Posting on this board is a BIG step for me!! I am a private person, who does not like to "put himself out there". I don't do social media, and am generally wary of putting any personal information on the web. But quite frankly I need help, and this board seems willing to give advice, so here goes…
I have been on CPAP therapy for about 3 months now, and despite GREAT numbers --
- 6-8+ hours of sleep each night
(wake up 1-3 times to hit the head)
- Day-to-day AHI averages 0.9, and is rarely above 2
I feel worse than when I started!! I wake up feeling exhausted, like I haven't slept at all (frequently with headaches), and struggle to stay focused during the day.
I am committed to staying with it, because I'm already being treated for high BP, and worry about long-term effects of apnea, but something has to change!!
I never rec'd a copy of my sleep study (I'm working on that, but I'm wading through bureaucracy, when it should be a straight forward request?!?!), but I know from emails with my sleep doctor that my AHI was 41, 115 during REM sleep, at one point my O2 level dropped to 80%, and for 25 minutes my oxygen level was <88%. He was sure all this would resolve by going on CPAP.
Started out at pressures of 8-20.
About a month into therapy, I started to search the Internet for help. I found lots of tips(!), but few boards are willing to give practical advice (like machine settings) -- "we're not doctors"…
Based on a tip from one site, I did purchase a pulse-ox sleep tracker. It proved somewhat helpful in that I realized my headaches coincided with nights that my O2 levels dropped <88%, usually for 5-15 minutes early morning, within an hour or 2 of waking up, but I will have 3-4 good nights >90%, then have 1-3 bad nights with no other changes.
At my 2 month followup, early august, I raised my concerns with my sleep doctor. He said my pressures were consistently above 10, and raised it to 10-20, but overall was very happy with my numbers/progress and said "you just have to hang in there, it will get better…"
I found this board about 2 weeks ago, and have been reading through a lot of posts. I downloaded OSCAR, bought an SD card (wasn't one in machine) and started looking at my data. Based on advice from similar sounding stories I kind of focused in on increased flow limits, and over the last 10 days, I raised my pressure in several steps from 10 --> 13. I removed the pressure ramp up, and increased EPR from 1 (that my doctor had apparently set), to 3.
It's a very subtle (but improved) change, but I'm still waking up exhausted! One observation that I'm moving in the right direction, I haven't woken up with a headache in over a week!!
I think I've reached the point where I'm comfortable tweaking things (somewhat blindly!), and I need to ask for help. OSCAR data is a little over whelming, and I'm just not sure what to look at.
Attached are PDF's of OSCAR screen shots. I only included 2 screens out of 4 to conserve space. One is from 8/22, after I had made 1 change - min pressure from 10 --> 11. It was the first night I broke max pressure of 19, and the first time I noticed an apparent pattern between flow limits and pressure. The 2nd is from last night. I also included 2 zoom ins of flow rate where it coincided with increased flow limits. I went with zoom ins, to conserve file size.
I can post other info as requested.
Thanks for reading! Any/all help would be appreciated!!!!
2020-08-22.pdf (Size: 493.21 KB / Downloads: 38)
2020-09-01.pdf (Size: 570.77 KB / Downloads: 21)