My new journey.

[cjsimmons]

Hi all, new here and first post.

Just thought I'd share my surprised and very quick journey so far.

My wife has been complaining about my snoring for a while now and says she has to hit me multiple times throughout the night to get me to breathe. I never really thought much about it and never did anything about it. That was until our 4yo son was sleeping in our room one night and woke up with his hands over his ears saying I'm hurting his ears. Hmm, I think it's time to take some action.

Made an appointment to see a sleep doctor. That appointment was brought forward a few weeks due to a cancellation. He wanted me to take a sleep study which also happened very quickly and a follow-up appointment to discuss the results, which again was brought forward due to another cancellation.

During my sleep study, the nurse woke me up put me on a CPAP machine. It was pretty clear to her that I have sleep apnea.

My results with my Dr. show that I have severe OSA with an AHI of 50 and a min. Sa02 of 54%.

I'm now 2 nights in on a trial machine my Dr wants me to use for 6 weeks to see how it goes in which time we will discuss the results and also surgical options as I have large tonsils and there is a possibility that removing them can make a difference.

Anyway, 2 nights in, and my AHI is much better. The first night my AHI was 8.72 with 4 hours usage. I stopped as my mouth was very very dry. The second night AHI is 11.65, though after bumping up the humidifier the hose had water pooling in it and bubbling when I would breathe in. This seems to have also added false snoring.

Thanks for this great forum. The resources here are awesome and SleepHead is a great piece of software. I'm now also looking into maybe getting an Oximeter to see if my Sa02 is improving (which I would assume it is as I'm now breathing much better).

I'm looking forward to tweaking the machine and finding what works for me. My wife has enjoyed the silence but finding it weird as she can't hear me breathing and it keeps waking her up. LOL. I yet to feel any physical difference and still a bit on the tired side when I wake up, but I'm guessing that my body has a bit of catching up to do, and since I'm used to getting so little actual sleep I've been waking up after about 4-5 hours sleep. I need to get some longer sleep sessions happening.

[OpalRose]

Welcome to Apnea Board!

After you get a few more days under your belt, go ahead and post a screenshot from the daily page of #SleepyHead. We can take a look to be sure your pressure is set optimally for you.

Use the links below in my signature line to guide you.

[Sleeprider]

Second the welcome, and will start the questions. What kind of events are showing up? What pressure are you using? I'm looking forward to a chart to get you on the final approach to better results.

[cjsimmons]

Thanks for the welcome guys.

After you get a few more days under your belt, go ahead and post a screenshot from the daily page of SleepyHead. We can take a look to be sure your pressure is set optimally for you.  

Will do. I'm just going through the teething stage with the machine. Hopefully tonight I have a better sleep.

What kind of events are showing up? What pressure are you using?

Is that the items on the pie graph? If so, they are the following:

• Large Leak
  
• Clear Airway
  
• Unclassified Apnoea
  
• Obstructive
  
• Hypopnoea
  
• RERA
  

Current pressure is set between 6 and 18. My average so far is 13.32 which is pretty much what my Dr prescribed, 13, if I went with a fixed pressure machine.

[Sleeprider]

If I interpret your response correctly, more of the apnea you are experiencing are clear airway than obstructive. If so, I'm inclined to limit maximum pressure to 14 or 15 and keep Flex settings low (avoid Cflex or Aflex at setting 3). We can do better once we see the graphs.

[cjsimmons]

Here is last nights graph. I woke up around 4:30 somewhere due to cats wanting to be let out, and got my wife to sort them out, but other than that, I slept the whole night.

This is the first decent sleep I've had in a long time. I use an app on my iPhone and Apple Watch called Pillow and for the first time ever it's given me a 64% sleep quality with 7h 9 mins asleep. I usually average around 2-4 hours asleep for the same period of time in bed. This machine is working wonders.

[attachment=8562]

[Sleeprider]

The machine may be working wonders, but the obstructive clusters suggest you might need to use a soft cervical collar to clean this up.

[cjsimmons]

Hmm. Just had to look up what those are. They do not look comfortable one bit, and I'm not sure I'd be able to bear wearing one, let alone sleep with one. Hmm...

To be honest, the thought of having sleep apnea was causing me some anxiety and the thought of having one of those noisy machines was one that wasn't going to work. I can't sleep with noise and restrictions. The machines seem to have come a long way since I last had anything to do with one (someone I knew complained about it and the noise it made when they were sleeping). But just having the mask on is kind of enough for now.

I have a follow-up appointment with the place I'm trialling the machine from in 3 weeks. I'll bring it up with them and see what they say, and also with my Dr in 6 weeks.

The fact that this machine has done so much for me with just 3 nights is a huge positive for me, and my wife who can now sleep in peace.

[chuff2]

Welcome. I'm sure you've seen their is a wealth of knowledge here. I remain grateful for the wisdom here that has allowed me to have a voice in my OSA treatment.

[Gideon]

To be honest, the thought of having sleep apnea was causing me some anxiety and the thought of having one of those noisy machines was one that wasn't going to work. I can't sleep with noise and restrictions. The machines seem to have come a long way since I last had anything to do with one (someone I knew complained about it and the noise it made when they were sleeping). But just having the mask on is kind of enough for now.

My wife complains of waking up because she can no longer hear either the CPAP or my breathing with my current machine.  Yes, they have come a long way.