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Hope all is well.
Over the past 3+ish years I was feeling severely fatigued and tired throughout the day despite sleeping between 6-9 hours ! So I went to my doctor and after several tests I was recently diagnosed with Medium-Severe OSA and was shocked !!. My Sleep apena test report was showing I was having between 15-30 AHI events per hour. I think the doctor was saying that the report was showing sleeping on my side it was up to 15 per hour and if I slept supine position it was up to 30 per hour.
I am using a ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet with full face (ResMed AirFit F30i) mask. The CPAP treatment feels like its going well but I do still feel tired or sleep some of the days mid to late afternoon/early evenings.
Would be great if someone could tell if my attached report is good or not as I think its showing that I am averaging 0.83 AHI per hour. Where the normal AHI for people should be 1-5 AHI per hour I believe.
Welcome to the board, there are many knowledgeable people here that can help but we need different data. We need daily view with a typical night or nights. Please check the bottom (signature) to see the link on charts. It will tell you the charts we need to see. Please post them and get some help going.
01-10-2022, 01:29 PM (This post was last modified: 01-10-2022, 01:29 PM by Ratchick.)
RE: My First CPAP Report
As has been said (and Stacey so kindly linked to), OSCAR charts will definitely help us a lot.
One thing to bear in mind is that while some people feel drastically better right away, for others it can take a few weeks or months to gradually feel better, even when CPAP is working exactly as planned. So definitely hang in there and once we get a look at your charts, we can make some recommendations.
Although my AHI figures are usually less than 1, I sleep less well with the CPAP machine than I did without it. So I am, for the first time in my life, tired during the day. There are things -- many things -- that can disturb sleep other than apnea. I think it can take a long time to get used to CPAP, and find the right combination of mask, equipment settings, and usage routine that makes it non-disruptive. I'm told that if I persevere, that day will come. Perhaps it will for you, too
The Oscar charts are much more revealing. You are using your Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset at 4.0 to 15.0 pressure range. Due to flow limitations, the pressure rapidly rises from the minimum pressure to the maximum, and your median pressure is right around 12 cm. Your AHI is very low, so with few events, the Autoset is doing an awesome job of preventing apnea and hypopnea, but we can do better. By starting with a higher minimum pressure and using the exhale pressure relief (EPR) feature on your machine, the pressure variations will be reduced, and we can directly treat flow limits. Without getting too technical, by using EPR, you can breathe easier and get a more complete breath faster because increasing pressure during exhale supplements your physical effort to inhale. If you want to talk about that more, let me know. For better sleep and results try these settings:
Mode Autoset
Minimum Pressure: 8.0
Maximum Pressure 15.0
EPR: On full-time
EPR Stetting: 3
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I am having major bloating issues over the past 2 weeks and think it may be related to CPAP. I was reading elsewhere that flow pressure is related to aerophagia, and that also that person changed the EPR from 2 to 3 and it solved their bloating issues.
I have not had a chance to make the changes you initially suggested below:
Mode Autoset
Minimum Pressure: 8.0
Maximum Pressure 15.0
EPR: On full-time
EPR Stetting: 3
Can I go ahead and change my EPR to 3 and leave the min pressure at 8.0 ? As I think the min pressure 4.0 gives me more time to get sleep.
02-04-2022, 01:03 PM (This post was last modified: 02-04-2022, 01:04 PM by staceyburke.)
RE: My First CPAP Report
The settings that were suggested do the following...
Min 8 will be your inhale pressure
EPR 3 makes your exhale pressure 5 (min - EPR)
Max 15 is the highest the pap machine will go to stop events. It may never get that high it only goes as high as needed to stop the event.
You said "As I think the min pressure 4.0 gives me more time to get sleep." This is usually what the ramp setting is for. The machine runs at 4 and gives time for you to get to sleep before going to the therapy pressures. The problem with that is while you are on the ramp no therapy is happening. And if you need to get out of bed during the night, you start ramp again there is no therapy again. So you need to limit the use of ramp as much as possible. There is little difference between the ramp at 4 and the exhale pressure you would have at 5 with the settings and no ramp.
