction, then hit submit. if it looks wonky, try again.

eta: oh! are you saying you just tried to post a chart? if so, it didn't take.

You all seem very patient and helpful here!

I wasn't trying to post a chart. Just responding to thank you!

I've adjusted the minimum pressure to 8 on my resmed. I'll try that for a couple of weeks as was suggested above and then I'll post in this thread again to see what more I need to do. I just want to get the most out of my machine.

Thanks, again!

We have all been there. Some of us had easy starts, and others didn't. It took me three or our nights before I could sleep with it, and over a month before I noticed any improvement in how I felt. The change was very gradual, and after about a month, I noticed I could work the crossword puzzle in the local newspaper without falling asleep. My wife, took to it like a duck to water. She went the whole night the first night, and felt better immediately. everybody's experience is different.

sleeper4365 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 11, 2022 4:51 pm

You all seem very patient and helpful here!

believe it or not, not everyone thinks so.

I wasn't trying to post a chart. Just responding to thank you!

oh okay. i just read it wrong. i forgot, you'd already posted a chart.