Someone please help this Newbie!

He had 3-4 nights that didn't look that bad, but hasn't posted picks. The DME or the Doc ought to be able to figure something out, but I'd shoot for an autoset.

here's the location of your resscan manual: "C:\Program Files\ResMed\ResScan3\ResScan Clinician's Manual.pdf"

The recent snapshots are of the day I had the least amount of problems...but that was just one of a couple...and I don't remember what happened that day or what mask I even used.

Looks just as bad, you just didn't wear it as long. I would still turn off the EPR if you can do without it. It can also be set to Ramp only.

Here is the link to the machine manual if you don't have it.
http://members.cox.net/robelliott1/S9%2 ... %20eng.pdf

Hmm, on the good night. Split night, first half about 2 hours, looks really good till the last part of that almost 2 hours.
Then the leak went up`some along with flow limitations till he woke up. After up for a while or without mask, puts it back on and all hell breaks loose immediately.

So for some reason the 11 cm pressure worked for a short while. But only very short while. Mask leaks increase but not out of the ball park.

Well, we can only go forward. See how things go tonight.

BTW, are you taking any meds? Alcohol at night? Drugs of the recreational variety? (you don't have to answer that one, but it is a consideration) Anything at all that could potentially make OSA worse or hard to treat? Just thinking out loud for possible culprits.

My guess is, he wasn't asleep the first half of the first segment.

Yeah, if you're taking something to knock you out... It's working!

You will only have the "flow" data for the last 7 days. That's all that is held on the card so you have to download that often.
If you download tomorrow, you only have to select "first" AND CHECK THE LITTLE BOX. Then click discard when it asks you about duplicates.

Pugsy wrote:Hmm, on the good night. Split night, first half about 2 hours, looks really good till the last part of that almost 2 hours.
Then the leak went up`some along with flow limitations till he woke up. After up for a while or without mask, puts it back on and all hell breaks loose immediately.

So for some reason the 11 cm pressure worked for a short while. But only very short while. Mask leaks increase but not out of the ball park.

Well, we can only go forward. See how things go tonight.

BTW, are you taking any meds? Alcohol at night? Drugs of the recreational variety? (you don't have to answer that one, but it is a consideration) Anything at all that could potentially make OSA worse or hard to treat? Just thinking out loud for possible culprits.

Pugsy,

Lmao! No...no recreational drugs or alcohol...although this might drive me to drink. No medication either. You're right now that I remember. I do remember taking my mask off out of frustration sometimes...

Well if we can't blame it on good drugs then you do really win the worst report award...

Please let us know how you fair tonight. It is obvious you aren't sleeping. And light a fire under that doctors ass, you need help and to be honest, for all my dial a wingin ideas, I can offer suggestions but the very first one is the doctor.
Something has failed you horribly and it needs to be sorted out.

One cm of pressure change is not huge and since you don't have any history of centrals I don't think it would hurt anything. I went from prescribed 8 cm to 10 cm and I cut my AHI in half.. but I also had lots of help here on the boards and I had the software and I had educated myself thoroughly so I was comfortable with the change.

Good luck tonight. Hope you can get some sort of rest.

Holy Crap!!!!! I have no idea how you're functioning so well. You're coherent, you're learning how to read your data, upload it, you're reading manuals... Are you a superhero or something????

Yeah, this should be just the thing to light a fire under your doctor's ass and get him to give you an APAP. In fact, why even bother having them test this machine, because if they find the machine is malfunctioning, you won't so easily be able to get the APAP. I say get the APAP, then try it on CPAP=11cm, and if you don't have these issues, you just got yourself an APAP. If you do have these issues, well, then you'll have an APAP.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think you should NOT mention the possibility of a malfunctioning machine. Go for the APAP! The best of both worlds would be that this machine is malfunctioning and 11 would be fine AND you get the APAP. Actually, the best scenario is that if you can function this well getting basically a nanosecond of sleep at a time, once you're really sleeping, you might actually be a real live superhero. Maybe you'll only require like 4 minutes of uninterrupted sleep a night for peak performance. I'm already green with envy.

SleepingUgly wrote: Actually, the best scenario is that if you can function this well getting basically a nanosecond of sleep at a time, once you're really sleeping, you might actually be a real live superhero. Maybe you'll only require like 4 minutes of uninterrupted sleep a night for peak performance. I'm already green with envy.

I can't comprehend how he even functions. I do think that when he gets it sorted out that he may just see the "hallelujah" morning. He has no where to go but get better....
I agree with you, mum about maybe machine malfunction and push for the APAP.

OMG...

You guys are insane! I don't know how I've been able to function either....I guess i've had it for so long without diagnosis that somehow it seems normal to me. Don't get me wrong, I have a ton of the bad days when I can't keep myself up. Today was a good day, oddly enough.

Good night ladies...I'll give you the drama tomorrow.

Alex

OMG...

You guys are insane! I don't know how I've been able to function either....I guess i've had it for so long without diagnosis that somehow it seems normal to me. Don't get me wrong, I have a ton of the bad days when I can't keep myself up. Today was a good day, oddly enough.

Good night ladies...I'll give you the drama tomorrow.

Alex

Good night Alex,
I think you will find that we are indeed insane but in a good way and we really do care how things go with you.
Sort of a big family here. Sometimes we have fights, just like any family. Sometimes we make outlandish jokes, just like any family. Sometimes we circle the wagons, just like any family.

I think you have been given some very good advice and I do think you deserve a reward of some sort for being able to function at all with data that looks like that. I am quite sure that once things improve you will notice a significant change in how you feel. I know when I went from an AHI of 119 down to under 5 I most certainly felt much better.

It does certainly look like your pressure is insufficient to control your obstructions and I agree, with no centrals you have little to worry about increasing your pressure a bit. Reducing or turning off EPR may help somewhat but I think the pressure will still have to go up. I did notice that there are times your leaks are not as well controlled as they should be but more interestingly your snoring does not look to be that bad. I do however see a lot of flow limitation issues indicating obstructions or other breathing related issues.

It would be good for you to change the time scale to 5 minutes or even 1 minute and look specifically at your flow information. This will show your breathing, and in very good detail what is happening during an actual event if you move along the X axis until an apnea is in-line with the time-line. This was something I started to look at especially if I was seeing clusters of events. Comparing the waveform (shape, amplitude, and consistency) with times of no events should help you determine if there is any malfunction or if these are actual events, which I suspect they are. The machine will declare anytime breathing has stopped for 10 seconds or longer as an apnea, hypopneas will be when there has been a reduction in breathing volume by 50% or more.

Best of luck and let us know how things go tonight.