New User with OSCAR questions

[tsmiller1]

Greetings. I was diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea back in May, with a AHI of 45. I'm a 53-year old male, who has had high blood pressure for at least 5-6 years, and was also recently diagnosed with diabetes. I've started walking 3 miles about 4-5 times per week, taking Metformin 2x per day, and have gotten my A1C down to 6.8 (close to the 6.5 level that my doc uses as the cutoff between diabetes and pre-diabetes). I'm hoping that CPAP therapy will help my lower my blood pressure and help me have more energy so I can do more stuff with my kids (I started late with the children thing. They are twins who are 11). 

I got my machine last month (ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset), but they sent the full-face mask instead of the nasal mask I tested with and was prescribed. I tried to use the full-face mask, but after trying several sizes and experimenting a lot I couldn't get rid of the leaks, which kept waking me up. I finally ordered a nasal mask from [commercial link removed]Supplier #1, and it is working much better. I started using the machine in earnest on July 12, and I struggled the first week with keeping the mask on, averaging just 2-3 hours per night. Last night I finally had a breakthrough and was able to use the machine for close to six hours, and now I'm excited about the future.

I downloaded OSCAR, and read up on it, and imported my data. I was going to upload my screenshots to let you guys take a look at them, but for whatever reason, whenever I try to take a screenshot, the resulting .png image is blank, and is only 9KB in size. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I've got the program maximized, and I've tried using both the F12 key and the File/View/Take Screenshot method, but the result is the same. I am using Windows 7, if that helps.

Thank you for any advice you can give me.

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[Crimson Nape]

Hi tsmiller1 -
You might try changing the graphics engine.  Go to File -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Graphics Engine (upper left).  Try the Software engine declaration.  

Please report back on success or failure.

[JamesRyan]

I downloaded OSCAR, and read up on it, and imported my data. I was going to upload my screenshots to let you guys take a look at them, but for whatever reason, whenever I try to take a screenshot, the resulting .png image is blank, and is only 9KB in size. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I've got the program maximized, and I've tried using both the F12 key and the File/View/Take Screenshot method, but the result is the same. I am using Windows 7, if that helps.

Thank you for any advice you can give me.

I'm not sure if windows 7 has it but try snipping tool. It should be in the start menu in accessories I believe

[tsmiller1]

Hi tsmiller1 -
You might try changing the graphics engine.  Go to File -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Graphics Engine (upper left).  Try the Software engine declaration.  

Please report back on success or failure.

That did the trick. Thank you so much!

Here is last night's data. Anything I should be concerned about? Any comments?

[sheepless]

looks pretty good! I'll wager wearing a soft cervical collar and less pillow height (if applicable) would reduce clusters of obstructive apnea like you had at 0030. it might reduce your leaks too if you're mouth leaking. many cpap veterans ditch the ramp and opt for immediate treatment capability.

[DeepBreathing]

I'm not sure if windows 7 has it but try snipping tool. It should be in the start menu in accessories I believe

The snipping tool should only be used as a last resort when all else fails. Using F11 to maximise the Oscar window and F12 to take the screen shot gives the best possible image quality. It also automatically turns off the right side bar and calendar so that you can actually see some of the important data.

[Gideon]

I would like to see another day or three of data before I'd suggest the Cervical collar for the OA cluster, just like to see that it is not a one night only thing. Otherwise looks pretty good. How do you feel?

[tsmiller1]

I would like to see another day or three of data before I'd suggest the Cervical collar for the OA cluster,  just like to see that it is not a one night only thing.  Otherwise looks pretty good.    How do you feel?

Pretty good, except for the fact that I still have trouble actually going to sleep. The first hour of those six hours was spent trying to get to sleep, but hopefully that'll improve.  And once I woke, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I didn't get as much sleep as I need. But I'm happy about the drastic reduction in AHI from my sleep study, and finally doing more than 3 hours of CPAP, and so excited about not having to go to the bathroom during my sleep. At one point in the past I was waking 4-5 times per night for this. Thanks for much to this group for the advice and encouragement.