maybe I don't have apnea, or is CPAP really THIS good?

[cathyf]

I got my ResMed A10 on Friday, so now have 5 days worth of data. During my sleep study, I had an AHI of 15 -- 45 REM and 9 NREM, with 91 events during the 6 hours of sleep. All the events were hypopneas or obstructive apneas. The diagnosis is "moderately severe obstructive sleep apnea with associated hypoxemia and sleep disruption (minimum SpO2 80%) Obviously an eventful 6 hours!

Over the five days I have had a TOTAL of 13 events. A couple I'm not sure I believe (CAs while I think I was awake, and one UA in the middle of a giant leak after I loosened the mask too much the first night.) The events are isolated -- nice regular breathing followed by a short event then back to the regular breathing. I can see other isolated spots where my breathing gets ragged in a spot and just isn't long enough to qualify as an event. When I look at my graphs I see a short ramp (well except for last night when I accidentally changed the ramp from auto to 45 minutes) followed by a steep climb, usually up to 10-12, and then it ratchets back down to 8. My settings are 7-20, but I have never seen it above 13, and after the initial rise, it never goes below 8.

Is this just what it looks like when the machine does its job really well? I don't really feel better -- I am still very tired during the day (dosing off at my desk), and I have trouble staying asleep more than about 6 or 6.5 hours per night. This morning when I got up at 5am to go to the bathroom there wasn't a whole lot there, unlike my pre-machine multiple-times-per-night-back-teeth-floating potty runs.

I have this totally skeptical husband who thinks that this is all a scam, and so I'm starting to wonder...

[Wulfman...]

I got my ResMed A10 on Friday, so now have 5 days worth of data. During my sleep study, I had an AHI of 15 -- 45 REM and 9 NREM, with 91 events during the 6 hours of sleep. All the events were hypopneas or obstructive apneas. The diagnosis is "moderately severe obstructive sleep apnea with associated hypoxemia and sleep disruption (minimum SpO2 80%) Obviously an eventful 6 hours!

Over the five days I have had a TOTAL of 13 events. A couple I'm not sure I believe (CAs while I think I was awake, and one UA in the middle of a giant leak after I loosened the mask too much the first night.) The events are isolated -- nice regular breathing followed by a short event then back to the regular breathing. I can see other isolated spots where my breathing gets ragged in a spot and just isn't long enough to qualify as an event. When I look at my graphs I see a short ramp (well except for last night when I accidentally changed the ramp from auto to 45 minutes) followed by a steep climb, usually up to 10-12, and then it ratchets back down to 8. My settings are 7-20, but I have never seen it above 13, and after the initial rise, it never goes below 8.

Is this just what it looks like when the machine does its job really well? I don't really feel better -- I am still very tired during the day (dosing off at my desk), and I have trouble staying asleep more than about 6 or 6.5 hours per night. This morning when I got up at 5am to go to the bathroom there wasn't a whole lot there, unlike my pre-machine multiple-times-per-night-back-teeth-floating potty runs.

I have this totally skeptical husband who thinks that this is all a scam, and so I'm starting to wonder...

Yes it is. The "feeling better" takes some time......like maybe months.
Get your husband out of that river in Egypt......he could drown.


Den

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[chunkyfrog]

Ignore the unbeliever. This is so completely NOT a scam!

[englandsf]

Have you tried EPR?

[BlackSpinner]

Is this just what it looks like when the machine does its job really well? I don't really feel better -- I am still very tired during the day (dosing off at my desk), and I have trouble staying asleep more than about 6 or 6.5 hours per night. This morning when I got up at 5am to go to the bathroom there wasn't a whole lot there, unlike my pre-machine multiple-times-per-night-back-teeth-floating potty runs.

I have this totally skeptical husband who thinks that this is all a scam, and so I'm starting to wonder...

That is one of the important benefits, no pee. Every apnea causes your bladder to fill when the stress hormones spew out. So you can totally tell it is working for you. Be patient, you have had this for years and it can take time to recover. But now you KNOW it is working. Just ask hubby if when he broke his leg would he expect to run a marathon because the cast was on.

[Pugsy]

Nocturia...common symptom of sleep apnea that often goes away or dramatically improves with cpap therapy.
I was getting up about once an hour with a hugely painful full bladder each hour pre cpap...once I got my therapy optimized that symptom went totally away...that one and the killer AM headaches from lack of oxygen went away quickly.
The other stuff took a lot longer to see improvement with.

For why the nocturia goes away or reduces when the nocturia is related to sleep apnea.
When we have those sleep apnea episodes that puts stress on the heart....when the heat is stress it excretes a stress hormone called Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP).. when this hormone goes into the blood stream after the heart produces it ...it makes its way to the kidneys and this hormone signals the kidneys to kick in to over drive and work hard...and what is the byproduct of when the kidneys work??....yep, urine. So the no longer bursting bladder is one sign that your therapy is indeed working. Now it may not be making you feel like a new woman yet (that may take a lot of time to never) but I don't know about you...not waking up every hour on the hour with a screaming painful bladder is worth it to me if I never so any improvement in anything else. Talk about horribly fragmented sleep with pee breaks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_natriuretic_peptide

Now of course there are other reasons for nocturia and they aren't related to sleep apnea and unfortunately the machine can't fix stuff unrelated to sleep apnea.

[cathyf]

...unfortunately the machine can't fix stuff unrelated to sleep apnea.

I will add one totally non-apnea benefit of the machine that I've found. I am basically hot all the time. Totally strange, because I am hypOthyroid and one of the primo symptoms of that is being cold all of the time, but weirdo me -- I can't wear long sleeves if it's warmer than about 65. I'm finding that having a stream of cool air on my upper lip helps me get to sleep and stay asleep. Last night I tried running with the ramp turned completely off, so I just started at 7 instead of 4. I think I like it better that way!

[Pugsy]

I also like having a cool breeze on my face...sort of like sleeping with a fan up close.
Others hate it.
I don't like having a cold breeze though and especially up my nose...that's why in the winter I use a warmer air temp from the heated hose because in the winter my bedroom gets COLD and ice cube nose wake ups aren't fun. Been there and done that and don't want to do it again.
That's why in the warmer times of the year I use a cooler air temp and in the cooler times of the year I use a warmer air temp but keep my humidity setting the same all year.
I love my heated hose. When my nose is happy...I'm happy.

[Denial Dave]

I started CPAP just over 2 years ago.... Way back when, just after 3 days of use, I stopped needing bathroom breaks.

Yay for CPAP!

Nocturia...common symptom of sleep apnea that often goes away or dramatically improves with cpap therapy.
I was getting up about once an hour with a hugely painful full bladder each hour pre cpap...once I got my therapy optimized that symptom went totally away...that one and the killer AM headaches from lack of oxygen went away quickly.
The other stuff took a lot longer to see improvement with.

For why the nocturia goes away or reduces when the nocturia is related to sleep apnea.
When we have those sleep apnea episodes that puts stress on the heart....when the heat is stress it excretes a stress hormone called Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP).. when this hormone goes into the blood stream after the heart produces it ...it makes its way to the kidneys and this hormone signals the kidneys to kick in to over drive and work hard...and what is the byproduct of when the kidneys work??....yep, urine. So the no longer bursting bladder is one sign that your therapy is indeed working. Now it may not be making you feel like a new woman yet (that may take a lot of time to never) but I don't know about you...not waking up every hour on the hour with a screaming painful bladder is worth it to me if I never so any improvement in anything else. Talk about horribly fragmented sleep with pee breaks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_natriuretic_peptide

Now of course there are other reasons for nocturia and they aren't related to sleep apnea and unfortunately the machine can't fix stuff unrelated to sleep apnea.

[teachcsg]

I worked as a sleep tech for about a year a few years ago and I had patients coming in for their second night / titration part of the study and they would always tell me how they would need to get up 2-3 times that night for restroom breaks. After putting them on their cpap and titrating them many would not get up (for restroom break) all night and in the morning when I went in the room to wake them up they would all exclaim, "I didn't go to the restroom all night!" It was a good time to explain the benefits of cpap and most walked out as believers!
As others have mentioned, you may not start 'feeling' better for a while (sometimes months-hopefully sooner) but the positive physiological effects going on in your body with the cpap are amazing. On that same note, without the cpap, the stress your heart, brain and the rest of your body go through every night (from lack of oxygen and sleep) is extremely high and very unhealthy!

[chunkyfrog]

A lot of the good stuff sneaks up on you when you are not paying attention.
--Like the day the dog got away from me and I had to run 2 blocks to catch him.
--and I was not the least bit winded!
Before cpap, I was lucky if I could run much farther than 100 feet without sitting down to catch my breath.

[RogerSC]

One thing that people forget is that the machines only show the apneas that were not prevented. There's no way of knowing (as far as I know) how many apneas were actually prevented by the machine. So when you think about whether you need the machine or not because your reported AHI is so low, or so few reported apnea events, this is another factor to consider *smile*.

[chunkyfrog]

--Like when you use a cane, there's no way to know how many falls were prevented.

[Wulfman...]

Cathy,

You might want to consider moving your minimum pressure up a bit to see if that improves things even more.


Den

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[tmr]

...unfortunately the machine can't fix stuff unrelated to sleep apnea.

I will add one totally non-apnea benefit of the machine that I've found. I am basically hot all the time.

Maybe you need to adjust your meds, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc. Some people needed to cut down on their BP meds because with the use of cpap it got lowered.