Ive been diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea – Advice Please

MMcG wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 12, 2021 2:09 am

Ben_Dover wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 11, 2021 7:36 pm

MMcG wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 11, 2021 2:50 am

Can you take a few screen shots of close ups that show the breathing patterns (use the up/down keys on your laptop to zoom in) of the flow rate before and after the three flagged OA's around 11-30 pm. I just have a hunch that they may be real, i.e. that you fell asleep briefly but don't remember. The shape of the flow rate curve can suggest to some extent whether one was asleep or awake (I recognise my own asleep pattern anyway). Also the breathing pattern before and after the flagged events might show whether they were real and you were asleep. I just have a sense that you had fallen asleep and were woken up by the very rapid increase in pressure and accompanying leaks. If so, I'll leave it to the experts here to review and offer advice. I know from personal experience and review of my Oscar data, that I have been asleep periodically at times when I thought I was lying awake for an hour or more. Worth a look.

Thanks .

I think your hunch that I am falling asleep without remembering the event, I’m sure is on the right track.



Ben

You need to zoom in on the flow chart around 11-30 pm, Ben. The easiest way to do it is to repeatedly press or hold down the up key on your computer keypad. We need to see the breathing pattern - can't really tell from this screen shot. There are good instructional videos on the use of Oscar which you should look at too.

Thanks , I’m going to have a play around and see if I can get the right results . I’m going to start watching some youtube videos on my mobile phone while at the mother-in laws house .

Ben.

MMcG wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 12, 2021 2:18 am

Can you zoom in too on the events around 12-50 am last night (a few screen shots of the flow rate chart). It might indicate whether you woke up as a result of the machine responding to real events or whether you were awake and the machine flagged false events. Here is a minute of my breathing pattern while asleep to give you an idea of what you should capture.

Many Thanks.


Thanks for showing your Flow Rate information , tracking down if I'm actually sleeping is becoming a priority and some thing I would like to know.

Ben.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:38 am

If you want to learn about zooming in to see flow rate breaths and arousal vs asleep flagged events watch the videos here.
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software
Bear in mind that while it talks mainly about CA/central apnea flagging....false positive awake/arousal flags aren't limited to just centrals...it can happen with any category of event.
You need to zoom in to a 3 to 4 minute segment to get the flow rate breaths at a scale where we can maybe figure out awake vs asleep.

If you weren't asleep...they simply don't count.

Hi Pugsy , thanks for the link . I’m going to check things out and see what I can learn .

Ben.

Well last night ( Dec 12 ) I went to bed around 11.30 pm , and then around 1.30 am I had the same episode of feeling some thing was sticking in my throat , and as last night when that feeling occurred I held down my face mask until the some thing was sticking in my throat feeling went away. After the some thing was sticking in my throat feeling went away I was hoping that I would then be able to finally get some sleep.

By around 2.30 am I had still not fallen to sleep so I decided to remove my face mask , turn off the machine in the hope that doing that would allow me to finally get some sleep . Sadly after removing the face mask and turning off the machine I never ever went to sleep . The not ever falling to sleep feeling , both when wearing a mask and the machine is running and when I’m not wearing a mask situation is an area that I’m still wondering about.


Could it actually be , as some have commented on that yes I am falling asleep but just not realizing it or remembering it.

If my personal appearance is any thing to go by ( increasing dark areas under my eyes / constant feeling tired / lack of energy / agitated ) I’m getting more and more concerned.

Don't forget to get some zoomed in images of the few rate. Look for periods when the zoomed out graph looks narrow and regular. It should give some clue as to whether you were asleep or not. Again, I suspect you were for short periods. As regards, not being able to sleep after removing the mask, for what it's worth I had the exact same experience for the first 7-8 weeks. In the early stages, it was probably down to frustration, but then I reckon it was just the brain adapting to the new situation. When I got to 6-7 hour usage and 5-6 hours sleep, I was able to get some extra light sleep after removing the mask. Now on a good night, I just get up around 7-00 am when I remove the mask. Persist and you will get there. But finding out that you were asleep with the mask on is probably necessary if for no other reason than to reassure yourself that you can do this.

If you're not going back to sleep anyway (or perceive that you are going to sleep), you might as well keep the mask on. Eventually fatigue will win out and you WILL go to sleep, but the key is not to try to force it. It's hard to ignore the fact that you are awake when you so desperately want to sleep, but try to distract yourself with some relaxing music or white noise, read a book, or just let your thoughts drift.

I don't know if you can get it there, but there's a dietary supplement--Glycine. It's an amino acid and it helps with relaxation and sleep in a very gentle way. It's not as fussy as taking melatonin. When I'm having trouble sleeping I take a dose of that and it does help. It doesn't make you drowsy or anything like that. We also give it to our hyperactive dog and it has a bit of a calming effect. Even if it is only a placebo effect, I find it helpful

Recently I've not been using my Resmed Airsense 10 machine as I had an accident while riding a rented motorbike . As soon as I’m off the prescribed drugs and feeling a bit better I will start back and see how things go.

Thanks to every one for your past help ..

Ben

Flipping heck! That looks painful to say the least.

Hope you recover soon.

loggerhead12 wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 05, 2021 9:38 pm

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.

Just to clarify, the AHI of 1.89 is the AHI with treatment (i.e. CPAP use). Presumably, if you don't use a CPAP, your AHI would be comparable to your sleep study.

Oh, NOT what you needed on top of everything else. I hope you recover quickly.

Bummer! Look after yourself mate. Good karma must follow soon.

Respirator99 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 15, 2021 6:34 pm

Flipping heck! That looks painful to say the least.

Hope you recover soon.

Lesson learned , always wear a helmet when riding a motorbike

Next time I will


Ben.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 16, 2021 1:05 pm

Oh, NOT what you needed on top of everything else. I hope you recover quickly.

Thanks for your comment , its appreciated .


Ben.

Well my face swelling has gone down and Ive stopped taking the pain killers , so Last night I used my machine and mask .

Ive been watching some youtube videos by TheLankyLeft27 and one of his videos was about taping your mouth. So I purchased the same type of tape and last night I tapped my mouth as shown in his video.

Wearing the mouth tape did not feel uncomfortable or seem to have a direct adverse effect.

I managed to keep the mask on for about 4 hours , before I felt the need to remove it and turn off the machine. One reason that I felt the need to remove the face mask and turn the machine off is because in my mind even after those 4 hours I had not managed to fall asleep , I may be wrong in that assumption that during that 4 hour period of mask wearing , I had never fallen to sleep . So thinking that if I remove the face mask , some how doing that will may be allow me to finally fall soundly asleep.

It was around 2.30 am when I removed the face mask , after doing that I feel that I never really went to sleep . I got out of bed around 7 am .

I’m not sure if tapping my mouth did in fact help much .

I’m still trying to fully understand my OSCAR results , but I was thinking , Is there a simple conclusive way ( other than the OSCAR results ) that would tell me if I actually went to sleep during the time I am wearing the face mask or even after I have taken the face mask off. Is there a device ( other than the ResMed Airsense 10 ) that can be used to actually simply visually confirm some one’s sleeping pattern .

This may sound a bit strange , but here goes .

All my adult life I have been a ‘’ whistler ‘’ I tend to be constantly whistling through the day , its become a habit that I can’t seem to break. I was wondering if constantly whistling may in some way have a possible association with my sleep apnea situation.


My quest for sleep goes on.

Ben.

Did you ever go here and look at the videos that explain how to zoom in on the flow rate to learn to spot awake breathing vs asleep breathing?

http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

You can get a fair idea if you ever fell asleep by looking at the flow rate. Takes a bit of education and time though.