04-26-2024, 05:10 AM
First week on PAP, pointers please.
Hi,
This is my first post on this forum. I´ve been lurking around as unregistered since I got my OSA diagnose this year, to soak up as much info as possible. I´m very glad I found this community.
I´m a 38-M, 24 BMI. After years of snoring, slowly feeling more and more tired, getting diagnosed with depression last year. I got a refferal to a sleep clinic by my doctor, they put me on an at home sleep study around Christmas.
Got the results back in February pointing to severe obstructive sleep apnea (32 AHI). Got the choice of MAD or CPAP, choose the CPAP. I was handed a Resmed Airsense 11 about a week ago and have been using it since.
First night was pretty tough, didnt get much sleep but the data from my O2ring (I bought one some weeks after getting the apnea diagnose as I´m quite data driven and analytical by nature) showed the SpO2 rate being much more stable than before.
The nights after have been pretty OK in regards to getting used to the mask (DreamWear nasal pillows) and the sound of the machine etc, no issues getting to sleep and I have slept through the whole nights, though I´m still quite tired during the days.
I´ve exported all data to OSCAR since the first day of course, but even though I´m pretty analytical I´m having a bit of a hard time interpreting eveything in the reports and realising theres so much to learn.
My machine was set up like this from start:
APAP, Min 8 - Max 20
Ramp time 5
EPR 1 on Ramp only
Ramp time 5 min
Climate settings Auto
I´ve changed the EPR to 2 on Full time just to get a feel of the difference. Felt a slight increase in sleeping comfort.
I also changed the Climate settings as the air going into my nose during the first nigh was way to hot/humid for my liking. I´ve turned down the hose temp from Auto to 24C but kept the humidity to Auto, this felt much better.
So when I try to interpret the data I can see my AHI is much improved but still quite high (6.24 last night, attached screen shot), but it´s almost no obstructive apnea or hypopneas. It mostly consist of Clear airway events.
I´ve read that this can be quite normal for new CPAP users. Should I just ignore these events for now or do you have some pointers on how I can lower them?
Next I also see some large leaks. I´m using nasal pillows which seems to fit very well. So I´m thinking this is air leaking through my mouth. I knew from the beginning I was a big snorer and mouth breather so I have been taping my mouth every night with Cover roll stretch / Fixomull Stretch.
But as I have a beard I have to put the tape on my lips to get it to stick, and I´m not getting a 100% seal at the corner of the mouth where theres hair, where I guess the air can escape. Do you think my assumption is correct or could the large leaks have to do with something else? Any tips on how to solve it would be much appreciated.
Is the leaks and Clear airways linked somehow?
Can you see anything else obvious in my graphs/data? I take all feeback and pointers I can get on how to analyse it and optimise my sleep.
I also have the data from the O2ring imported to OSCAR, if that could help?
I´m going to meticulously read the OSCAR guide to start upping my knowledge as this is very new to me.
Thanks!
This is my first post on this forum. I´ve been lurking around as unregistered since I got my OSA diagnose this year, to soak up as much info as possible. I´m very glad I found this community.
I´m a 38-M, 24 BMI. After years of snoring, slowly feeling more and more tired, getting diagnosed with depression last year. I got a refferal to a sleep clinic by my doctor, they put me on an at home sleep study around Christmas.
Got the results back in February pointing to severe obstructive sleep apnea (32 AHI). Got the choice of MAD or CPAP, choose the CPAP. I was handed a Resmed Airsense 11 about a week ago and have been using it since.
First night was pretty tough, didnt get much sleep but the data from my O2ring (I bought one some weeks after getting the apnea diagnose as I´m quite data driven and analytical by nature) showed the SpO2 rate being much more stable than before.
The nights after have been pretty OK in regards to getting used to the mask (DreamWear nasal pillows) and the sound of the machine etc, no issues getting to sleep and I have slept through the whole nights, though I´m still quite tired during the days.
I´ve exported all data to OSCAR since the first day of course, but even though I´m pretty analytical I´m having a bit of a hard time interpreting eveything in the reports and realising theres so much to learn.
My machine was set up like this from start:
APAP, Min 8 - Max 20
Ramp time 5
EPR 1 on Ramp only
Ramp time 5 min
Climate settings Auto
I´ve changed the EPR to 2 on Full time just to get a feel of the difference. Felt a slight increase in sleeping comfort.
I also changed the Climate settings as the air going into my nose during the first nigh was way to hot/humid for my liking. I´ve turned down the hose temp from Auto to 24C but kept the humidity to Auto, this felt much better.
So when I try to interpret the data I can see my AHI is much improved but still quite high (6.24 last night, attached screen shot), but it´s almost no obstructive apnea or hypopneas. It mostly consist of Clear airway events.
I´ve read that this can be quite normal for new CPAP users. Should I just ignore these events for now or do you have some pointers on how I can lower them?
Next I also see some large leaks. I´m using nasal pillows which seems to fit very well. So I´m thinking this is air leaking through my mouth. I knew from the beginning I was a big snorer and mouth breather so I have been taping my mouth every night with Cover roll stretch / Fixomull Stretch.
But as I have a beard I have to put the tape on my lips to get it to stick, and I´m not getting a 100% seal at the corner of the mouth where theres hair, where I guess the air can escape. Do you think my assumption is correct or could the large leaks have to do with something else? Any tips on how to solve it would be much appreciated.
Is the leaks and Clear airways linked somehow?
Can you see anything else obvious in my graphs/data? I take all feeback and pointers I can get on how to analyse it and optimise my sleep.
I also have the data from the O2ring imported to OSCAR, if that could help?
I´m going to meticulously read the OSCAR guide to start upping my knowledge as this is very new to me.
Thanks!
