I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

TonyExecutiveDrive · Post by **TonyExecutiveDrive** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:51 pm

hello,

I started this therapy in march of 2019 and have been compliant since then with;

Equipment: Resmed Air10
Default setting: 5 to 15cm Auto-CPAP
MY AHI before therapy: 30
AHI(events per hr) now in therapy : less than 5 events per hr consistently
lowest event per hr since therapy: 0.3
usage duration nightly : 7hrs 20 minutes to 8 hrs
Lowest SPO2 % during testing was 70%. I don't know what it is now, but just ordered an oximeter online.

The problem I am having: Even on days I slept for a straight 8hrs, I find myself catching a little sleep during meetings in the office. Though this not happen daily, I find it troubling that even on a day like this that I had 7hr. 20 min of sleep that I was a bit sleepy in the office, that I had to have coffee to feel wide awake in the office.

What could be going on? Has anybody had this experience? I was under the impression that once I start this therapy that I could read a book the entire day without feeling sleepy or have a need to walk around or drink caffeinated drink.
Is 5 to 15 as the pressure low and should be reset by my doctor or the cpap supplier or a different machine altogether?

when I turn the machine every night, I could see the machine starting up at pressure of 5, but I've never seen it go up to 15.

Your opinion is welcome.

Thanks

LSAT · Post by **LSAT** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:29 pm

TonyExecutiveDrive wrote: ↑
Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:51 pm
hello,

I started this therapy in march of 2019 and have been compliant since then with;

Equipment: Resmed Air10
Default setting: 5 to 15cm Auto-CPAP
MY AHI before therapy: 30
AHI(events per hr) now in therapy : less than 5 events per hr consistently
lowest event per hr since therapy: 0.3
usage duration nightly : 7hrs 20 minutes to 8 hrs
Lowest SPO2 % during testing was 70%. I don't know what it is now, but just ordered an oximeter online.

The problem I am having: Even on days I slept for a straight 8hrs, I find myself catching a little sleep during meetings in the office. Though this not happen daily, I find it troubling that even on a day like this that I had 7hr. 20 min of sleep that I was a bit sleepy in the office, that I had to have coffee to feel wide awake in the office.

What could be going on? Has anybody had this experience? I was under the impression that once I start this therapy that I could read a book the entire day without feeling sleepy or have a need to walk around or drink caffeinated drink.
Is 5 to 15 as the pressure low and should be reset by my doctor or the cpap supplier or a different machine altogether?

when I turn the machine every night, I could see the machine starting up at pressure of 5, but I've never seen it go up to 15.

Your opinion is welcome.

Thanks

It may never go to 15. Even it it would, it would be while you are sleeping and trying to stop an apnea event. Without seeing some sleep data, it would be a guess, but I would start by increasing your minimum pressure to 6 and see if there is a difference....if there is, try increasing to 7. Here is the Clinical Manual for your machine...learn to change your own pressure. https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf

TonyExecutiveDrive · Post by **TonyExecutiveDrive** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:51 pm

I am definitely going to make the adjustment to see if it helps and would report back here with the result. I didn't want to mess with the settings after the supplier told me not to mess with it since i told her that I was able to access the clinical settings. She told me that I could die. So, I didn't change anything.

THank you for your support and help.

LSAT · Post by **LSAT** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:52 pm

TonyExecutiveDrive wrote: ↑
Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:51 pm
I am definitely going to make the adjustment to see if it helps and would report back here with the result. I didn't want to mess with the settings after the supplier told me not to mess with it since i told her that I was able to access the clinical settings. She told me that I could die. So, I didn't change anything.

THank you for your support and help.

You can go back and tell her that she lied...You changed a setting and you are still alive.

Miss Emerita · Post by **Miss Emerita** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:40 pm

Hello and welcome. As LSAT suggests, it’d be good if you could post a chart or two. Here’s where to get the Oscar software:

https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

Best to read the guide before you get going. To use the software, you will need to import the data that are on the SD card in your machine. If there is no card in there, get one—nothing fancy needed. Also get an SD card reader if one isn’t built into your laptop or desktop.

Before you take a picture of a Daily chart, please hide the calendar and pie chart on the left. That way other important information will be in your screen shot. Stack your graphs like this:

Events
Flow rate
Pressure
Leaks
Flow limitations
Snores.

This will help the experts see the information they need at a glance. Oh, and could you put the information about your machine and mask into your profile? Then it’s always there and no one has to pester you by asking about it.

With charts to look at, it’ll be much easier for people to decide whether you’d feel better if you fine-tuned your settings, or whether being patient is the best approach. Sometimes it just does take a while.

That said, raising your minimum as LSAT has suggested makes complete sense to me. Can’t possibly hurt you. And actually a lot of people find 5 or even 6 just plain uncomfortable.

zoocrewphoto · Post by **zoocrewphoto** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:30 am

TonyExecutiveDrive wrote: ↑
Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:51 pm
I am definitely going to make the adjustment to see if it helps and would report back here with the result. I didn't want to mess with the settings after the supplier told me not to mess with it since i told her that I was able to access the clinical settings. She told me that I could die. So, I didn't change anything.

THank you for your support and help.

Tell her that she has to use a machine for the rest of her life at your choice of settings. 'How would she feel?
'

Honestly. This is YOUR machine and YOUR therapy. Nobody has ever died from cpap use. Lots of people don't get successful treatment because idiots like her don't want us to know how to look at our data and make reasonable decisions.

You said that your ahi is less than 5? How often is it below 2? Some doctors think it is great if you get below 5, but even 2 is still 16 disturbances a night. Who would want to be awakened 16 times a night? An ahi of 4 is 32 times a night? How healthy is that?

If these people had sleep apnea themselves, they would understand that we need to review our data and make good choices to get our ahi below 2. This morning, I was actually surprised that mine was 1.4. It is rarely that high.

palerider · Post by **palerider** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:20 pm

TonyExecutiveDrive wrote: ↑
Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:51 pm
. I didn't want to mess with the settings after the supplier told me not to mess with it since i told her that I was able to access the clinical settings. She told me that I could die.

This level of incompetence should be criminal. Whether it was a blatant lie, or just galloping stupidity, who knows.

If you ever go back, I'd tell that person to keep their bullshit to themselves.

TonyExecutiveDrive · Post by **TonyExecutiveDrive** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:23 pm

It is not consistently less than 2. The lowest I 've ever had it was 0.3. Here is the AHI ranges from 8/2/19

8/2: 0.1
8/3:1.7
8/4: 0.4
8/5: 3.2
8/6: 1.9
8/7: 2.0
8/8: 3.6

I am about to download oscar and will soon post data from the memory card

TonyExecutiveDrive · Post by **TonyExecutiveDrive** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:26 pm

I was able to grab the screenshot of the graph. I am overwhelmed by the community's support. Thank you. Next, I am going to increase

: image.png (381.92 KiB) Viewed 1621 times

the low pressure to 6

I am not sure exactly what happened when I was clicking around and it changed, but not delete ''Event Flags' as you can see above

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:51 pm

You are using fixed cpap mode and not auto adjusting mode.

Your settings are 10.6 cm
cpap mode...fixed...it won't auto adjust...it stays at 10.6 all night except for when you are using the ramp.

Your are using EPR set to 3 but only during ramp.

Low pressure of 6 isn't what you want to do in this fixed mode.
Some how or other you got switched to fixed cpap mode.....

TonyExecutiveDrive · Post by **TonyExecutiveDrive** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:00 pm

so, it is a fixed machine though the recommendation is Auto-CPAP WITH default setting if 5 to 15 cm??

so what should i do in this case?

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:09 pm

Your machine appears to be the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet. It's an apap/auto adjusting capable machine.
It has 2 modes of operation
cpap mode which is the fixed pressure mode
and apap/auto mode which is the auto adjusting and goes along with the 5 to 15 settings (which that 5 is way too low probably).

So all that needs to be done is change it over to auto mode.

All explained in the manual here.
https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf

Miss Emerita · Post by **Miss Emerita** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:00 pm

Your actual settings are so far out of whack with what you were told your settings are that I am really amazed. So when you switch to APAP/Auto mode, please also check to make sure you have the pressure range you want. On the theory of one change at a time, I guess you should leave EPR alone for now, but I suspect you will want it all night before long, partly for comfort and partly to help with flow limitations.

TonyExecutiveDrive · Post by **TonyExecutiveDrive** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:17 pm

is auto same as autoset? looks like the machine is in autoset. see pic attatched. is thete any other adjustment you can suggest please?

TonyExecutiveDrive · Post by **TonyExecutiveDrive** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:29 pm

also i just saw the EPR and it i set to 'full time'. is the data in the graph wrong given these differences or do they change when i click on them? I don't see where the value of the EPR is. may be i shouldn't change it?

I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

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Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!

Re: I still feel sleepy some days since I started Therapy 5 months ago. Help!