RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
I'm so impressed with the knowledge and passion of the "significant role players" in this forum.
Your input is valuable to so many who seem to be poorly diagnosed and supported by there personal medical professionals.
It highlights the value of finding yourself a good General Practitioner as your main doctor, and a good team of assorted specialists when health problems arise.
Now I'm wondering if I should post up my data for evaluation (though I'm now two years in to CPAP after being diagnosed following an accident, and my AHI levels do seem fairly well controlled  )
I do hope that Tolnaiz's father now gets the correct treatment he needs, and that his health will stabilise and improve.
..
( they are not spelling errors, I live in Australia  )
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
(07-12-2019, 05:33 PM)Ockrocket Wrote: I'm so impressed with the knowledge and passion of the "significant role players" in this forum.
Your input is valuable to so many who seem to be poorly diagnosed and supported by there personal medical professionals.
It highlights the value of finding yourself a good General Practitioner as your main doctor, and a good team of assorted specialists when health problems arise.
Now I'm wondering if I should post up my data for evaluation (though I'm now two years in to CPAP after being diagnosed following an accident, and my AHI levels do seem fairly well controlled )
I do hope that Tolnaiz's father now gets the correct treatment he needs, and that his health will stabilise and improve.
..
( they are not spelling errors, I live in Australia ) IMHO yes.
You may find out that everything is fine, or nothing is. Either way it's knowledge that you can act, or not act on, but knowledge.
07-13-2019, 02:09 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-13-2019, 02:14 AM by tolnaiz.)
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
I don't know what to say guys. Thank you. We are considering changing the doctor now.
Someone can see us on monday and he also thinks fixed mode can be wrong. (he didn't see the new results yet) Sadly he is 220km away from us.
What do you think about today's results?
[attachment=13586]
Edit: I had to turn off two sessions from afternoon and evening, when he slept with the old settings, and tried the new settings for a minute without sleeping. Do you know how can I delete them from OSCAR?
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
Still room for improvement, but this is a 6X improvement over the previous chart. I think as he adapts to the new settings, he will see improvement. I have some ideas on what direction to take settings, but would like to give a couple days to allowing the new settings to take hold. Most of he remaining obstructive apnea now looks positional. This comes from chin tucking, and a good solution is a soft cervical collar. This wiki describes the problem and shows an example of the improvement with correction.
The root cause of this problem was an error on the part of the doctor or supplier of the BiPAP. Someone should have caught this before he suffered so long.
07-20-2019, 04:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-20-2019, 04:16 AM by tolnaiz.)
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
After a couple of experimenting with slightly different settings, which was suggested by the new doctor, we went back to the values you gave me at the first time. That gives the best results.
We will also get a cervical collar to try it. He is wearing a chin strap now, and when he is not wearing it, his numbers seems to be a little bit worse. I'm a little sceptical about the collar, because he has a very short neck and I'm not sure if it will be comfortable for him, but it worth a try.
One thing I still worry about is his periodic breathing. Especially since I saw that Encore basic (what a terrible software!) reports all PB's that it is CSR. There are one or two events when the pattern really matches with the wiki's description of CSR, but I think not all of them. Do you think we should worry about it? It almost never occured with fixed setting (or it just wasn't detectable?)
Thanks
[attachment=13710] [attachment=13711]
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
Roll a towel and place that under his chin. There is nothing sacred or magical about our use of a cervical collar, though it seems that way.
CSR , the pattern looks like it could be as there is variation in the accepted patterns for CSR but your duration is short, needs a longer duration to be of concern. On the other hand total time was over 10%.
The overall flow rate chart looks very restless so how did he sleep? By that I mean how did you feel during your wake hours.
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
I'm delighted that his results are tremendously improved from where we started, but there continues to be room to improve. I hope this at least feels more comfortable. I think the positional apnea therapy will help a lot more, and once that is resolved we can consider whether he needs treated for complex / central apnea. Any soft cervical collar or other solution is intended to apply enough pressure to the jaw to prevent the chin from dropping and putting pressure on the tissues at the front of the throat. So a comfortable fit that is not too tight or that restricts the throat area is what we want. Getting the right fit and feel may take trying a couple different solutions, but with patience you can get there.
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
the OTC collar from Amazon comes in three different heights. You may find one that is the right fit forvhis short neck.
Download OSCAR
Organize Charts
Attaching Charts
Mask Primer
Soft Cervical Collar
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
try the collar for at least a week. I have never heard anyone say they actually like the thing, but they are effective. it can take a bit to get used to it.
I have a short fat neck. even back when I was slim and trim. a top-buttoned dress shirt comes right up to my chin. I can't stand wearing a tie; leaves me feeling constricted, strangled.
I first bought an adjustable soft cervical collar thinking I needed shorter than most, but turns out the more or less standard ~ 2.5 - 3.5 inch height was ok. it comes right up to my chin too. (being soft, they compress easily.)
comfortable is not a word I'd associate with it but it isn't really uncomfortable either. awkward maybe, and hot. in any event (sorry), I'd rather not wear it, but because it works well for me I've learned to tolerate it. the benefits far outweigh the awkward constricted feeling.
RE: Should we get him a full face mask?
(07-20-2019, 07:37 AM)bonjour Wrote: Roll a towel and place that under his chin. There is nothing sacred or magical about our use of a cervical collar, though it seems that way.
CSR , the pattern looks like it could be as there is variation in the accepted patterns for CSR but your duration is short, needs a longer duration to be of concern. On the other hand total time was over 10%.
The overall flow rate chart looks very restless so how did he sleep? By that I mean how did you feel during your wake hours.
He is not feeling extremly fit, but he certainly sleeps less during the day.
Thanks for all the tips about the collar, we try the towel for the weekend, and next week we will buy a collar.
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