Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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latskogkatt
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by latskogkatt » Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:23 pm

I think my Imgur is different than yours... I chose one picture in my library and clicked each of the copy links on the right side of the selected picture and they are below in order of appearance on Imgur.
This batch, all the links worked for me. Not sure why they didn't in previous shares.

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zonker
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by zonker » Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:28 pm

Brad S wrote:
Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:02 pm


I think my Imgur is different than yours...
try this. when you select one of the options on the right, choose direct link. in your post here, choose the landscape type of icon that runs across the top of the text box right under the subject line. it's the one right next to the asterisk icon.

be sure you are on a fresh line.
Image
that will show as img /img in separate brackets. make the space between wider. in between, right click then paste as plain text.

preview your post to see that it "took". that's how i did the image above. it sounds like a lot of steps but after you get the habit, it's second nature.

good luck!
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by ChicagoGranny » Fri Jul 29, 2022 7:06 am

Are you using the app? I never use the app.

Are you trying to get the screenshot to appear in the thread? This is not necessary. Users can click on your link and the screenshot will open in a new tab. This is actually easier for people to read.

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Brad S
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Today's Discoveries

Post by Brad S » Fri Jul 29, 2022 8:43 am

Good morning and Happy Friday everyone!
The image below is posted exactly as Zonker describes above. Let's see if this works.
Today's Discoveries:
1) My Oscar software does not show the correct time. On the chart below, it is an hour off. On other days it is many hours off. MyAir app shows the correct time.
2) I put my mask on at 10:40 last night and I slept off and on until I couldn't stand it anymore... But wait,
3) All my numbers are ZERO! Is this possible? AHI CA OA U and H all zero. I have the flow rate zoomed in but the entire hour and a half is like this. I struggled to exhale and was restless.
4) I woke up at 4 AM and pulled the SD card and looked at my results. I went back to bed and tried again. This time was different. Last night the pressure was very low, it stayed at 5 to 6. This morning when I tried again, the pressure started at 14 and stayed maxed out at 14.5 to 15 all morning. I was able to breathe better but still not great. I still woke up many times feeling like I wasn't getting enough air, but that passed quickly. The air flow through the mask was so heavy that there was air blowing out the vents when I inhaled and exhaled. Is this normal? Why the difference in pressure?
5) I used my wifes oximeter this morning as I felt my breathing struggle, but it did not reflect how I felt. It stayed between 92 and 96% even when I felt like I was about to gasp for air.
6) Although I had a terribly restless night, I feel somewhat better this morning.
7) I am determined to work through this. I fell too poorly not to.


Image

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Pugsy
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by Pugsy » Fri Jul 29, 2022 9:02 am

Brad S wrote:
Fri Jul 29, 2022 8:43 am
1) My Oscar software does not show the correct time. On the chart below, it is an hour off. On other days it is many hours off. MyAir app shows the correct time.
It's not OSCAR that has the problem. OSCAR can only report what the machine reports. It's your machine that has the problem. The internal clock is wrong probably because of DST change.
You can't do anything to reset the Time Zone in the machine without erasing all past data.
So I suggest use OSCAR to adjust for the time difference.

Go to Preferences then the CPAP tab on in the upper left you see the clock drift adjustment area. Ignore the admonition that this shouldn't be used for DST adjustments. OSCAR was conceived before the ResMed machines didn't have a clock that was easily accessed and changed. The AirSense 11 model is the first ResMed model that doesn't have a clock that we can set.

Make the necessary adjustments to correct your time and then this fall you will have to do it again.
Brad S wrote:
Fri Jul 29, 2022 8:43 am
have the flow rate zoomed in but the entire hour and a half is like this. I struggled to exhale and was restless.
You weren't asleep. That irregular flow rate is nothing more than normal awake breathing.
Now why you were struggling is a different problem but what you see is just awake breathing irregularities.
Our awake breathing is a lot more irregular than asleep breathing.
Brad S wrote:
Fri Jul 29, 2022 8:43 am
The air flow through the mask was so heavy that there was air blowing out the vents when I inhaled and exhaled. Is this normal? Why the difference in pressure?
It feels different coming from the vent holes because of the inhale and exhale function. You are using EPR so the pressure drops during exhale and increase during inhale. That will be reflected in the air coming out of the vent holes.
During inhale the vented air will feel a bit stronger than during exhale. It's normal and to be expected.
You want the air to move out of the vent holes...it's taking your own exhaled carbon dioxide with it.

Yes it is possible to have an AHI of 0.0 especially when the sleep session is so short. The machine just didn't sense irregular breathing enough to meed the criteria to earn a flag.
1 hour and 38 minute sleep session...extremely short. Not much happened to cause the machine to want to increase the pressure so it just didn't increase the pressure.

Try increasing the minimum pressure to 7 (up from the 5) and see if you can breathe more easily. Try it while awake and report back.
When you are using the 5 or 6 minimum pressure you aren't getting the full benefit of your EPR setting because the machine can't drop below 4. So you aren't able to feel much of a difference and that gets perceived as difficulty exhaling.
Try what I suggest and see how it feels.

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zonker
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Re: Today's Discoveries

Post by zonker » Fri Jul 29, 2022 10:46 am

Brad S wrote:
Fri Jul 29, 2022 8:43 am
Good morning and Happy Friday everyone!
The image below is posted exactly as Zonker describes above. Let's see if this works.
it did.

YAY!

now let's see if following pugsy's advice will help you whip that sleep apnea monster!
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by ChicagoGranny » Fri Jul 29, 2022 10:49 am

I'm guessing you are still suffering from a bit of the third post in this thread.
ChicagoGranny wrote:
Mon Jul 25, 2022 3:27 pm
Brad S wrote:
Mon Jul 25, 2022 12:14 pm
The first night I had 4:42 usage and didn't seem to have too much difficulty.
Brad S wrote:
Mon Jul 25, 2022 12:14 pm
I woke up an hour and forty minutes later feeling really good.
I take this as strong evidence that you can easily exhale against the pressure. It's somewhat common for newbies to think they can't. They are concentrating on their breathing and trying to control it. If they can relax, forget about breathing, and fall asleep, they breathe gently and rhythmically all night. This can be easier said than done when you are starting first out. :cry:

But yeah, OSCAR, blah, blah, definitely - wouldn't do without it.
Maybe you should quit being so determined, relax, and go with the flow?

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Brad S
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by Brad S » Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:44 am

ChicagoGranny wrote:
Fri Jul 29, 2022 10:49 am

Maybe you should quit being so determined, relax, and go with the flow?
I'm working on it in every way I can.
Thanks Chicago Granny. I will figure this out. (Or suffocate trying) :lol:

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Brad S
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New question

Post by Brad S » Tue Aug 02, 2022 7:23 pm

I am curious and please forgive my ignorance.
I have my heated tube on my AirSense 11 set to off and I still feel like the air in my P10 is very warm breathing in and out through my nose. If I just barely crack the seal on the nasal pillow and breathe in, I feel relief in the cooler room air.
My bedroom is about 68° at night and I put in fresh water in the tank every night in hopes to keep it cool and not sitting in the tank all day. It seems to help a little.
Is it possible to cool my distilled water in the fridge? How about a distilled water ice cube?
According to OSCAR I have averaged 2:54 per night since starting on July 21.
I may be the Village Idiot here, but I am trying very hard every night and need to figure this out.
Thank you.

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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by Brad S » Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:29 am

One more question please.
This is from last night. I am just trying to understand OSCAR
Is it normal for the flow rate to be +103.21 and -84.75?
Thanks!

Image

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Pugsy
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by Pugsy » Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:40 am

Whatever you are seeing in terms of flow rate is happening during a period of large leak and the machine doesn't always report things accurately when experiencing large leaks.

You have to just ignore what the machine might be showing when it is experiencing large leaks. The data can't be trusted because in the face of large leaks the machine's sensors don't/won't work properly.

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latskogkatt
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by latskogkatt » Thu Aug 04, 2022 4:10 am

I have my heated tube on my AirSense 11 set to off and I still feel like the air in my P10 is very warm breathing in and out through my nose. If I just barely crack the seal on the nasal pillow and breathe in, I feel relief in the cooler room air.
My bedroom is about 68° at night and I put in fresh water in the tank every night in hopes to keep it cool and not sitting in the tank all day. It seems to help a little.
Is it possible to cool my distilled water in the fridge? How about a distilled water ice cube?
The humidifier itself heats the distilled water so some will vapourize, which is how it adds humidity to the air... As such, it'll be heated to some extent even without using the heated tube/having the heat turned on in the tube. The humidifier temperature can be set, just as the tube can, to change how warm it gets (and thus, how much water vapour forms).

I've read about people putting ice in their humidifier chamber, either with water, or instead of, so they'll get cool air. I believe they turn the humidifier off entirely to accomplish this. (And yes, you can make ice cubes from distilled water.) It's not something I've tried, as I'm still very new to all of this (less than one week of machine use so far), but I might eventually, because it sounds like it'd potentially feel really nice.

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Brad S
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What is wrong with me?

Post by Brad S » Fri Aug 05, 2022 6:47 am

This is from last night.
I have slept so poorly the past 2 weeks trying to adapt to the CPAP life. Last night I was so tired, I couldn't stay awake watching TV with my wife. I went to bed early and my wife suggested since I was so tired, to not use the machine and get a good night's sleep. I am stubborn and want this to work so badly. My thought was that since I was so tired that maybe I could put the mask on and get some solid sleep.
Was I wrong. I had switched to my wife's F30 the night before and it seemed better but had the same problems.
Last night, I rolled over on my side and started to dose off. I felt I couldn't breathe and stuck with it. Rolled around and fought the bad feelings and dozed off and on. 36 minutes later I was in bad shape. Tore my mask off and I could not breathe right. It is so hard to explain. Put the oximeter on my finger and I was at 96% but felt I was not getting enough air. It was better if I sat straight up or stood and walked around with my arms on top of my head. After an hour of wide awake, edge of panic I went to the recliner in the living room and was able to eventually fall to sleep. I woke up at 2:00 am and everything seemed normal. I went to be and slept until my alarm went off.
I talked on the phone with my doctor yesterday before this happened, and he said some people just need more time to adjust and prescribed an N30 mask and thought that might help and scheduled a follow up appointment for August 29th.
Can someone please help me? Can you tell me anything about the report? Is this accurate? Does it indicate what I might be feeling?
Thank you.


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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by ChicagoGranny » Fri Aug 05, 2022 8:05 am

For me, a min pressure of 7 with an EPR of 3 would be so low as to give me a feeling of suffocation. YMMV

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Re: Newb needs help. Exhaling issues

Post by Iamstumped » Fri Aug 05, 2022 1:11 pm

Are you having problems inhaling, or are your problems exhaling?