AHI moderate - sleep too short - feel tired

[perler242]

I've had some trouble with my bowels now. I felt pressure in several places. I skipped CPAP for the third day. I assume it's the high pressure-because it's getting better. How far back should I go with the pressure?

[Sleeprider]

I've had some trouble with my bowels now. I felt pressure in several places. I skipped CPAP for the third day. I assume it's the high pressure-because it's getting better. How far back should I go with the pressure?

The lowest you can go is fixed pressure (minimum=maximum) of 7.0, EPR 3 or 6 with EPR 2.  You will compromise AHI for comfort but it's better than no therapy at all.

[perler242]

How can I be sure it's that?

[Sleeprider]

Check the settings. Not sure I understand your question.

[perler242]

Then I can also use my old device with the default settings. I wait one month and look at the average of the AHI. If the AHI is above 10 I go to another doctor and ask for a referral to the sleep lab.

Maybe the Resmed is a bit better, but I would not care about that. I would then be back in the normal treatment system.  I'll pay less attention to the readings. I can sell the Resmed again.

[DaveL]

A long time ago I figured if I have to wear all this stuff at night, it better work. It's not going to cure me; however, the consequences of bad treatment are real.

In the old days I had the Sleep Doc from Heck. If I felt awful I'd finally call and make an appointment to see him. Without fail it would take two months to get in to see him. I had to bring my machine in. He would check the "hour" meter on the machine, and figure out if I was wearing my mask, machine on for more than 4 hours a day. If I did, I was compliant. If I didn't I wasn't compliant...
Without fail he would increase my pressure. I would go to my provider and they would change the setting and I would leave.

Point is: life should be better than this.

I came here with an attitude. I learned I was wrong. What I've learned is that the better treatment works, the better I feel. And maybe I'll even live longer.

Just a little story.

[perler242]

I don't mind the result. On the contrary. I have more experience again and I have tried to improve it. That's more important than doing nothing and brooding. Thank you very much for your support.

Should I go back to the sleep lab I can ask the staff there better questions. Maybe I will get the answers there. For example why the device shows apneas but they were simply taken off because it had no effect on my saturation or I turned around. But still, an arousal could have occurred and it should have been counted? Or maybe it really was not an effect. I now assume and trust that.

[Steve Zoller]

I've had some trouble with my bowels now. I felt pressure in several places. I skipped CPAP for the third day. I assume it's the high pressure-because it's getting better. How far back should I go with the pressure?

If I understand what you’ve written, you are not having problems with your bowels, nor feeling pressure in your abdomen, due to the CPAP machine.  Your bowels are responding to a virus, bacteria, stress, or something you ate but not air pressure from a CPAP machine.  And please do not correlate stopping using your CPAP machine with your bowels feeling better.  As I’ve said a couple of times in previous posts, you’re over-reacting to normal daily variations.

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In the old days I had the Sleep Doc from Heck. Without fail he would increase my pressure. I would go to my provider and they would change the setting and I would leave.

I think I had the same sleep doctor.  Worse than worthless.  After 2 or 3 visits I decided if I was going to get to the optimal setting for the lowest AHI, it was going to be because I learned about sleep apnea, the machine, and did the optimization myself.

[perler242]

I have had the intestinal problems for about 14 days. It started with problems sitting and walking in the lumbar spine. I think it was due to long car journeys. The problems are almost gone now but with the intestines I still have the problems. The doctor said quite hardened. I have the problems mostly early until the bowel movement which is quite tense. Yesterday I was 1.7 km swimming, a lot on my back. Because of the winds I assumed that it could be because of the high pressure. I am now using my old CPAP at 6.5, but since I have been using the high pressure for two months now, it is unlikely to be related.

Why does the sleep lab discharge me with such a low pressure and say there are no more apneas but the machine still displays AHI between 5 and 15. I have the feeling that they don't count hypopneas at all and some of the apneas were just over 10 seconds. They said I don't really need a machine. Because of increasing age the values get worse so I got a machine after all. I am now a bit in a hurry. The high pressure does not bring a big improvement. I rather think that it is even more unnatural and I am not as relaxed as with the low pressure. I think I know my way around and have to find my way.

[perler242]

To all a merry peaceful and healthy Christmas!

My intestinal problems are slowly disappearing. There is also a positive aspect to all of this. Since I have configured the pressure to 6.6 CPAP with ERP1, there are only a few problems left. I don't quite understand why I now have these values again with the default settings. I will then switch off ERP and test the pressure a bit.

Two times I probably woke up by desaturation.