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RE: Request for Assitance with Central Apneas/Desats
Just food for thought...
Ever since I got a data machine I have had central apneas and they made up the bulk of my AHI (even my 2001 study showed them). I worked to get my AHI down and eventually it settled in at 2.5 with 1.5 CA, .7 OA and .3 HY with an S9 Autoset. It went on like this for over 4 years. There were times when I didn't even look at my numbers except for a 3 or 6 month summary.
I went through life events, lost my older brother, wife had heart valve surgery, retired, prostate cancer but my numbers just hummed along; and I felt good. Then one night the sleep wasn't as good. My AHI was over 4, next night it was 6, then 8, then double figures. Almost all of them were centrals. At times I would wake up gasping after 20 minutes with an AHI over 20; all centrals. I had always kept a tight range. like 5-8, 6-9 and 0 EPR. And I had worn a cervical collar for years. Tried a few tweaks, swapped out a collar, bed pillows, minor pressure tweaks and the spikes went back down, but never to 2.5 AHI. Made an appointment with a sleep doctor, got an order for an ASV titration, which I put off for a year.
I don't know what caused the sudden influx of centrals after so many years. I had been using the same machine for 4 years, same mask model, same setup. But, at least for me, when they started to spike, I was powerless to stop it with my Autoset.
I'm not saying you will go down this route, but data is your friend when it comes to talking to your doctor. When I saw my sleep doctor, after more than a decade, I armed myself with Rescan data and charts to show him what was happening. OSCAR is just as good, actually better in some respects, but you need to show him the spikes and exactly what is going on. Hopefully he will act upon it, or at least monitor it more closely.
RE: Request for Assitance with Central Apneas/Desats
I'll second sleeprider's suggestion of using a limited range. It has worked very well for me and I've had a similar experience to you so far.
I've gone as far as setting the AutoSet essentially as a CPAP (AutoSet mode where min = max) with EPR @ 3.
Worth a trying his/her suggestion for week and see how you're feeling.
Also, don't worry about your heart rate, 50 is not 'low' for sleep. It'll depend a bit on how fit you are and your age, but I'd say 50 is right in the 'average' territory.
Mine regularly drops to 29 while I'm sleeping, and it's not a problem as I'm relatively fit for my age.
RE: Request for Assitance with Central Apneas/Desats
Greetings All,
Thanks for all the insights and comments. Tapping into the collective wisdom of the this community is infinitely more helpful that being on the receiving end of McMedicine. I am back to my original dialed in settings of Min 8, Max 13.6, EPR 3. I plan to review my history to get a better idea of the what a reasonable max pressure is. Good news is that my CAs have disappeared but unfortunately I have now started to suddenly jerk awake. This happening with no recorded events and oxygen looked good at 96 percent. Only thing that looks unusual is the flow rate at the time. Additionally, I do wonder if the machine is automatically turning off as I have seen unexplained gaps in the data. Thanks again for the comments and any inputs/thoughts are greatly appreciated.
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