MiAmigo's CPAP thread

[MiAmigo]

Hi all, I thought I'd provide an update!

Trial experience:
I finished my one-month trial. Interestingly, when I check OSCAR now, the data from 1/1/2022 seems to show a different AHI from what I originally posted (attached below). Is there some reason for this?

After what I mentioned above, I did start getting into a groove with the CPAP therapy, having it on for around 7 hours a night. I was finding that I was still tired sometimes when waking up and sometimes had a slight headache at the back of my head (might have been posture I'm not sure).

I found that I was waking up a few times throughout the night to itch my nose since it was getting itchy with the N30 mask. Once again I found that centrals seemed to be getting flagged particularly frequently around the time I was falling asleep and when I was flitting between sleep and wake lying in bed in the morning. As for centrals that occurred during the middle of the night, I'm not sure if any were related to waking up to adjust the mask or they were just occuring. There were some times I would wake up and notice the machine "pinging" at me. Overall I think I settled at using constant pressure at 7, but didn't quite settle on whether to have EPR on 0, 1 or 3.

In the last week of my trial, I was a bit out of sync and having some insomnia. I omitted these from below.

Appointment with sleep physician
I saw my sleep physician recently, and they said that I shouldn't worry too much about centrals for my age, and it's more something important for elderly and with heart issues. I asked about ASV and they suggested that it may not be helpful. They were satisfied with a decrease of AHI from 38.5 in the sleep study to around 6-8 that I was getting with the CPAP machine. They suggested that I buy the machine and follow up with them in 3 months' time.

I have a few additional questions:
Given I settled on CPAP, should I just buy an Elite? Or should I spend more on geting AutoSet?
Are there any tips for masks and itchy noses? I am considering going with a Brevida or a P30i hoping that less contact with the nose might be better for me.
Should I be ignoring the apnea events that occur when I feel like I'm awake, or transitioning between being awake and asleep (like in the morning)?
If I find I'm going between wake and sleep in the morning, is it better to just get out of bed?
Are there any other features on my charts that stand out?

Thanks in advance!
https://i.imgur.com/D4wMNKw.png
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[Julie]

Any reason you're on one pressure vs auto?

[GrumpyHere]

they said that I shouldn't worry too much about centrals for my age, and it's more something important for elderly and with heart issues. I asked about ASV and they suggested that it may not be helpful. They were satisfied with a decrease of AHI from 38.5 in the sleep study to around 6-8 that I was getting with the CPAP machine

Your OSAs are being treated but you're still having a lot of CSAs.

Your body doesn't care whether the apneas are obtrusive or centrals. They still are stressing your body and causing disturbed sleep.

The effects will accumulate. The untreated CSAs will likely lead to cardiovascular problems later in life.

AHI of 6-8 means you're having the equivalent of being poked once every 7 to 10 minutes.

Why only treat less than half of your apneas?

The overall breakdown (after weighting rem and nrem) was
Central 17.4
Obstructive 11.5
Mixed 1.2
Hypopnoea 8.3
RERA 0

You really do need a ResMed CS PaceWave, an ASV , or a S9 VPAP Adapt bilevel to properly treat your complex apnea.

Don't settle for the Elite or the AutoSet.

BTW: if you're willing to buy second hand, palerider on the forum had several ASVs available last year. PM him to check availability.

https://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... t#p1391645

[Pugsy]

Anything flagged when you know for sure you were awake can be ignored.
Anything else is a problem.

I think the doctor is an idiot.

[MiAmigo]

Hi all, thanks for the replies!

@Julie I’m on one pressure because when I first started out on 5-15 for a couple of days I was having closer to 30 events an hour, so after the first couple of days they changed it to CPAP and brought it down.

I’ll have a think over the next few days of what to do. At the moment I am leaning towards seeing how I go with the Elite and then if I’m still not satisfied after 3 months I will look for a second opinion about switching machines.

[Julie]

Curious if when you were on 5-15 anyone suggested you raise the 5 (min) to e.g. 7-8 and see what happens - it's the usual fix for a high AHI without other issues (and the max at 15 is more likely to be at 20 for most). But I would also ignore the Elite - really not as good as the other(s).