Hello Guest, Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.

or Create an Account


New Posts   Today's Posts

Experience needed
#11
RE: Experience needed
Do you think monitoring O2 level would help ?


Attached Files Thumbnail(s)
   
Post Reply Post Reply
#12
RE: Experience needed
Hi niammus,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
I wish you much success with your CPAP therapy and I hope you get to feeling better as you get your settings dialed in to meet your needs.
Hang in there for more suggestions and answers to your questions.
trish6hundred
Post Reply Post Reply
#13
RE: Experience needed
G'day niammus. I'm coming a bit late to the thread, but I have the same machine as you do and I can vouch for the fact that it works very well. It is an absolute marvel of medical engineering.

Just to correct something you said in the first post - "CO2 poisoning". Put your mind at ease - the problem is not CO2 poisoning, but too little CO2 in your blood. Putting it simply (coz I don't know the full details), your brain relies on the level of CO2 to send the "breathe now" signal to your lungs. If the CO2 level is too low (which can happen to some people under CPAP therapy) then the brain doesn't send that signal, you forget to breathe, and experience a central apnea.

The good thing is that your machine totally suppresses centrals. You are having a very small number of obstructive apneas and hypopneas, but not enough to worry about. The machine is doing its job. I do see that the pressure is a bit up and down, and this might be preventing sound sleep. I'd be inclined to reduce the PS Max by a few points and see if that is more comfortable. You might see a slight increase in your AHI, but it's a trade-off.

You're not having hardly any apneas, so we need to figure out why you're having such a lousy time. As Mongo mentioned in an earlier post, there are a whole lot of medical issues which coexist with apnea. It's important to get these eliminated, so a long chat with your GP might be in order if you haven't already done so. You might also be experiencing oxygen desaturation for some other reason - some of our members use supplementary oxygen as well as CPAP. Get hold of a recording pulse oximeter (fairly cheap at the usual places or your DME might be able to provide one on loan) to see if your oxygen levels are being maintained through the night.

I see that your sleeping period is fragmented with a long break in the early morning then sleeping right through to lunch time. This is probably not conducive to restful sleep. Unless you work shifts or otherwise need to sleep in that pattern, you might do better to try and sleep more regular hours. If you have trouble with insomnia, consider a light sleeping aid - even a zolpidem (ambien) if you need it. Again, this is something to discuss with the doc, especially if you're on other medications.

Other culprits include mask leaks (which you seem to have under control), snoring and flow limitations. Check your Sleepyhead charts and see if these are occurring. If your mask is too tight it might be causing you discomfort even though it's not leaking (I had one which constantly pressed on a fibromyalgia pressure point Sad ). And of course make sure your bed is comfortable, that you're not stressing your neck, back or hips and that the room is a comfortable temperature with plenty of fresh air.

There's a lot of things to consider here, but I think the ASV machine is the least of your worries. Be assured they are a great machine and once you get everything working together you will feel much better. For some lucky people this comes instantly - for the rest of us it's a bit of a journey.


Post Reply Post Reply
#14
RE: Experience needed
(12-22-2015, 05:36 AM)DeepBreathing Wrote: G'day niammus. I'm coming a bit late to the thread, but I have the same machine as you do and I can vouch for the fact that it works very well. It is an absolute marvel of medical engineering.

Just to correct something you said in the first post - "CO2 poisoning". Put your mind at ease - the problem is not CO2 poisoning, but too little CO2 in your blood. Putting it simply (coz I don't know the full details), your brain relies on the level of CO2 to send the "breathe now" signal to your lungs. If the CO2 level is too low (which can happen to some people under CPAP therapy) then the brain doesn't send that signal, you forget to breathe, and experience a central apnea.

The good thing is that your machine totally suppresses centrals. You are having a very small number of obstructive apneas and hypopneas, but not enough to worry about. The machine is doing its job. I do see that the pressure is a bit up and down, and this might be preventing sound sleep. I'd be inclined to reduce the PS Max by a few points and see if that is more comfortable. You might see a slight increase in your AHI, but it's a trade-off.

You're not having hardly any apneas, so we need to figure out why you're having such a lousy time. As Mongo mentioned in an earlier post, there are a whole lot of medical issues which coexist with apnea. It's important to get these eliminated, so a long chat with your GP might be in order if you haven't already done so. You might also be experiencing oxygen desaturation for some other reason - some of our members use supplementary oxygen as well as CPAP. Get hold of a recording pulse oximeter (fairly cheap at the usual places or your DME might be able to provide one on loan) to see if your oxygen levels are being maintained through the night.

I see that your sleeping period is fragmented with a long break in the early morning then sleeping right through to lunch time. This is probably not conducive to restful sleep. Unless you work shifts or otherwise need to sleep in that pattern, you might do better to try and sleep more regular hours. If you have trouble with insomnia, consider a light sleeping aid - even a zolpidem (ambien) if you need it. Again, this is something to discuss with the doc, especially if you're on other medications.

Other culprits include mask leaks (which you seem to have under control), snoring and flow limitations. Check your Sleepyhead charts and see if these are occurring. If your mask is too tight it might be causing you discomfort even though it's not leaking (I had one which constantly pressed on a fibromyalgia pressure point Sad ). And of course make sure your bed is comfortable, that you're not stressing your neck, back or hips and that the room is a comfortable temperature with plenty of fresh air.

There's a lot of things to consider here, but I think the ASV machine is the least of your worries. Be assured they are a great machine and once you get everything working together you will feel much better. For some lucky people this comes instantly - for the rest of us it's a bit of a journey.

Thanks for your replay and information. The problem is if I increase the pressure I solve the obstructive but get central. Which is I think should be solved with ASV. However any one would recommend ASV auto machine ?

The other thing that I need about 17 cm of pressure to solve obstructive (IPAP not EPAP) and ASV Resmed can go up to 20 max. Using Resperonics would solve it because it goes to 25 ?

I'm suspecting that my pressure needs different very much when I move during sleep which may cause me this.

Idon't thank I have another health issue since I feel much much worse with ASV than without. The thing is more pressure more I feel worse (pressure Sensitivity).

Please anyone has a experience can help.

Thanks
Post Reply Post Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  New user - is my experience normal? SleeplessGrouch 3 415 03-23-2024, 03:02 PM
Last Post: ButtonNoseBarbie
  My Resent Experience: Momsworry 3 102 03-23-2024, 01:49 PM
Last Post: PeaceLoveAndPizza
  Canadian here without insurance. Purchase advice needed. TrailerSweetheart 31 5,518 03-21-2024, 06:54 PM
Last Post: Sleeprider
  New to CPAP Titration Study and OSCAR Data Help Needed slowmoto 2 144 03-20-2024, 01:24 PM
Last Post: slowmoto
  Help needed to understand chart SteveC 0 97 03-11-2024, 11:54 PM
Last Post: SteveC
  Help needed SteveC 23 1,062 03-02-2024, 05:16 PM
Last Post: SteveC
  help needed teamarliss 7 290 02-25-2024, 10:11 PM
Last Post: robbob2112


New Posts   Today's Posts


About Apnea Board

Apnea Board is an educational web site designed to empower Sleep Apnea patients.