Oscar chart

Congratulations on starting with Oscar! What jumps out at me is the extent to which your obstructive apneas come in clusters. I'm going to guess you tend to tuck your chin down toward your chest some of the time. This kinks your airway just enough to make OAs easier to occur.

The first line of attack would be to make sure you're using a fairly low, firm pillow. If you use a high pillow, or several pillows, try making a change and see what happens.

If that doesn't help, then your next experiment would be wearing a soft cervical collar to bed. This would help you keep your neck and head in a good alignment.

I think one natural question would be whether to raise your maximum pressure. You hit the ceiling enough of the time for that to be a reasonable option. But if chin-tucking is the problem, higher pressure is not likely to work.

If you don't like the pillow and collar experiments, though, you could make your first experiment raising your maximum to 20. The machine won't go all the way up unless it has to.

Either way, I'd make one other suggestion, and that is to raise your ramp minimum to 7 so you can get the benefit of your EPR right from the start of the night. (EPR drops your pressure; your EPR is 3; and the lowest the machine can go is 4.)

I have a couple pillows so I will try with just the firmest one. I don't know if I tuck my chin or not but I definitely toss and turn a lot and change positions. I also ordered a 'cpap pillow' that is supposed to work with the mask don't know if that will help. I can look into the cervical collar is there one specifically for sleep?

I can raise the max pressure or at least the min ramp pressure, I didn't realize you could do that. My only issue is that I am not used to the air blowing in my face and I don't know if it will be too much to start. I also feel like I'm readjusting the mask a lot to get the air to stop blowing around it and out of it. I don't know what "leak' level is acceptable. Last night machine said 10L/m.

And now the I put the SD card back in the machine it is giving me an error message telling me to take it back out, so I must be doing that wrong . It is maybe just finicky.

Thanks so much for input and advice, I really appreciate it!

jumblegirl wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:31 pm

an error message

Can you give us the exact message?

About leaks: your machine can compensate for leaks of up to 24, probably even higher. Judging from the chart you posted, in that sense you're doing fine. But a leak that wakes you up is a problem leak, even if it is tiny, so working on mask issues will be important no matter what the leak rate.

There aren't any special night-time collars, so anything that looks comfortable and would stabilize your neck would be fine. I hope you'll find the special PAP pillow useful too.

A fair number of people feel a bit air-starved at a pressure below 6 or 7. If it feels fine to you, and if you don't miss the full EPR, it's fine to leave things where they are. But you can change your ramp minimum if you'd like to experiment. Just press and hold the home button and the round dial at the same time to get into the "clinician's menu."

A question for you: do you breathe through your mouth during the day, or through your nose? I'm wondering about your need for a full-face mask.

jumblegirl wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:31 pm

And now the I put the SD card back in the machine it is giving me an error message telling me to take it back out, so I must be doing that wrong . It is maybe just finicky.

could you tell us what the error msg actually says, should it happen again?

You probably had it LOCKED. There is a small tab on the side of the SD Card. Be sure to slide that towards the shiny pins on the end of the SD Card.
If the message said READ ONLY, that is what happened.
Happens to me all the time.

jumblegirl wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:31 pm

I can look into the cervical collar is there one specifically for sleep?

Here are some examples - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=foam+cervica ... -doa-p_1_8

I would start out with a 3.0 to 3.5-inch collar. 3.0 if you are tiny, 3.5 if you are not.

I don’t remember the exact error message just that it said to remove the SD card so I did and then put it back in. And is fine now. I must’ve put it in wrong. It’s kind of awkward I don’t remember SD cards being this hard to put in cameras when they used them.

Another question do you change the humidifier water daily or only when it is below minimum.

How do I change the time on the Resmed 11 it’s showing gmt -5 which I think is east coast, I am west. It says ‘the time come can’t be changed while there is saved therapy data’ ( it says that even if I take out the SD card)

jumblegirl wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 6:37 pm

How do I change the time on the Resmed 11 it’s showing gmt 5 which I think is east coast, I am west. It says ‘the time come can’t be changed while there is saved therapy data’ ( it says that even if I take out the SD card)

On the AirSense 11 machine you can't change the time unless you erase all your prior data first.

Now you can adjust the time with some trickery using OSCAR clock drift function.
Go to preferences/CPAP tab/and you can see the clock drift.

Lots of people just top up the water... not much point in dumping it unless it's very old.

jumblegirl wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 6:29 pm

Another question do you change the humidifier water daily or only when it is below minimum.

through no fault of your own, you may have just started what has been a long "battle" here on the forum! different folks do this different ways and each will tell you their way is best.

so i'll get MINE in first. i use distilled water. i add new water when the water level gets the lowest. i do this because i'm lazy and it's what works best for me. it is NOT essential to use distilled water. i do it so that i keep the times between cleaning the tank stretched as far as possible. with distilled water, my mineral buildup takes a very, very long time. and i only clean it when i can see that buildup.

now, cover your ears (eyes?) while the debate rages anew!

(Note I tried to upload the screenshot but it said board quota was full) I don't know what is going on with the Oscar chart, it seems to split it into 2 periods of time and then gives 3 different AHIs and I don't know which one to use? Also a lot of events right before I wake up that say CA, is that actually central apnea or just clear airway event? Machines says AHI 7.1 and Central AI 4.4. I was really good about keeping the mask on all night so I am kind of disappointed it didn't make much difference that I can see.

another screenshot of different timeframe (unable to upload any screenshots see error message below)

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Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached.