Just Diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea

While waiting for your machine, educate yourself here first. It will make your adjustment easier.

Sheriff

Sheriff Buford wrote:While waiting for your machine, educate yourself here first. It will make your adjustment easier.

Sheriff

Sheriff,
Shouldn't you now sign your posts with:
Sheriff, Ret.

I hope you were able to retire on time. Earl

UPDATE. - I have OSA

Picked up my ResMed S9 Autoset yesterday and learned mostly everything about the machine. It was set on CPAP mode so I figured I would try that out. It is set at 12.

We also went over my sleep study results. In one hour, they have my AHI at:

101.2 without CPAP.

5.6 AHI with CPAP (low pressure)

0.8 AHI with CPAP (12 pressure)

My O2 dips were:

81% without CPAP

90% with CPAP (low pressure)

93% with CPAP (12 pressure)

My EKG levels were normal with the CPAP and I do not have high blood pressure or anything like that.

So last night I used my full mask (I WILL BE SWITCHING TO PILLOWS) and slept fairly well. I got 6 hours of sleep and my AHI was 1.5 an hour

My only complaint is that I get a lot of air in my stomach from the full mask/CPAP. I woke up at 2AM burping and feeling ill. After I got the air out I felt fine. Definitely coming out of both ends which sucks. I slept flat as directed and then I tried laying at a slant. Both times I still had air in my gut.

Julie wrote:

Seriously thanks for everything!!! I owe you and a few others dinner

"Slept fairly well for 6 hours"....that's really good for a first night. Heck, it took me about 3 months to get more than 4 or 5 hours when I first started. Good job.

The air in the gut thing...aerophagia...can be more than just annoying. It can make a person physically ill. Been there myself on rare occasion.
Are you using EPR exhale relief? If so at what setting? If not using EPR you might consider adding it as it may help with the aerophagia if it persists with the change in masks.

Pugsy wrote:"Slept fairly well for 6 hours"....that's really good for a first night. Heck, it took me about 3 months to get more than 4 or 5 hours when I first started. Good job.

The air in the gut thing...aerophagia...can be more than just annoying. It can make a person physically ill. Been there myself on rare occasion.
Are you using EPR exhale relief? If so at what setting? If not using EPR you might consider adding it as it may help with the aerophagia if it persists with the change in masks.

I will look into the Expiratory Pressure Relief to see if it is enabled. Is this something I can do?

Yeah the aerophagia nearly makes me want to throw up. I had it the night of the sleep study and last night. I am hoping nasal pillows will relieve that...

WorriedDaddy wrote: I will look into the Expiratory Pressure Relief to see if it is enabled. Is this something I can do?

Yes, EPR usage and at whatever is comfortable setting..is considered something that the patient has control over and it is easy to adjust.

If not enabled...turn it on and try it at setting of 2 or 3. If it is already enabled hopefully it isn't already set at 3.
EPR reduces the pressure on exhale 1 cm per setting...so setting of 3 will reduce the pressure 3 cm upon exhale.
Sometimes this reduction helps prevent the air from entering the gut.

I don't know if using the nasal pillow mask will give you the relief that you need or not. It might and might not.
Worth trying though.

Sometimes using EPR affects AHI due to reduction in pressure upon exhale...let's cross that bridge only if we need to.
APAP mode may be something to consider also....might be able to use lower pressure for the bulk of the night and only use the 12 cm for part of the night and thus lessen the chance of aerophagia rearing its ugly head.
Should you go to APAP mode...for sure don't have the maximum wide open...you are going to want to use a limited maximum.

Pugsy wrote:

WorriedDaddy wrote: I will look into the Expiratory Pressure Relief to see if it is enabled. Is this something I can do?

Yes, EPR use and at whatever is comfortable setting..is considered something that the patient has control over and it is easy to adjust.

If not enabled...turn it on and try it at setting of 2 or 3. If it is already enabled hopefully it isn't already set at 3.
EPR reduces the pressure on exhale 1 cm per setting...so setting of 3 will reduce the pressure 3 cm upon exhale.
Sometimes this reduction helps prevent the air from entering the gut.

I don't know if using the nasal pillow mask will give you the relief that you need or not. It might and might not.
Worth trying though.

Okay cool. Where can I locate the EPR settings?

http://www.apneuvereniging.nl/forum/pdf ... manual.pdf
Provider/clinical manual will explain how to get to the clinical setup menu where you can access EPR if you don't have access already. Also explains a bunch of other stuff.
Video here might also help if you haven't seen it.
http://www.cpaplibrary.com/machines.html

Do you have the software yet? SleepyHead will show the settings.

When you said you tried sleeping on a slant, do you mean you have a wedge pillow? Or you elevated one end of the bed?

I have one of these bad boys (didn't get it from amazon.com), and it helps: http://www.amazon.com/InteVision-Wedge- ... dge+pillow

Pugsy wrote:http://www.apneuvereniging.nl/forum/pdf ... manual.pdf
Provider/clinical manual will explain how to get to the clinical setup menu where you can access EPR if you don't have access already. Also explains a bunch of other stuff.
Video here might also help if you haven't seen it.
http://www.cpaplibrary.com/machines.html

Do you have the software yet? SleepyHead will show the settings.

Cool I watched the videos and now know how to locate/change some stuff.

Currently my EPR settings are:

EPR = OFF
EPR LEVEL = OFF.

I will switch to:

EPR = FULL TIME
EPR LEVEL = 2.

Hope this helps my air gut issues.

Not to rub it in or anything but I feel like a million bucks this morning . I am actually...functional

WorriedDaddy wrote:

Not to rub it in or anything but I feel like a million bucks this morning . I am actually...functional

Congratulations!
I don't think a different mask is what will make the difference. If you were mouth breathing with the FFM then a nasal mask can be a problem, opening your mouth with a nasal mask means you let the therapy air out. For me laying on my left side helps a lot, hang the mask over the edge of the pillow.

You may also want to switch to auto after trying cpap 12 for a few days - that way it only goes up to the problem pressure when it needs to.

Still having that nasty air pocket. Ahhhhhh. Trying to deburp currently

Some of us have raised the head of the bed by (no more than) 4-6" on blocks - it supposedly helps with aerophagia and GERD (if that could be an issue, sometimes 'silent' when asleep).