Incredible! Another night less than AHI of 2!
I slept for 7 hours before getting up to pee. Sorta went back to sleep.
Since you work with Zooms, here is the one that looked interesting to me.
A couple of interesting articles came up today.
"If You Want to Feel Young And Rejuvenated, One Habit Is Key HEALTH 03 April 2024 ByCARLY CASSELLA" The habit is sleep! Makes you feel 5 years younger! I can't thank you enough for the help! https://www.sciencealert.com/if-you-want-to-feel-young-and-rejuvenated-one-habit-is-key
The second article is by Joseph Mercola. He wrote the book on Keto diet that was the largest seller in the country. He may have excluded bibles which have topped the list for decades. He is issuing a warning about the problem with excess avoidance of carbs. In my Health quest, one area that is so full of contradictions that I have yet to sort out is diet. This article argues for a more expansive diet. It is interesting to see Dale Bredesen now recommending a Mediterranean diet rather than a struct keto diet and measurement of keto in his books.
"Consequences of Low-Carb Diets" by a guest writer https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/04/02/consequences-of-low-carb-diets.aspx?
So sorry to hear about your deficiency. I had never heard of it and it is a life threatening condition.
I now understand why you have spent so much time on CPAP and OSCAR so that you can diagnose and recommend changes. With other things going on I have not spent as much time to much better figure out the condition and the readings from the graphs -- enough so in the future I can be able to adjust as needed.
I slept straight through for about 6 and one half hours. Then a break. I think the apnea score went down from over 2 to slightly under 2.
What do the graphs tell you today?
Another good night. I went to bathroom but didn't put mask back on so a blank period.
Watching some videos on how to read the graphs and the definitions of the terms CSR, OA, H, etc has been very helpful. Then a long video on Central Sleep Apnea by an MD. I bought an excellent medical reference book "Elements of Pathophysiology" which is a book for nurses. I am going to read the pages on breathing and ventilation. The book is available from Thrift Books for a few dollars and they pay for shipping. I bought it used a couple of years ago at the early stages of Health Activism and paid about $70 for a used volume. An older volume would still be good. When I was going all out I bought "Handbook of Internal Medicine" which comes in at 2,000 pages. Only looked at it a little bit. Might do that now as well.
Victory! AHI 0,87 At the bottom of the left hand column, in yellow, is 6 hr. 15m . I think that is the time I was asleep. I woke up about that time to go to the bathroom, returned to bed but didn't sleep.
I can't thank you enough.
How many people have you guided through the maze to CPAP success? Surely, I was not the first.
The other day I mentioned the importance of dealing with a common issue to many diseases, metabolism, and this morning an article arrived about one of the conditions that will be the cause of our death. I am sending this because the supplement, GABA, is mentioned and I am just starting to take it now that the CPAP data looks solid, and CPAP scores are excellent.
"Alzheimer's Is Now a Leading Cause of Death Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola April 06, 2024" https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/04/06/alzheimers-death-rate.aspx?
Another great night! Machine settings not changed.
Here are the other changes of note.
Our local opera company is putting on a totally new version of Mozart's "The Magic Flute." My wife has been an opera fan for years and in the beginning she had to drag me to concerts. To get ready for "The Magic Flute" in our local opera company in Columbus, OH, she checked out dvd of earlier versions and so far we have watched 2 in order for me to get a sense of the story.
Operas are often restaged moving from a time and a story when first performed to another time and place and sometimes story but original words sung. Actually what Operas do is to take one to a different time and place with the story, the drama and music and of course, singing. Sometimes operas underdo radical change, not only of time and place but rewriting the words of the songs requiring note by note fidelity to the original score. When they change the words or the language, they keep the music the same which means that the singing vocalizations is also congruent with the score, so they have to go through vowel by vowel and assure they remain the same.
This is related to the sleep report because I fell asleep watching the movie for between 30 and 40 minutes. That was shortly before I went to bed. I have not taken naps the last 5 days.
The other change last night was taking the supplement gaba before bedtime.
Well, excellent but could be better, I suspect. At the bottom of the left side material is a yellow area 5 hr 40 min and a blue area 2 hr 44 min.
When I did go the bathroom the AHI was around 1.6
Any insights looking at the graphs? Any suggestions about changes? I continued to take GABA but not sure if any influence.
Another great night! Some little things.
I have not washed the cushion for 13 days. How often should it be washed?
Heater set at 6 and I have 1/4 of water left in the morning
I looked at some statistics on average pressure
week 10.32 30 days 10.80 6 mo. 11.29 1 year 11.63
And as you well know, the 6 months and 1 year are not valid because mask seal was terrible.
The last 2 nights I have had terrible food. The standard American diet. Do things like diet influence sleep that quickly?
Only today am I going to begin exercise again. The accident threw me out of practice and I have just not done it.
It looks like the bad stuff happened just before I got out of bed. I recall trying to sleep on my side I may have disturbed the mask.
Did a lot of running around today to get a back up camera installed. All Best Buy calls go to India and when I started I didn't know what I was doing so had to cancel order, more runaround from India, posted the credit card, sent an alert to credit card company because it is a change from India, got caught in the middle of IT - - so finally drove over to the store and it was necessary to talk to the technician because some special wiring required.
Confession: I have many times said that I was going to exercise. So far, I have failed to follow though. Today.
And also include the full evening. Without OSCAR I would have not have known the effect of my actions in the last few minutes because 2.98 in itself is a very good reading.
Unplanned experiment with a good outcome!
I forgot to put on the collar and guess what, I was awarded AHI of 19!!! When I went to the bathroom and saw 26 or so, I realized that I didn't have the collar on. I left it off for the rest of the night.
So with adjusted pressure settings, starting pressure, and all the other things you suggested, without the collar I failed. So important to lean this.
There are so many variables that a solid result like this is delicious. Wear collar from now on!!!
After 2 hours my AHI was 1.6. It looks like the machine was off for about 45 minutes. I must not have restarted it.
I didn't reseat either my cushion or my neck collar.
Would it be best to take both off when I go to the bathroom and put them on again?
I went to bathroom 3x, together with not reseating mask or neck collar and that may be the reason for the activity in the morning.
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.
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.
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.
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.
