I just got Oscar set up a few days ago. I know I need to have more data to get an overall picture of things, but I noticed something consistent across just 3 days already that I have a question about.
As you can see my OSA events are zero or practically zero across all 3 days, same with Hypopneas. What I noticed though is the high amount of "Clear Airway" events, in purple, pretty consistent across all 3 days.
When I did my sleep study, it was one night, at home, with a chest monitor and finger oximeter. The doctor told me I had mild OSA with 15 AHI. There was no data on the sheet he gave me besides my diagnosis stating my AHI was 15. I did not see any detailed data or graphs, so I'm unsure how much of that was actually OSA vs H vs CA, etc. I would be curious to know if it was all OSA or a mix or what. I would imagine if it was mostly CAs then they wouldn't diagnose me with Obstructive Sleep Apnea and put me on cpap and instead actually talk about brain signals and breathing and central sleep apnea and such..but none of that was brought up so I just assume my sleep study was all OSAs...idk.
It's my understanding CAs are all events where I just stop breathing entirely, different to OSA. I have read some posts in here where people say that you could show little to no signs of OSAs once starting therapy but then develop temporary high CAs as an adjustment to therapy that will go away after a couple months. If all of my events pre therapy were truly OSAs, that would mean that CPAP is working and most of my OSAs have gone away thanks to therapy, and I've most likely developed this influx of temporary CA events.
I've been on CPAP for about 1 1/2-2 months now, with the last 3 ish weeks being able to properly use therapy with a comfortable mask that works for me now. It took some time to find a mask that worked for me so my usage and fiddling with masks in my sleep was kind of inconsistent up until about 3 weeks ago, and I haven't been using Oscar long enough yet to see if these CAs dissipate.
*Also for reference, I was on APAP for the first month of therapy and then at my follow up 2 weeks ago, my doctor set me to a set pressure of 11. I have another follow up in 2 weeks to evaluate CPAP and decide if the pressure needs to be adjusted or if I should go back to APAP or what. I was personally planning on trying to record at least 2 weeks of Oscar data on CPAP at 11 pressure and then switching to APAP myself to record 2 weeks of Oscar data to be able to compare and get input on here to get my perfect settings dialed in, BECAUSE...important info here...when I was on APAP, my AHI # was incredibly low every night, ranging from 0.8-1.8, and never more than 1.8. I'm unsure how much of that was OSA vs H vs CAs since I didn't have Oscar then, but since switching to CPAP at pressure 11, my AHI immediately went up from the first night on, to a range from 2.8-4.7, and I cannot get it any lower than the high 2s, with it averaging in the mid 3s now. And now that I'm seeing the last few nights of data in Oscar, that number is only really coming ALL from CAs...so I'm curious to see if my CAs go away or lower when I go back to APAP...I'm even tempted to switch back to APAP just for a few nights before my next appointment so I can see the Oscar data and compare the CA events to see if they go down, even though my doctor will be able to see I switched back to APAP lol. Who cares.
any input and advice is welcome, thanks!