r/UARS

I just got my Resmed Airsense 11 w/ Resmed nasal cushion two nights ago and I think I have decent information to be able to optimize a little. First night I ripped the mask off 6 times because of odd feeling with only under 2 hours of mask use. Last night, I ripped it off 7 times but I kept it on for almost 5 hours this time. I was definitely still awake for a lot of these 5 hours though. Here are my results from last night specifically:

https://preview.redd.it/i2v50biwnkug1.png?width=1016&format=png&auto=webp&s=50d565f0de8d682e26746c333e4a2c00b4b1faef

https://preview.redd.it/ywk1n10dokug1.png?width=703&format=png&auto=webp&s=819022c9435143720194d032c8a666d2198f5a0a

https://preview.redd.it/z1c6wcihokug1.png?width=1006&format=png&auto=webp&s=d57ce80a87e8449b04c04a3eee13fe09a125e5fe

It obviously seems like it's helping, as my Lofta results showed 2 AHI and 16.4 RDI. But, there were a few things that happened last night that led to me taking it off for the rest of the night that I wanna talk about and see what you all think.

The first thing I noticed was later on in the session, my mouth started to burst open for life half a second to let out air then close. It did this a few times before my sleepy brain decided to try and do something about it. Pinned my chin to my pillow at a certain angle. Eventually this woke me up more, then I noticed the nasal congestion next:

The second thing I noticed was by the time I took it off for the final time in the night, my nose was pretty congested and it was harder to breathe through. I watched a Masterclass video about humidity and temps with each humidity level, so I bumped that up to the highest that was optimal (Humidity @ 5, Temp @ 86). I thought this would keep my nose from being congested but I was wrong.

It seems like I either need mouth tape, a chin strap, or a full face mask. May go with a chin strap, but was gonna ask to see if my results or settings show anything that could help with this problem. I rarely if ever actually snore, I always breathe through my nose, so it's just that the pressure gets too high and my mouth lets some of that out maybe (?)

Initial searches for the congestion issue are pointing me toward using nasal sprays (which I have and can try tonight). But I want to prepare for other possibilities and I think a nasal pillow could help that (??) Any recommendations or do my settings/results point toward anything to help with congestion?

Good morning.

About 25 years ago, I had a sleep test at the Queensway Carleton in Ottawa referred to by my brillliant young Quebec doctor. She got me a test within a day. The verdict was that I didnt clearly have apnea but I had something equally serious but they considered it very rare. Perhaps UARS had not been discovered then?

Fast forward to my retirement and I am really having some challenges at 68 years old

1. I now live in the medical wasteland of Nova Scotia. We had a doctor who left after a year and a replacement who left in a year but have left our names on the list for 7 years. Five years now without.

2. In the Quebec system, I was considered a preferred patient because of a number of things and guaranteed a doctor. In fact, I received communication from my doctor due to some changes that I was indeed part of her patient list.

Every time a new doctor has come to Eastern Passage, I am assured that I am referred only to get nothing. My wife who is now 70 as a side, has some equally serious issues.

3. I surveyed all the private sites in my city and was told that they test for APNEA only

4. Thus I am thrusted in the public system and waiting for an appointment for 4 months to 2 years with no guarantee that I will get an appointment

5. Any temp solution like the various mandable devices, I have been informed are no goes as they do not work at all with someone with dentures and pins.

6. The people that I checked with cant even tell me if a CPAP would work with that dential condition.

7. I got through a brilliant career by pushing my manic part of my manic depressive and finding and working solutions that would take an average person 6 months done completely within a week.

8 ) the manic side is all tapped out