Sierra

Well at least you can take that nose hair trimmer off your shopping list!

A few suggestions. You should ask for a hard copy of your sleep study and your prescription for a CPAP. Down the road you will question where you were at when you got into this stuff. And if you live in the US you need a prescription if you want to buy a mask or a machine on line or at another clinic.

The DreamStation CPAP is a basic fixed pressure model. On a quick check of the DreamStation Pro it really does not have much more to offer, and is still fixed pressure. While it varies by country and jurisdiction, at least in Canada the cost of an automatic machine is as little as $30 or so more than a fixed pressure machine. So if you are going to go back for a better machine I would start out by asking for an automatic machine like the DreamStation Auto. Or better still if it is available to you, the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet.

As far as making the machine you have work better for you there are a few things that may help. Based on what I see, this machine should have a SmartRamp feature. This ramps pressure up and then switches to your set pressure when it detects you are asleep. You should also be able to set the pressure the ramp starts at. A pressure that is too low can feel suffocating. A start pressure around 6-7 cm usually feels comfortable to most. If you don't set it, the start pressure likely defaults to 4 cm which is low. The machine also appears to have the Flex option. It reduces pressure somewhat on exhale, which can feel more comfortable. It has a setting of 1-3, with 3 giving more relief on exhale. The issue with it is that it may reduce treatment effectiveness so then you have to increase the set pressure to get the same results, which makes it a bit of a zero sum game. The ResMed machine gives you the option of only using it (EPR) during the ramp period, which tends to work better.

Masks can be difficult. There is a DreamWear mask system which some people like that has three interchangeable inserts that make it into a nasal pillow mask, or nasal mask, or a minimal contact full face mask. What specific mask are you currently using?

And another couple of questions. What pressure is your machine set at? Do you know what AHI you are getting while using the machine? Post back, and we may be able to help you out more.

Very interesting questionnaire. Fortunately I don't take my guns to bed, so my nightmare bears are safe! About the only other issue I have had when I looked through the questions is the leg cramp thing. I still do get that from time to time. That I find very painful.

I am not a medical professional and cannot give you medical advice. The symptoms you describe, snore, stop breathing, and jump awake with acid reflux can be associated with sleep apnea. I would suggest you ask for a quiz screening for apnea and if that is positive try to arrange for an actual sleep apnea test. Here is an example of the quiz tests for sleep apnea.

Stop-Bang and ESS Screening Test

The Jan 7 AHI's look like they match. It must be an issue with data on the card not being right, prior to Jan 7. The MyAir AHI's do look a bit on the high side. Those numbers are most likely to be correct. It still would be helpful to see your Daily Report detail screenshot for Jan 7. May be able to tell you more from there. Make sure to use the Write a Reply button at the bottom of the thread so you get a full screen width to post into.

The ResMed on line (MyAir?) is to my knowledge only reporting the summary data not the detailed data. And you seem to have lost your detailed data except for one night. You should be good going forward now that the SD card seems to be working. Which numbers are you seeing as different? The other possible issue is that SleepyHead does have some bugs which vary depending on the machine used. Your machine type may have some particular bugs in the SleepyHead software. I don't understand why only AHI, OA, and H events are being reported. If you post the Daily Detail screen I may be able to figure out more.

I had the F20 mask and gave up on it after about 4 days. It was starting to irritate the bridge of my nose too, and I couldn't solve the air leaks blowing into my eyes issue. I understand from others that they have solved these issues by using a mask liner of cotton t-shirt material. You can buy them, or make your own apparently. You might want to try a piece of cotton material at the bridge of your nose only to see if that helps. Here is a link to one of the commercial manufacturers of them. I think to buy them, they can be kind of expensive, so that is why people make their own... Probably old t-shirt material is softer too.

Remzzzs Mask Liners

My wife has used it mainly prior to CPAP and said it helps. I don't think she takes it any longer now. I have never tried it. I suspect it is quite safe to use in recommended dosages which your doctor should provide. On a quick Google check it seems taking too much can have a negative effect, so the NHS recommendation is to start low (2 mg) and increase to a maximum of (10 mg) if required, with the objective of taking as little as possible. Other sources suggest starting as low as 0.1 mg! Some links to explore:

Mayo Clinic - Melatonin

The second credible looking link I found is a pdf download, and I can't figure out a direct link for it. It is from the UK NHS, and you will find the link by Googling the following:

Guidelines for the use of Melatonin - NHS

Based on your numbers I think the SD card has not been in the machine or was not working except for the last night. Certain summary data is kept in the machine memory and you appear to have that for some time. That would include the CPAP Usage numbers, and the Therapy Efficacy numbers. Your AHI for Jan 7 was a bit high, but your averages for longer periods look good, providing they are valid. I think there may be a bit of a setup issue in SleeyHead as it is not showing all categories of Apnea events like Clear Airway events. Your Obstructive + Hypopnea events do not add up to the reported AHI number, so something is amiss.

Your Leak Statistics and Pressure Statistics look to be one night only - Jan 7. This makes me think the SD card was missing or bad. There is no real way to recover that, unless you had good data in SleepyHead before you had SD card issues? If you did have good data before let me know and there may be a way...

Your one night leak data was not all that bad. I have seen much worse. The Daily Detail page would show much more. Mouth leaks tend to be isolated with flat tops somewhere above 25 l/min.

If you can post the daily detail page it would be much more helpful in determining how you are doing. If you want to exclude personal details one way is to go into SleepyHead and use File, Edit Profile, and page through the screens using the Next button, and delete those personal details. You cannot change your User Name once you have set up that Profile. The only way is to create a new Profile with a less descriptive first name or nickname. You can probably do that without losing much data. What you have is on your card, so when you create a new profile it will be transferred from your card into the new profile.

If you are using Windows 10, another option is to use the included Snipping Tool. I find it very handy to capture sections of a screenshot (to exclude personal details for example).

No real personal experience other than quite along time ago well before CPAP treatment my wife told me I was yelling in my sleep and asked me what was going on. It was a dream about meeting a bear that was going to charge me and I was yelling to scare it off. Even longer ago I did actually come face to face with two grizzly bears while hunting for moose. They backed off with no shots fired, but the event is probably well recorded in my brain. Fortunately I did not have a heart attack on the spot, but I'm sure I set some records for pulse rate! That said, it has not been any sort of reoccurring issue, and overall I do sleep much better now with a CPAP. My father in law developed Parkinson's later in life which can be related to this REM sleep disorder. He was never diagnosed or treated for apnea but in retrospect I'm sure he had it. He also had issues with circulation which I'm sure were the result of low level but long standing diabetes - also went untreated. He lasted into his 80's before passing due to heart failure.

Here is a link to the Mayo site which provides a little more patient friendly information on the disorder. Note there are tabs at the top for Diagnosis and Treatment, so it is not all on one page. They raise the potential treatment with melatonin and Clonazepam. Melatonin, I'm sure is fairly innocuous, but be very careful of the Clonazepam. It is a member of the Benzodiazepines class of drugs. They can cause or aggravate apnea, and worse still in combinations with opiods can cause death due to respiration failure (lethal apnea!). There is an article in our public broadcaster news currently about someone mixing those drugs and dying as a result. A link..

I hope that helps some. From your other posts I gather you are seeing a neurologist. That would be the right expert in this area. Just watch the drugs and the potential impact on apnea...