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[Diagnosis] Am I just an apnea wannabe?
#41
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
For a first night on a VAuto, that's pretty good.  No other apnea, just centrals.  Low flow limits.  

Check the setting on TRIG.  If it is medium, set it to HIGH.  That seems to help a lot of people to reduce their centrals.  For me, it wasn't enough, and I ended at VERY HIGH.  If that doesn't help there are some other settings, but why don't you try that first.  Looking forward to your next set of data.

Remember, CA is consistently inconsistent.  The VAuto is not designed to treat CA.  But there are quite a few more settings available in the VAuto which can help.  For all we know, this could be solely due to the pressure support bump and will subside in a few days (or a week).
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#42
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
Thank you. I will set the trigger setting to high for tonight. I am tempted to fiddle with the cycle sensitivity, but I have read enough posts to know that messing with one variable at a time is probably the right thing to do.

I do feel better, even with the higher CAs. I have not taken any Nuvigil today, and I usually feel the need to take at least half a pill by mid-morning. It's fascinating to look at my breathing and see the rounded tops of the breaths after looking at the flattened ones for the past few weeks. The only concern I have is that my sleeping heart rate was higher than usual, but I imagine that could have been related to any number of things. It's kind of fun to feel like every night is a science experiment.

I'll report back. Thanks again!
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#43
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
Just remember that one night of any particular piece of data isn't a trend. The next night may be very different, good or bad, and with some things up or down more than the last.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#44
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
Woot woot! I'm feeling pretty good, and these charts are looking pretty darn good. I am feeling very hopeful that I am on track toward feeling better for good. I don't want to let myself get too excited since it's been SO many years of trying everything known to humanity to be less sleepy. I did fiddle with the settings a bit. Every male in my family is an engineer, so I know how aggravating that can be for the more methodical among us. Still, it feels like I'm on the right track.  Big Grin  I changed the cycle setting to very low and increased the TiMax to 2.5 to help me feel calm as I take slow deep breaths before falling asleep. Once I had those settings changed, changing the trigger to high felt comfortable, and the centrals disappeared.  

I will try to heed your advice, Dave, and not see a trend before its time, but it's hard! 

   
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#45
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
Fingers crossed this is the beginning of good times for you. Smile
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#46
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
Well this is a good beginning of a trend. Zero.Zero. It can't get better. Congrats, now repeat that.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#47
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
Update and question:

Y'all have fixed me. I will be eternally grateful for the information I've found on this board. Here's what has changed for me:

- I'M NOT SLEEPY DURING THE DAY 
-My sleeping heart rate is trending lower (although CPAP seemed lower than BiPAP)
-My HRV is steadily climbing
- I'm not tired at night. I think I am going to have to cut back on caffeine, which I'm drinking more out of habit now

Things I didn't know:
-You can wake up in the morning without a sense of how time passed overnight
-You can be in such a deep sleep that you don't leap out of bed to check on sounds
-Some people don't feel an overwhelming sense of exhaustion by the time the sun goes down

I've still got a few kinks to work out, but I'm on my way. I find it so interesting that these tiny flow-limited breaths got in the way of my life while some of you struggle to breathe all night and felt fine. But mine is not to question why, I guess.

As I tinker with my settings to treat my own darn self, I am curious about real CAs vs. fake. I'm not sure if I should start another thread or not, but I've been looking at this info: sleep transition breathing and wondering if my few CAs are really not CAs. So here are the 2 from last night, along with a fun chart from a sleep app.

           
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#48
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
Unless the posts go very off topic it can remain. Just remember you created the post, so you have some say what's on topic. However it's helpful to build on this treatment if possible, to keep it here for historical. But again it's up to you.

Now on this real or false CA, here's how I look at it, if it's close to the beginning or end of a session, ask yourself "were you asleep at time x?" If you weren't or if you remember not being fully out, it's very likely SWJ, or sleep wake junk.

If you can eliminate times known to be awake, the rest should be asleep time. Do that mentally, highlight the sleep portion, and any CA during that time was maybe real. From there, you look closer at the flow rate and zooming in to see the trace line more in detail. If you see definite smoother areas than just before or after, smooth areas of flow are very likely sleeping times. To get some not smooth times look at the very beginning or end, zoom in to about 3 minutes span across the screen. Smooth or more ragged? As you move your zoomed in section to the right eventually you'll see a transition from ragged breathing to not. At that point, you're asleep most likely. Make sense?
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#49
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
It does make sense. I think.  Unsure  Those "CAs" are during a time I don't remember being awake. My sleep tracker shows that I did go into "light sleep" (whatever that means to an Apple watch) at those two times. But my breathing is raggedy before the "CA" and smooth after. So I guess what I'm asking is if that is typical of an actual CA. Or am I actually briefly waking due to something else, and the "CA" is me holding my breath as I roll over and go back to sleep? Is that enough "quotation marks" in one post for you?  Big Grin
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#50
RE: Am I just an apnea wannabe?
OK what's possibly happening, something caused an arousal, a partial awakening for some reason, then a CA flag. If that's the scenario, let's put a maybe this happened out there. You've gone to sleep and maybe need to change position. The body starts moving automatically but the movement brings you partially awake, now some wake breathing control and "I'm moving to another position and I'll hold my breath for a few seconds" thing happens... Flag the CA says the PAP. Since you don't have many CA now, this is a probable.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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