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+--- Thread: gasping (/Thread-gasping)
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gasping - tarah - 12-10-2017
I have been using my machine all night long for the past 3 weeks. The difference is incredible. I feel like my old self again. One of the biggest causes of severe onset insomnia for me is gasping as I'm falling asleep. I have been upping the starting pressure slowly from the prescribed 5 to 7 (no titration study done) with no ramp. I have been able to reduce my Ambien from 10 mg to 4 mg, holding steady for a while before trying to continue weaning.
Last night was not good. Gasping repeatedly as I'm falling asleep, finally fell asleep around 1, awake at 6. Should I just keep upping the starting pressure? Are there just bad nights to be expected? I'll just throw it out there- my fear is that the therapy only worked for a few weeks and now has stopped.
I will be turning in my loaner next week and then have access to data from the machine.
RE: gasping - Sleeprider - 12-10-2017
Your machine produces a sleep report on-screen and the SD card. In the clinical menu, go to Essentials, and change from ON to PLUS. Now on the Sleep Report Menu, choose 1-day and look at the Total AHI, Total AI and Central AI and other data...were you having centrals? Tidal volume Vt okay?
Why are you increasing pressure?
RE: gasping - tarah - 12-10-2017
No centrals for last night. I was increasing pressure because I had a few episodes of gasping in the past week and have started tilting my head back as im falling asleep on my side to stop that from happening. My average pressure for the week is 8.2 and it doesn't bother me to have higher pressure going to sleep so I figured to try just increase to the avg pressure.
I am also still waking approx every 2 hours. Easily falling back asleep within a minute.
RE: gasping - HalfAsleep - 12-10-2017
Well done for hanging in there! I recall how hard it was for you to begin the journey, and you’re full throttle in next to no time!
RE: gasping - tarah - 12-10-2017
Thank you for your kind words. I was very anxious but it was like my body knew that I needed it to actually breathe, and I got accustomed quickly.
It's been such a long, hard journey of wondering what the hell was wrong for so long, I want the therapy to work every.single.night.
RE: gasping - Fixit50 - 12-11-2017
(12-10-2017, 02:07 PM)tarah Wrote: I have been using my machine all night long for the past 3 weeks. The difference is incredible. I feel like my old self again. One of the biggest causes of severe onset insomnia for me is gasping as I'm falling asleep. I have been upping the starting pressure slowly from the prescribed 5 to 7 (no titration study done) with no ramp. I have been able to reduce my Ambien from 10 mg to 4 mg, holding steady for a while before trying to continue weaning.
Last night was not good. Gasping repeatedly as I'm falling asleep, finally fell asleep around 1, awake at 6. Should I just keep upping the starting pressure? Are there just bad nights to be expected? I'll just throw it out there- my fear is that the therapy only worked for a few weeks and now has stopped.
I will be turning in my loaner next week and then have access to data from the machine.
It sounds like you’ve tried the most obvious things. Starting on your side, not on your back and increasing the minimum pressures of the auto range as long as you can tolerate this and still fall asleep. How high is your start pressure and can you increase it further? Another thing that might help is to use a chin strap in conjunction with your nasal mask. This will help to keep your mouth more fully closed and there may be a benefit to this.
RE: gasping - Fixit50 - 12-11-2017
Also, do you have any underlying medical conditions? Is your heart strong? Are you retaining water?
RE: gasping - tarah - 12-11-2017
Only other medical thing is no thyroid and i am on replacement hormone for that. No water retention that I know of. I'm an otherwise healthy, physically active 41 year old.
My current starting pressure is 8. I will talk with the RT and doc at tomorrow's appt about continuing to increase pressure. I'll also inquire about a chin strap.
RE: gasping - Fixit50 - 12-11-2017
That sounds like a good plan.
There are many styles of chin straps available for about $7- to $20- on Amazon and elsewhere. If you get one from your DME, it my be covered by your insurance. Careful though. My DME handed me one and didn't mention there were multiple sizes. After struggling with getting it adjusted i realized it was just too big so i bought the same model on Amazon in the right size and that worked well. Getting the right size at least in my case was important. Good luck!
RE: gasping - tarah - 12-11-2017
Which chin strip do you recommend?