DonMidwest

Started CPAP 13 years ago so it might have been 20 years of disturbed sleep. Early days of CPAP worked OK

Average of 7 hrs per day last week. Had not done that for years.

No naps in over a week.

As noted in the first post, I was beside myself because I could only see failure on the horizon. Sleeppy doctors did nothing.

Never consistently had AHI less than 5. Only occasionally.

Learned so much and need to learn more. Still not that good at understanding the graphs.

I will check back in a week if things go smoothly as we suspect,

If there is a breakdown I will contact you that day.

Another great night. I put in a screen shot with the device settings so you can see them. Are we at the point of going for a few days and check in only if something strange happens? Or, are there more fine tuning adjustments that you recommend.

Another very good night.

I washed off the cushion. It looks like we should stay on this course for a while longer to see if it stabilizes at these settings

Another good night. Slept almost 7 hours straight through. Should I stay the course for a while longer?

Some not so good news. Got up early and went with daughter in law for a robot competition her for my 12 year old granddaughter.

I had an aphasia, a speech TIA that lasted about 5 minutes. Before that I had a sense that something was not right and gave my daughter in law to be on the lookout. Fine now. Did not go to doctor. Had a head and neck scan a couple years ago and they found nothing.

It looks like I didn't restart the machine after I went to the bathroom. I thought that it would start automatically. That interval of machine off is over an hour. That meant that I was breathing into the mask for over an hour with no pressure assist. I was in a degraded breathing state.

The CSR happened when the machine realized that it needed to restart and did it automatically.

Is this a reasonable view? Even with this a very good night. Without the hour off it would have been a night over 8 hours and approaching 9 hours. I have not slept that long for years.

Interesting night. I need to write down data from the Airsense 10 window when I go to the bathroom. As I recall, I got up at elapsed time of something like 4.4 hours.

There is a gap in pressure and flow between 22:40 approximately and 00.12 approximately. I was asleep. You mentioned that might be a time when the mask was dislodged. I sleep on my back almost all the time and wake up on my back so something happened. Any more ideas? Should I tighten the mask straps? I must have been breathing during that time.

Or maybe I was sleep walking and got up and went to the bathroom. Going to the bathroom requires shutting down the CPAP machine and disconnecting the hose at the same time because of the automatic start.

I have included another graph of different variables.

After I wake up for the major bathroom break, I sometimes do breathing exercises to relax and go back to sleep. I know that CO2 is the gas that regulates breathing. Some of the authors I read say that there is a need to increase CO2 for health reasons. One exercise is breathing in a paper bag. Last night I used a modified 4 6 8 routine. Not sure about the magic numbers and didn't follow faithfully. But the strategy is to breath in quickly, 4, hold breath for a longer time, 6, and then exhale, 8, to maximize the CO2.

Does this explain the graphs for these variables? Title volume, Insp. time, Exp. time?

Here is how I can tell if I went to the bathroom in that first 15 minute break. I may have have mentioned that I have an artificial unitary sphincter to control leakage as a result of prostate cancer removal surgery. The nylon device is implanted. There is a bulb in my scrotum that when squeezed sends air pressure to open up the sphincter on the urethrae. It takes two hands to operate the device. Left hand to hold the top tube out of the bulb to stabilize the device and the right hand to squeeze the bulb. I have to stand up because if I sit down there is not enough gravity to empty my bladder and I leak on my PJs. I made an artificial urinal by cutting out a section of a 1 gallon plastic water jug. I use my pinkie (left smallest finger) on the left side of my hand, putting it in the handle of the jug, and the rest of the fingers on the left hand to hold the top tube, and then using the right hand to squeeze the bulb and aim. I can empty the the jug each time. So when I get up after say 5 hours, I can tell if I got up earlier and went to the bathroom earlier.

Given all the stuff around my head: cushion, frame and cervical collar, it might be sleepwalking.

Biggest score in a few days. Lots of CA and several OA. Suggestions?

I sent a MyChart message to my sleepy doctor to ask if the Mask Fitting had the new F40 masks. Have not heard back. The MD and sleep group are related and not related if you understand. A totally different company provides supplies. They don't carry F40 yet. Because of your help I could probably get by with my F30i, but the F40 looks better.

I heard back from Dr. A Wells. She thanked me for the information on OSCAR, she will look into OSCAR, glad that I am doing well, and she had heard about Lefty Lanky 27. My response was I was not particularly found of Lefty Lanky 27, but he is someone who works with OSCAR I found on the web. I suggested she look for someone else to work with. I wished her well on her CPAP Mask class that begins today. I did not sign up.

What? "pretty good." It is beyond anything I had hoped for. (joke + truth)

I am sure you don't know but I will ask. Is the Gaba helping? You can wait until tomorrow to respond.

For sure I am going to hold tight to the current settings.

Well you said stay the course and see how things turn out. The previous night's AHI had been 3.15 and then up to 3.62 the night before last night.

And last night it was 0.92!!!! First time below 1 as I recall. It is nice that there is not much to see on the graph.

Well another night. Is it time to change the limits?

I don't know what happened at about 0:42. I thought I was asleep until about 05:25. I don't think that there was time to go to the bathroom. Or maybe there was time. Or maybe I was sleepwalking.

Would you like to see the details about 01:45?

I sent an email to Dr A Wells. She responded. I sent a long email with a copy of OSCAR graphic. I ended the email that now I can reliably get AHI of 2 and I don't think I could have achieved that with her course. She had heard about OSCAR but had not worked with it. I'll let you know if she responds. I mentioned lefty lanky 27 as a sleep technician on the web who works with patients using OSCAR. She is now in a bind. She has been exposed to a path that will help patients and it will change her practice. A cartoon I saw today was the new Hippocratic Oath: Don't do anything that risks your career.