[Pressure] Another New User - Need Settings Advice

[Old Steve]

Have you tried sleeping on your side?  I tried a soft collar and had minimal results.  The only way to get my AHI low was to sleep on my side, although I don't like it (hurts my back) it is the only thing that worked for me.

[nmwhitneyjr]

Ima give side sleeping a shot...

[nmwhitneyjr]

Ol' Steve,
Seems you were right on the money.  AHI over the last couple of nights has dropped to just under 5.  I'm going to post back in 2-3 days with chart data. 

Somewhere along the line I had developed the incorrect assumption that side sleeping was a no-no and that back sleeping was preferred with CPAP.  Thank you for setting me straight on that.

Peace,
Norm

[Old Steve]

Good to hear!
Now get your new charts posted and I am sure someone who really knows what they are doing will help you with your machine settings.

Good luck.

Old Steve

[nmwhitneyjr]

I'm pleased to report that AHI's are down under 5 (3 for the last 2 nights).  I've attached some oscar reports.  After I put the min pressure at 8, AHI dropped to anywhere between 6 and 10.  The 27 Feb Chart is the "worst' of the nights.  Most were between 6 and 8.

On 04 March, I decided to move the minimum up to 9, just for giggles.  The 04 March and 05 March charts tell the story.

Seems most of my issues are after the 4 am "potty break".  Is there anything else of concern according to my charts?

[Marillion]

The Feb 27 chart is markedly different from the other 2 days, that's for sure.  I am still seeing a lot of positional obstructive apneas that first day but no positional clusters in the the other two charts.  Perhaps you were getting used to sleeping on your side on the weekend?

You are still bumping up against your max setting spending a lot of time there throughout the night in all 3 charts.  The machine is wanting to go higher but can't due to the setting it is at.  It becomes a balancing act at this point but my suggestion is this and it may be leading you down the wrong path but I wanted to suggest it since I am seeing parallels between your results and mine (early on.)  For me, the EPR use caused nothing but problems.  Once I put that to 0 and increased my minimum and maximum settings is when I started seeing much better results.  I would suggest trying putting your min pressure to 10 and your max to either 16 or 17 and removing EPR and trying that for a few days.  I might be way off here, but it may be worth a try.  Again, as I mentioned before.  Having a super low profile (very thin) pillow is key here also.

[nmwhitneyjr]

I always have difficulty getting back to sleep after the morning bathroom break.  That’s where that ugly cluster of events is located.  

I’ll give those settings a shot!