NewlyDiagnosed therapy thread

[NewlyDiagnosed]

Oscar results from the part of the night that was recorded.

[Sleeprider]

Your leaks are following the pressure. With EPR 3 you need a minimum pressure of 3. I think you can cut maximum pressure to 10 or 11 if that will make things easier. Tightening up the pressure range should help.

[NewlyDiagnosed]

Thank you!  My current settings are 6-13.4, EPR 3, ramp off.  Your suggestion is to reduce the maximum pressure to 10 or 11?  I can see that the leaks start when the pressure approaches 10.  I'll try that tonight.

[Sleeprider]

My suggestion is also to raise the minimum to 7.0.

[NewlyDiagnosed]

Will do! Thank you so much.

[NewlyDiagnosed]

CPAP is working well enough now that I have no problem with compliance, but I am still dealing with leakage, clusters of events, and waking up during the night. I've been using nasal pillows for the last few nights (Nuance Pro), medium until last night, when I tried the small and thought that it was a better fit.

I'm attaching results from Tuesday night (medium pillows), when I had 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep, and then an apnea event which seemed to wake me up, an hour of bad sleep with multiple events, then over an hour of good sleep, and I was sleeping deeply when the alarm woke me. Last night I used the small pillows, started out with pretty good sleep interrupted twice by apneas that woke me. I changed the max pressure from 10 to 11, then seemed to sleep badly with multiple events.

Both nights, I taped my mouth, but last night the tape came off at one point and I replaced it with a different type that didn't work as well. Most of the time I sleep flat on my back without moving, but I did sleep on my side for some periods on Tuesday night, I think. It's hard to remember positions, taping events, etc., in the morning.

Any suggestions?

[NewlyDiagnosed]

Oscar results

[NewlyDiagnosed]

Does anyone have an opinion on my Oscar results?  Pressure range, ramp, etc., have been the same for quite a while.  I've been tinkering with mouth taping, position, etc., changing only one thing at a time.  Currently I'm using the nasal pillows and taping my mouth using kinesiology tape.  The tape covers only the center of my mouth, leaving the corners open, so it's not complete (I leave the corners open so that I can drink water through a straw).  I am sleeping flat on my back, but following a post I saw from Deborah, I believe, I now have my pillow positioned so that my head is tilted slightly backward.  I think this has helped.  I've had some nights of insomnia and broken sleep, and a few where I took the mask off after a few hours, but now I'm having good nights of 6+ hours more often, with 8 hours last night for the first time in many, many years.  I always wake up once to drink water and use the bathroom but usually go right back to sleep. 

I still have some leaking, I believe through my mouth but it's possible that it's from the pillows.  I do plan to try the Dreamports again because there are absolutely no leaks from the nose when I wear them.  The pollen is awful and the skin near my nostrils is a bit irritated so I am waiting for that to clear up. 

My flow limits have been coming down, and last night for the first time the 95% level was below 0.1.  I see very few events.  Should I worry about the brief periods of leaking?   I have a soft cervical collar and will try that soon.  I also will try the tongue training method I've seen here.  I'd like to avoid complete mouth taping, and it would be nice to get rid of it completely.

I am so grateful for the help I've gotten here.  I'm now in my compliance period (the company that manages this for my insurance company has called a couple of times to tell me how great my usage is these days, and someone told me that my 30 day compliance period would start on May 29).  I'm a bit worried because I'm leaving for a 10-day trip in a couple of weeks, so will have to deal with traveling with the system and using it at a friend's house and at a hotel.  I'm worried both because I now don't want to sleep without the machine, and I don't want to mess up my usage during the compliance period.  But unless I can't use it at all while I'm gone (very unlikely) I will be fine.

[Dormeo]

You're doing such a good job of solving problems!

My suspicion is that you're seeing mouth leaks. If they don't wake you up and aren't *much* above 24, they are harmless. (When they get to around 30, the machine will have trouble compensating and will also have trouble identifying any events you might be having.)

But here's a thought. Perhaps you need to drink water at night because your mouth has dried out from mouth leaks. It might be worth trying full taping to see whether you have less need for water.

A different approach might be to use full taping, pull back a corner to sip your water, then use a small extra piece of tape to buttress the corner where you pulled the long piece of tape back.

[NewlyDiagnosed]

Thank you, Dormeo! I forgot to mention that my mouth has been incredibly dry, like nothing I've ever experienced, with the nasal pillows and partial mouth taping. I will try full taping as you suggest, and maybe I won't have to drink so much water.

I'm also wondering if the cervical collar would eliminate the need for taping. I think I've seen posts to that effect. I'll try this one of these days (I only change one factor at a time).