Should I stay or should I go?

Seven years ago my sleep study had me at 476 stops in 8 hrs. A couple of years ago my Dr. had me do an in-home study that put me at 11 stops (not clear on the time period used in this case- total or per hour?). Over the years with various periods of dedication to diet and exercise, I’ve lost 70 lbs and now according to Sleepyhead, I guess my AHI is low: last 6 months = 0.49. (Is that useful info?) and last night I even had 0.0 (4.8 hrs sleep-jetlagged still). About two months ago, I asked the Dr if I should/could quit using the machine. He said I should continue with treatment. He checks my data once a year and doesn’t know what my CPAP can do datawise, but I do, thanks to CPAPtalk & Sleepyhead.

Do you think I am at a good point to either out and out let go of CPAP or at least ask for an in-lab study to see if I can stop treatment, or is there some else I can do?

As always, I thank you for your support.

I'd go for a proper sleep test before deciding to drop CPAP.

BTW, your score of 0.0AHI with the machine from last night doesn't mean you have no apnea. It means your machine successfully controlled your apnea. That's a big difference.

Lunasoul wrote:Seven years ago my sleep study had me at 476 stops in 8 hrs. A couple of years ago my Dr. had me do an in-home study that put me at 11 stops (not clear on the time period used in this case- total or per hour?). Over the years with various periods of dedication to diet and exercise, I’ve lost 70 lbs and now according to Sleepyhead, I guess my AHI is low: last 6 months = 0.49. (Is that useful info?) and last night I even had 0.0 (4.8 hrs sleep-jetlagged still). About two months ago, I asked the Dr if I should/could quit using the machine. He said I should continue with treatment. He checks my data once a year and doesn’t know what my CPAP can do datawise, but I do, thanks to CPAPtalk & Sleepyhead.

Do you think I am at a good point to either out and out let go of CPAP or at least ask for an in-lab study to see if I can stop treatment, or is there some else I can do?

As always, I thank you for your support.

Congratulations on the weight loss, but.......
The numbers you're stating are "treated" numbers.
My average is (and has been for several years) actually lower than yours......should I quit, too? MY answer is "HECK NO!"
AHI and other "numbers" aren't the whole picture with this therapy. Oxygen saturation is another factor.

If you could actually "quit" therapy, I doubt that you're a dedicated user.
I could not actually sleep without my therapy air now. And, I'm sure the bad effects of OSA would return in short order.


Den

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Ahh, of course, I get it. Thank you for your swift reply.

I forgot to mention one other thing.
In many cases, OSA can "cause" weight gain, so losing the weight doesn't necessarily eliminate OSA.


Den

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The Clash - great song. Wulfman and ramblingasian both hit the nail on the head... if you do a test getting off cpap don't sell your machine right away!

First, congratulations on the weight loss! Many sleep specialists recommend a new study after you lose 50-75 pounds, so you are certainly do for it. Just remember to not use your machine for 3 nights before the study or it skews the results and may falsely indicate you have no problems. As other posters have indicated, they can often go 2-3 days without their Xpap (travel) before problems start showing up.

Hmmm.

Thank you for your comments, they have sent me off to do some more reading, and I'm back again. I started my CPAP journey in Japan with a Dr that doesn't speak English. In the early days, I had a Japanese friend go with me and much was not translated, so I feel I may have missed some important information back then. Now, every month, it's a simple Dr check in- he looks up my nose, in my mouth and asks me if I have any problems with the machine.

So I have never thought of the CPAP as a life long thing. Early in the game, my Dr conveyed to me that losing weight could help, so I eat well, exercise, and get on the office scale every month. Seventy pounds down and my neck has shrunk and my inside throat area has widened a lot. Only recently did I understand that the weight issue might not be the only thing involved in my case.

I go home to the US at least once every year for at least two weeks. I've never taken my CPAP. I just got back from my 3 week summer vacation with no CPAP. After jet lag wore off, I was fine. Sleeping well, no snoring, no dry mouth, no feeling tired or sleepy, no headaches, no dizziness, no memory snafus, no night sweats, no bloated with air abdomen, etc. Of course, I didn't know about oxygen saturation then. My Dr has never made an issue of me not taking the CPAP.

So I'm a little bewildered . . . mostly at myself, for not being more curious, proactive and diligent in this case.

For now, I will continue with CPAP and my clean eating and exercise lifestyle. When I reach my healthy goal weight, I'll do a sleep study to see where things stand.

Thanks again.

Kim

Lunasoul wrote:For now, I will continue with CPAP and my clean eating and exercise lifestyle. When I reach my healthy goal weight, I'll do a sleep study to see where things stand.

That sounds like a very smart plan indeed. I wish you the best of luck and I hope that the final sleep study does mean you can stay off the machine for good. I don't blame you one bit for not wanting to use it if you don't have to. I sometimes wish that weight was more of a factor in my OSA because I really would rather not use the machine every night but I wasn't overweight when all this started and losing the few extra pounds I have gained since it started isn't going to fix my problem no matter how much I wish it would.
In my case it seems like everything went south when menopause hit...saggy boobs, saggy belly, saggy butt....saggy airway tissues

I accept the reality of the situation though...but I do sometimes wish for a different reality.
In my case the oxygen level drops scared the hell out of me as they were scary low and no way would I ever risk doing that to myself without verification that they weren't happening again by doing a follow up sleep study of some sort.