help with optimizing AHI--positional apnea?!?

[jdougc]

How did it feel with the wedge and leg pillow, was your sleep better?
Often we use APAP mode to zero in on the best constant CPAP pressure, that will hopefully lower the CAs.
You are almost there.
Try raising your minimum pressure to 8cm, but leave ramp alone for comfort.
Lower your maximum to just under your 95%, try 11.2 cm.
The machine won't have to increase from a such  lower value to treat events and the less pressure swings might let you sleep better.
Good luck

[APAPpy]

jdougc, you seem to enjoy suggesting people set their min pressure to 8 or above, but I had terrible results with that when you suggested it to me. I toughed it out an entire week to see if, as you suggested, it was just a question of getting "acclimated" to the pressure but it took me from consistent sub 0.5 AHIs to consistent AHIs above 1.5

[jdougc]

The goal is to find the sweet spot and get to a constant pressure, imo
Your numbers may increase slightly as you get acclimated, maybe more CAs, but that is to be expected as your body gets used to the change.
Many people have microarousals or arousals as the pressure swings up and down.
Sorry if you had a few bad nights, but how did you sleep really, without looking at numbers? That is what you should do 1st, see how you feel, better, foggy or something else. But since the machine and Oscar have numbers, we end up chasing them.
My AHI has been 0.00 a few nights recently, but my sleep was fragmented and I was very tired.
Please post a few charts and we can see and more experienced people can correct anything out or order.

[APAPpy]

I don't want to hijack this person's therapy thread, but suffice to say I've been bringing it down incrementally (I'm at min 7.2 now) and had an AHI of 0.22 yesterday. I feel more refreshed than I did at 8

[jdougc]

APAPpy,
Please start your own thread with charts or add your successful charts to your existing threads then.
We don't know your machine settings, if you use EPR, ramp or anything, just saying you are dropping from 8 to 7.2 without a history is meaningless. Good luck though.

[Tsukuyomi]

How did it feel with the wedge and leg pillow, was your sleep better?
Often we use APAP mode to zero in on the best constant CPAP pressure, that will hopefully lower the CAs.
You are almost there.
Try raising your minimum pressure to 8cm, but leave ramp alone for comfort.
Lower your maximum to just under your 95%, try 11.2 cm.
The machine won't have to increase from a such  lower value to treat events and the less pressure swings might let you sleep better.
Good luck

I think this is the second time you've suggested "Try raising your minimum pressure to 8cm" but as you can see my minimum pressure is 10.

Maybe you meant raising the starting pressure during ramp?

[jdougc]

I mostly just look at the flow rate graph, so that probably won't be the last time I make this mistake.
I was trying to get you to go to a tighter pressure range like 10 to 11.2, just below your 95%.
Your obstructive apnea is fair, this change may lower your CAs and give you  a restful night.
You could raise your ramp pressure to 7.6, if you are starved for air at the start .

[APAPpy]

I mostly just look at the flow rate graph, so that probably won't be the last time I make this mistake.

LOL you post that after telling me to post my graph or shut up 

And by the way, the first time you sent me chasing min 8cm pressure, it was because I *had* posted my graph.

[jdougc]

APAPpy , I should have gone to your therapy thread and looked closely at your history, my mistake.
Sorry for your subsequent struggle.  
Please update your thread with charts and how you slept.
I would never tell anyone to shut up.

[Tsukuyomi]

this one was strange. I've been getting scores in the 2-4 range this week, usually due to 1 large positional cluster.

but last night, I had scattered events that don't look positional and pressure didn't go up to max that often.