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Marlow's Therapy
#11
RE: Marlow's Therapy
Marlow welcome to the forum!

My story--not that it's important, but perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.

I was diagnosed 30-35 years ago. Severe sleep apnea. I got a Respironics brick, a hose, a humidifier and a nasal pillows mask I used for 5 years. I moved to Toronto during that period and met the-sleep-doc-from-he**. First words--If I'm not compliant he would yank my driver's license. Lesson learned--don't tell him anything. I learned other lessons; none favourable. brick means that it had no sd card in it. It simply said how many hours I had it turned on.

Making a long story short, I found this forum. I listened to a lot of suggestions. However, my treatment finally became effective when I started to implement the suggestions.

I bought the machine recommended. Recently. Humidifier. Hose (heated). and two fancy chinstraps I sometimes use.

I've started feeling better now. However, before I learned to listen, I can count the number of nights sleep on the fingers of one had that I had that made me feel better using my old sleep docs recommendations.

Hope this helps.
DaveL
compliant for 35 years /// Still trying!

I'm just a cpap user like you. I don't give medical advice. Seek the advice of a physician before seeking treatment for medical conditions including sleep apnea. Sleep-well

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php..._The_Guide

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#12
RE: Marlow's Therapy
Thank you, Gideon and Dave. Your responses were amusing and helpful. In this instance, it is good to be reminded that the medical system does not care about me.

I'm not sure how the WatchPAT measured respiratory effort. I was not wearing an effort belt. Just an oxygen sensor on my finger, connected to a watch on my wrist, connected to 1 sensor taped on my chest right under my sternal notch. But yes allegedly it caught 4.7 central events per hour. Of course, my doctor did not mention this to me (see above point about the medical system).

I will try out Sleeprider's suggestions tonight. Thank you all!
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#13
RE: Marlow's Therapy
DaveL, thank you for the welcome and for sharing your story. I'm glad you're feeling better now. I am definitely planning to implement the suggestions from this forum. I trust the forum pros here more than my doctor. I just wanted to make sure I don't accidentally do something that gets my machine taken away. 

What I've learned as a patient with several chronic illnesses is that many doctors are not to be trusted and will make things worse, and fellow patients with a lot of experience often know better. I will be selective about what I tell my doctors. I appreciate your input.
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#14
RE: Marlow's Therapy
FWIW, I think some of the over-the-top language in the paperwork is there because of the Legal Department seeking to mitigate or eliminate possible risk whether real or imagined. Don't sweat it.
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#15
RE: Marlow's Therapy
clownbell, that's a very good point. I always forget lawsuits are a thing people do. Thank you.
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#16
RE: Marlow's Therapy
Hi everyone. I implemented the suggestions last night (min pressure of 7, max of 12, EPR on full time at 2). I have attached screenshots of my OSCAR report. The green vertical line on the 1st screenshot is when I went to bed with the new pressures & EPR (around 6:24 am). 2nd screenshot is today from noon to 4:30. I have noticed since I started using CPAP that most of my events happen in the latter half of the night, which was the case last night as well. The 3rd screenshot is an 11-minute zoom on my events from 4:05 pm - 4:16 pm. I was awakened at 4:30 pm by my alarm.

Qualitatively - I enjoyed the EPR. It was much easier to breathe out and I did not wake up today feeling muscle soreness/tightness in my chest from the effort of breathing out against full pressure all night. I also do not remember being awakened by my mask farting from higher pressure, which happened most previous nights recently.

Other info that may be relevant:
I tend to try to sleep on my sides, as that is most comfortable for me. Because I am wearing the f30i mask, sleeping on my side tends to smush one of the air tubes on the side of my face, and it can be difficult to keep the mask cushion positioned correctly.

I tried the n30i mask for a few hours on 8/24/2021 but switched back to f30i in the middle of the night due to discomfort. My nasal passages are sensitive, I have dealt with allergies & congestion my whole life, and n30i seemed to make my nasal passages hurt & increase congestion from the full force up my nose. It also rubbed on the outside of my nose which was uncomfortable. I am getting some Rhinase gel to try, as I would be interested in trying the n30i again. I also used to be a 24/7 mouth breather before PAP. Now I breathe through my nose most of the night and most of the day; however, I do sometimes wake up to find my mouth slightly open inside the f30i mask cushion.

I would be glad to hear your takes on the new screenshots. Thank you for all of your help.


Attached Files Thumbnail(s)
           
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#17
RE: Marlow's Therapy
Just a possibility on that cluster of Centrals on that split chart at roughly 1530, the purple blob that ends that segment may be SWJ/Sleep Wake Junk. Does alternating between sleep and wake sound plausible there? If yes, you could mentally disregard that and label it SWJ.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#18
RE: Marlow's Therapy
SarcasticDave, yes I think at 15:30 on September 5 I was likely in Sleep Wake Junk. That was when I was still on the settings of 6-16 pressure with no EPR.

Last night was my 2nd night using Sleeprider's recommended settings (min 7, max 12, EPR 2 full-time). I've attached new screenshots from September 6 and September 7. For both of these screenshots I was on the new settings the whole time.

Anyone have thoughts or recommendations?


Attached Files Thumbnail(s)
       
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#19
RE: Marlow's Therapy
(09-05-2021, 10:12 PM)Marlow Wrote: Thank you, Gideon and Dave. Your responses were amusing and helpful. In this instance, it is good to be reminded that the medical system does not care about me.

I'm not sure how the WatchPAT measured respiratory effort. I was not wearing an effort belt. Just an oxygen sensor on my finger, connected to a watch on my wrist, connected to 1 sensor taped on my chest right under my sternal notch. But yes allegedly it caught 4.7 central events per hour. Of course, my doctor did not mention this to me (see above point about the medical system).

I will try out Sleeprider's suggestions tonight. Thank you all!

I hope that when I serve as a bad example it helps others make the right choice:  take control. Be your own advocate and your treatment will improve immensely.

DaveL
Toronto
DaveL
compliant for 35 years /// Still trying!

I'm just a cpap user like you. I don't give medical advice. Seek the advice of a physician before seeking treatment for medical conditions including sleep apnea. Sleep-well

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php..._The_Guide

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#20
RE: Marlow's Therapy
The guaranteed randomness of CA is having your AHI jump all over. So you may want to close your eyes to some aspects of your data for a bit. Leak rates are good.

Do you feel OK with the results of therapy? Try this, without looking at data for a second, tell us how you feel for the therapy. What's going good and what's not? We know it's going to look ugly sometimes due to CA.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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