New to CPAP therapy questions

[scientific07]

Hi all,

New to therapy and have been reading this board a bit to get acquainted with all the options and settings. Started CPAP about a week ago. Got used to the mask fairly quickly but still not quite settled in with it as can be expected at this point.

I have been getting pretty stable numbers coming back of about 2.3-2.9 and wondering if anything stood out that could be done to improve this. I feel better overall so that is great. I am highly data driven and a chemist by trade so am digging into the numbers quite a bit.

I was going to gather a couple weeks of data prior to posting but wanted to see if there were any intial observations that could provide some insight prior to that.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide. This board seems full of very knowledgable and helpfull people and feel grateful/lucky to have found this community.

   

[staceyburke]

From what I see is flow limits being high. The EPR will help those, howywhen we raise the EPR many people get more centrals. 

I would raise the EPR to 2 and see what effect it has on the number of centrals. give it 2 or 3 days to compare. If the centrals do no go up much move it to 3 again for 2 or 3 days. 

I think your centrals will diminish when your body gets use to the new therapy.

[scientific07]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try increasing the EPR to 2 and then to 3 over a period of nights and see how it goes.

[factor]

I agree with Stacey. Raise the EPR up to 2.

Dont over think the data. You will here it a lot as Don't chase numbers..

Tell us how you feel? Is each day a bit better?

[scientific07]

Good advice and something I will continue to keep in mind. 

I feel a bit better. I assume what I have read in other posts to be true, in that it took a long time to get to here symptom wise, so it will take a bit of time to recover. 

But I do notice differences in energy level and clarity in thought process and wakefulness. So that has been a motivator.

[factor]

Read my story in my signature.  My AHI was 87.  it took 6 week to a few months.  Everyday was better.  You will know because one day you will think to yourself "I feel Like a new man".

[scientific07]

Read through your story. Sounds VERY similar to mine. AHI of 63 before therapy. Snoring that everyone in the house can hear. Finally got tired of being tired. Now I'm here working at this one day at a time.

[factor]

Well we will be here to help you.

[scientific07]

Just checking back in. First night after changing the EPR to 2. Certainly a difference but it seems in the wrong direction. AHI almost doubled and I can feel the difference this morning. Centrals as expected went up. From 2 or 3 on a normal night to 7 last night. 

I will try this setting another couple nights and see if that improves. 

   

[staceyburke]

Centrals are inconsistent meaning one day you have a lot and next day just a few. I would stick with it for a few days. 

Your new Oscar showed something different. It is NOT a lot but looks to me that you had some positional apnea. Positional apnea is when you sleep in a position where you are cutting off your own airway by tucking your chin down to your Sternum. 

This cuts off your airway and there are NO settings that help, you just have to find out why and stay out of that position. Sleeping on your back or to high of a pillow causes chin tucking. 

You did NOT show this in your 1st Oscar and only a couple of times in the new one. You can see positional apnea when there are closely grouped O or H events.