Pugsy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:19 pm
alexander wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:10 pm
I haven’t heard about others having the same issue, but I got clusters of centrals when using EPR – even at the lowest setting. I have asked two sleep techs about it, and they weren’t convinced that there was a connection. But I guess it couldn’t hurt trying a night without, as Pugsy suggests.
It isn't impossible for there to be a relation between using EPR (or any exhale relief) and centrals popping up.
It isn't common by any means but there is a very small subset of people who actually will get centrals popping up when using bilevel pressures and when we use any exhale relief we are creating a bilevel pressure situation.
Sometimes there is a very fine line between bilevel pressures causing centrals and a different bilevel setting not causing centrals.
I have a friend who would get like 15 centrals and hour with the difference between inhale and exhale being 4 cm and not get any when the difference was only 3 cm.
So someone might get centrals at 3 cm difference and none at 2 or 1 or off.
I don't know that is what is going on here with those centrals but it's something easy to try just to see and while 5 centrals an hour probably isn't that huge of a deal...it is more than I would like to see especially if there was an easy way to reduce the number of them.
If turning EPR off...makes a big difference then a person can add in EPR a little a time and see where the line is.
If it makes no difference at all...we at least know that EPR isn't the cause and then can maybe go back to the drawing board and try to figure things out.
First off, turning off EPR made a comfort difference. That said, lowering the minimum from 8 to 10 mitigated it some. Anyway, I found it a bit less comfortable, and that seemed to have shown up in amount of time the mask stayed on. Anyway, here are last night’s results. I am also pretty sure I was asleep for all but maybe one of the clear airway events.
- screenshot-20190913-154044.png (116.1 KiB) Viewed 419 times
I figure I’ll try it again tonight with the same settings. See if I can’t get closer to five or so hours.
Is all of this acceptable / to be expected? I know some people have a lower AHI / fewer events. But I don’t want perfect to get in the way of good enough.
Part of why I came on here to ask after six years of silence is because the tiredness is getting super annoying and affecting daily life. If something is up and fixable, I’ll find a new doctor and spend the money to fix it. That said, if the advice is “get used to the mask,” I don’t need a doctor for that. I’ll keep trying masks, and I’ll keep at it.
I also feel the need to enter the “I know this forum isn’t the same as a doctor, and I shouldn’t treat it that way” disclaimer. I’m just trying to get an idea from people that know more than me.
And again, thank you all so much for looking at this. Pugsy, I appreciate it.
