WheezyRider's CPAP therapy

“Looks like 1-1/2 hours.” Is that what you remember, or is it what you’re inferring from the chart?

Pugsy, thanks for the information about muscle relaxants. I will try to remember it!

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 24, 2021 8:22 pm

“Looks like 1-1/2 hours.” Is that what you remember, or is it what you’re inferring from the chart?

I thought I was reading the chart but I'm short on sleep. I could be wrong.

You went to bed at around 9:35, if I'm doing the arithmetic right, and the last big burst of CAs occurred a little after midnight.

If you were truly awake all that time, then the CAs are not a sign of sleep disordered breathing, as others have mentioned.

But if you were asleep for some fair amount of that time, then the CAs do need some attention. I would suggest reducing EPR to 1 to see what happens. If you try that experiment, please post a chart so we can see the results. If you tolerate that pretty well, you could then try turning EPR off completely.

The rest of the night looks OK to me. If you weren't awake for that initial 2.5 hours, my suspicion is that several factors contributed to the CAs: a wash-out of CO2 that slightly reduces your "breath-now" neurochemical signals, combined with the complications of the neuro-chemical-muscular transition from waking to sleep, and maybe repeated arousals followed by CAs, as often happens. By reducing the EPR, you'll get less wash-out of CO2, so let's see if that helps.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 25, 2021 12:42 pm

But if you were asleep for some fair amount of that time, then the CAs do need some attention. I would suggest reducing EPR to 1 to see what happens.

I'm not ready to adjust anything yet. I'm just trying to learn how to read my reports. So this is my starting point. I had a bad night last night and will post reports in a new thread, (is that OK). I don't want to focus on the waking AHI, I think that question was answered. I have other sleep issues, insomnia, some jittery legs, back pain and limited sleep positions, so I think it's better for me to start with understanding the reports first. I've been trending backwards for the past month and it is getting frustrating and my anxiety is going up, so it's a vicious cycle. Thanks for your advice and sharing your knowledge. This gives me hope that I'm in the right place to find help.

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:38 am

had a bad night last night and will post reports in a new thread, (is that OK).

Actually it is preferred that newbies keep all discussions to one thread for a while at least.
Most of us won't take the time to go to your other thread (this one now) to try to compare last night's crappy night to prior nights. It's best to keep everything in one thread so people can refresh there memory easily.

Also...we are having problems with forum attachment piggy banks....it's full or near full and we are asking people to not go wild with using the attachment feature until the problem gets resolved.
See this thread.
https://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t183 ... eeded.html

Last night I freed up a tiny amount of space by deleting my own attached files but it won't last long.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:52 am

Actually it is preferred that newbies keep all discussions to one thread for a while at least.

OK I will post here if that's the rule, I just don't want the original question to distract from the real issue with my CPAP, due to the subject title. The original question was answered. So locking this "SOLVED" and starting a new one would be preferable, you think?

Anywho here is my screenshot from last 2 nights. I woke up and was able to go back to sleep last night-YEAH for small victories; but the previous night I wokeup around 3:30 and awake for a while but eventually I fell asleep after a bathroom break, etc..(TMI?). It seems like I wakeup a lot around 2or3am'ish and don't know why. Not to go to the bathroom, but eventually I'm awake long enough I have to go, ARGH! Which only makes it harder to go back to sleep. :

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 8:28 am

OK I will post here if that's the rule,

No hard fast "rules" but I can tell you that forum members who can help you with answers to your questions don't really like having to go reading multiple threads to obtain a general history about something.
They simply don't have the time nor are they inclined to want to make the time and they sure as hell can't remember every little detail about a members prior history.....we got a lot of people posting stuff here and we cannot be expected to remember every little detail about everything or everyone.
When people (newbies especially) keep all their thoughts in one easy to read thread....helps them help you faster and better because we can see at a glance what other ideas have been offered.

Just because you think one issue is solved and the thread needs to be locked...doesn't mean that the members feel the same way. The need for an overall history varies from member to member. I don't lock threads as a general rule because that is not how this forum works. I know it is common in other forums but it isn't here and we aren't at other forums here are we???

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 8:28 am

So locking this "SOLVED" and starting a new one would be preferable, you think?

Actually I think "not".
Well...suit yourself but I already told you what I think with my previous response above
Obviously I don't agree with you. That's okay....I don't really care one way or the other but if you persist in creating new threads/topic with different questions I am telling you that members will ignore your questions and you won't get their ideas because they don't want to take the time to go reading prior threads.
It's just the way the members here tend to "work" and it is a lot of work sometimes to get an overall picture of what might be going.

You could be shooting yourself in the foot....but that is your privilege if you wish to do so.

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 8:28 am

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:52 am

Actually it is preferred that newbies keep all discussions to one thread for a while at least.

OK I will post here if that's the rule, I just don't want the original question to distract from the real issue with my CPAP, due to the subject title. The original question was answered. So locking this "SOLVED" and starting a new one would be preferable, you think?

No, it's not preferable. You quoted her saying it wasn't.

When members help, they often want to see some history and context, they don't want to have to do a search and find it in dozens of different topics.

If you're concerned about the topic title, you can change it. Many title their topics, "xxxxxxxx's therapy topic", or something similar, so they can easily search for it.

Dog Slobber wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 9:10 am

If you're concerned about the topic title, you can change it. Many title their topics, "xxxxxxxx's therapy topic", or something similar, so they can easily search for it.

That's all I was concerned about. Just a newb trying to get help and not cause a fuss. Didn't know I could change it. I'll see if I can change the title. Thanks!

You can change the title....just go to the first post you made in this thread and click on the little pencil thing on the forum editor and you can edit the subject line as well as the body of the post.
If you can't figure it out....I can do it just post that you can't figure it out and tell us what you want to change it to and I can do it for you.

Were you awake during *all* of those CA-heavy periods? Try to answer from your memory, rather than reasoning that if you had CAs, you must have been awake. i'm not convinced we've exhausted that topic.

Also, on the chart for 12/25, could you zoom in to capture about a 12 to 15 minute interval in one of the green areas? (You can zoom in by selecting a chunk and hitting the up or down arrows until you get the time period you want.) Then despite the attachment problem, please upload the result.

And I'm curious: what might make you feel more ready to change your settings? You seem to be having such a rough time of it -- when you're ready to make a change to the settings, that will help us help you. But come to it in your own time.

Oh, and it isn't too much information to write about bathroom breaks!

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 1:09 pm

Were you awake during *all* of those CA-heavy periods? Try to answer from your memory, rather than reasoning that if you had CAs, you must have been awake. i'm not convinced we've exhausted that topic.

Also, on the chart for 12/25, could you zoom in to capture about a 12 to 15 minute interval in one of the green areas? (You can zoom in by selecting a chunk and hitting the up or down arrows until you get the time period you want.) Then despite the attachment problem, please upload the result.

And I'm curious: what might make you feel more ready to change your settings? You seem to be having such a rough time of it -- when you're ready to make a change to the settings, that will help us help you. But come to it in your own time.

Oh, and it isn't too much information to write about bathroom breaks!

No I wasn't awake during *all* the CA's. It took me a shorter period to fall asleep, less than 30min is my best guess. I Woke up around 3:30am I think, didn't check the clock but I didn't get out of bed and was able to fall back to sleep.

As far as my awake CA's, I have trouble falling asleep many nights and falling back to sleep after waking for any reason. It would be nice to figure out why I'm waking up. It lead to my initial question because I thought my AHI was being distorted by my awake time breathing and not giving an accurate reading of my therapy results. If that makes sense.

I grabbed some flow rate below, is that the section you were requesting 12-15 mins? Or did you mean the CSR's? Think I did both.

I'm not opposed to changing my settings, but I can't read the report even. Not a lot of confidence yet. Let alone change my settings. I still have to look up EPR to figure out what you mean.

Thanks for you advice though, I'm not disregarding it.

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 8:28 am

I just don't want the original question to distract from the real issue with my CPAP,

Then change the title, you can just edit it on the first post, and the subsequent posts will have the new title.

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 8:28 am

So locking this "SOLVED" and starting a new one would be preferable, you think?

No, what's prefereable is when people keep all their questions in one thread when they're asking for help, and not litter the forum with random thoughts.

You're asking people to go read all your scattered postings to have an idea what's going on with you, much easier if you keep all your questions and problems in one thread.

Many thanks for this additional information. The first zoomed-in view is just a few minutes, but the second one is perfect.

You are experiencing periodic breathing, with a waxing/waning pattern in the flow rate. The zoomed-in view is fairly suggestive of a sub-category of periodic breathing called Cheynes-Stokes Respiration. With CSR, the waning terminates in a CA, and the shape of the flow rate between CAs includes tapers on both sides, or crescendos and decrescendos, as one medical journal calls them.

The green shading, though it is labelled CSR, is really just a flag for any kind of periodic breathing. I don't know how the analysis by the machine works, but I would guess your unshaded CA clusters nonetheless have the same pattern as the one we see here.

An occasional few minutes that look like CSR would not call for any follow-up, but I think that the fairly extended periods over which you're now seeing it means you'd be wise to consult your doctor. In your place, I wouldn't see this as a medical emergency, but I would not put off making an appointment.

There are two reasons I'm making this suggestion. One is that CSR can be associated with congestive heart failure or stroke. These may not be issues for you, but (second reason) the kind of central apnea you are experiencing may call for the use of a different kind of machine called an adaptive servo-ventilation machine (ASV), which will give you a puff of air to force a breath when you don't take one on your own.

Your doctor would benefit from seeing the 15-minute zoomed-in view and from having you report how many minutes per night you are seeing that kind of pattern. He or she would also benefit from knowing whether anything changed if you turned off EPR -- which again I strongly encourage you to do.

palerider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:03 pm

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 8:28 am

I just don't want the original question to distract from the real issue with my CPAP,

Then change the title, you can just edit it on the first post, and the subsequent posts will have the new title.

wheezyrider wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 8:28 am

So locking this "SOLVED" and starting a new one would be preferable, you think?

No, what's prefereable is when people keep all their questions in one thread when they're asking for help, and not litter the forum with random thoughts.

You're asking people to go read all your scattered postings to have an idea what's going on with you, much easier if you keep all your questions and problems in one thread.

um, he HAS changed the thread title. but for some reason, it doesn't show on all posts.

needs to be changed on original post???

(to quote vinny barbarino-i'm so confused!)