ericj

My initial AHI was 6.8, with most of those Hypopneas (Hs), followed by CAs, then distantly by OAs (even though my diagnosis is OSA). I have some machine data from when it was good to great after adjusting my minimum pressure, then I forgot to stick the card back in so I don’t know what changed except for the last two nights. It started getting worse on Tuesday night before a visit to my doctor to get another mask to try out, giving me an embarrassing 1.8, which the tech said was great since most just aim for under 5 (which I can beat by just sleeping on my side without a CPAP).

• Tuesday: 1.8 (unknown composition, worst I’ve seen since starting)
• Wednesday: 0.6 (2 hours with a P10 mask that kept waking me before I removed it due to nostril pain and switched back to my Mirage FX)
• Thursday: 3.4 (stuck the card back in before this one, it’s almost all CAs)
• Friday: 1.9 (with nearly 10 hours asleep, similar to Thursday)

Looking through the data over time, at the original starting pressure I was seeing a fair number of my baseline types, but after turning the starting pressure up to just under the mean it was nothing but the occasional CA (roughly the number of centrals I had in my study); OAs were gone and Hs were rare (maybe a couple a night, but usually none). My CAs are now higher than they started and the other types remain low to nonexistent.

Are these bogus CAs? Is the CPAP teaching my brain to be lazier when asleep? What is going on here?

I can tell when I had a bad night like Thursday because CPAP seems to reduce my headaches, but it is doing absolutely nothing for my daytime fatigue/sleepiness. If anything, the original complaint that led to my diagnosis is getting worse...

How much data does it collect each night? I would love to see what it actually shows. Last night it claimed 0L/min, which sounds strange since I ran the mask the loosest I’ve ever run it.

I like that the mirage allows me to adjust the angle with the upper straps so it stopped blowing in my eyes. The full face mask didn’t blow in my eyes, but the machine said it lost the most air. It also has a different attachment piece that lets a lot of air out, so I’m wondering if that caused the difference in readings.

I’ll have to try some more. I remember finding the nasal pillow mask being quite uncomfortable when they tested one on me during my first sleep study. That said, they do look less intrusive and if I could get my nostrils used to them, they might work. Will have to see what options I have there.

Hello there, my name is Eric and I’m 37 years old. I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea a little over a year ago due to the extreme daytime sleepiness that I’ve lived with for almost a decade. Couldn’t afford to do anything about it, but this year I found that I couldn’t get life insurance, so I was forced to do something due to the diagnosis.

The sleep study this year showed the same AHI as the last one at 6.8, which are mostly hypopnea events. The thing that prompted my going for a study last year was my wife waking me when I stopped breathing as I fell asleep (I stop breathing for ~20s as I fall asleep, apparently, which I didn’t know until she noticed and started waking me when I did it).

This year I have insurance that covers things, including a CPAP. The sleep medicine clinic set me up with an Airsense 10 Autoset and bet on a mirage fx nasal mask working best for me.

As of today, I’ve been using it for four nights. It always gives me a score of 100, which worries me. The worst leaks were with the full face mask and the least I’ve attained was with the nasal mask (claimed no leaking at all last night); my best AHI thus far was last night at 0.5. The FFM also was less comfortable from the air blowing all over my face.

My biggest problem is that it starts pulsing as I fall asleep since I stop breathing as mentioned above, which makes it harder to fall asleep. Beyond that, the first night I felt bloated, but that has gone away. I still have chest and upper back aches all day... On the upside, after the first night I wasn’t yawning all day.

Is it normal that it seems to cause you to lose your appetite? Since starting, I’ve been skipping one meal a day and eating less in general.

I’m new to all this (just finished night 4), but like Sierra, I found that wedging the hose between my pillow and headboard so it comes down from above my head helped considerably the last couple nights. I also prefer to sleep on my sides and rotate throughout the night (the sleep study was horrible because they kept forcing me to lay on my back), so holding the hose down meant I tangled up in it.

On the mouth dryness, again echoing Sierra, you’re probably opening your mouth. You may need a chin strap to keep your mouth closed or might want to try a full face mask. The tech that set me up with my Airsense 10 thought I should use the Mirage FX nasal mask, but I was uncertain I could keep my mouth shut (I have extremely severe nasal allergies, so I mouth breathe when they’re bad), so he loaned me one of the full face masks from their lab so I could test both. The first night with the nasal mask was hell before I went to sleep because I kept opening my mouth and would get air blowing out (I also didn’t get the mask aligned right and it was blowing air around the bridge of my nose and into my eyes). The full face helped with alignment and mouth opening, but it was ultimately worse because it was noisier and the feeling of air going over my face was more annoying.

The numbers it gives are the resulting numbers with the help of the CPAP, as it cannot identify events that didn’t happen due to the added airway pressure. If the AHI it reports is lower than the AHI from your study, it’s helping you.

Another random thing I figured out last night is that movement of the mask isn’t as big a problem as I thought it was initially. Since it was a Saturday, I thought I’d play around and wear it extremely loose to see what would happen. Surprisingly, last night’s stat claimed no air leaks at all, yielded my best AHI number so far, and it is the first time I woke up without red lines on my face. You may want to play with that a bit as well, but the hose position is the first thing I’d try.

Change one thing a night and compare results until you hone in on what works best for you.