Diagnose me

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
youngclark
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Diagnose me

Post by youngclark » Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:21 pm

I can't afford to have a sleep study done so I took the liberty of recording myself sleeping for 40 minutes.

I snored a lot. Continuous snoring the entire time. However, I never could detect an instance where I was gasping for air or woke myself up. So I don't know if I really have sleep apnea after all.

Yet I am concerned because I have many of the symptoms. I fall asleep while driving. I fall asleep watching TV (even the exciting shows). People tell me I nod off during meetings at work. No headaches though.

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Nozzelnut
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by Nozzelnut » Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:39 pm

40 minutes of audio recording doesn't rule out OSA. Take home sleep studies don't cost too much especially if you look at the other health problems it can cause, possible car accidents, loss of your job....

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Pesser
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by Pesser » Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:46 pm

youngclark wrote:I can't afford to have a sleep study done so I took the liberty of recording myself sleeping for 40 minutes.

Yet I am concerned because I have many of the symptoms. I fall asleep while driving. I fall asleep watching TV (even the exciting shows). People tell me I nod off during meetings at work. No headaches though.
You have it or something worst! Get a machine! If you don't have the money get the money and buy a used one!

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bwexler
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by bwexler » Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:52 pm

You can start with a recording pulse oximeter.
You can buy a good one made by Contec, 50D+, 50E, or 50i for under $150 maybe as little as $50.
My first pre sleep study test was overnight oximetry. That qualified me for the sleep study and diagnosis of severe sleep apnea with 84 events per hour.

Once you verify that your oxygen saturation drops below 88% multiple times per night, you have a good indication you have sleep apnea.
Next you acquire an auto adjusting CPAP machine that provides full efficacy data.

You ask lots of questions here along the way, until you get comfortable answering the questions for other newbes.

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palerider
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by palerider » Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:09 pm

bwexler wrote:You can start with a recording pulse oximeter.
You can buy a good one made by Contec, 50D+, 50E, or 50i for under $150 maybe as little as $50.
My first pre sleep study test was overnight oximetry. That qualified me for the sleep study and diagnosis of severe sleep apnea with 84 events per hour.

Once you verify that your oxygen saturation drops below 88% multiple times per night, you have a good indication you have sleep apnea.
another thing that may be more indicitive on the oximetry report is pulse spikes. if you're sleeping well, and not being aroused, you'll have a nice steady pulse rate for long periods of time.

the contec units report that also.

you can get a 50d+ from amazon for 50, or from aliexpress for around 30-35.

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Bill44133
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by Bill44133 » Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:23 pm

youngclark wrote:I can't afford to have a sleep study done so I took the liberty of recording myself sleeping for 40 minutes.

I snored a lot. Continuous snoring the entire time. However, I never could detect an instance where I was gasping for air or woke myself up. So I don't know if I really have sleep apnea after all.

Yet I am concerned because I have many of the symptoms. I fall asleep while driving. I fall asleep watching TV (even the exciting shows). People tell me I nod off during meetings at work. No headaches though.
Take 15 minutes and review this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gie2dhqP2c

This should be the whole thing in perspective for you.


I wish you well

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youngclark
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by youngclark » Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:36 pm

You all are very persuasive. I went ahead and ordered the 50D+ from Amazon. 2 Day delivery

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I intend to follow this process:
1) Verify that my oxygen saturation drops below 88% multiple times per night.
2) Acquire an auto adjusting CPAP machine that provides full efficacy data.
3) While using the CPAP, verify that my oxygen saturation DOES NOT drops below 88% multiple times per night.

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49er
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by 49er » Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:57 pm

youngclark wrote:You all are very persuasive. I went ahead and ordered the 50D+ from Amazon. 2 Day delivery

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I intend to follow this process:
1) Verify that my oxygen saturation drops below 88% multiple times per night.
2) Acquire an auto adjusting CPAP machine that provides full efficacy data.
3) While using the CPAP, verify that my oxygen saturation DOES NOT drops below 88% multiple times per night.
youngclark,

I wish I had seen this post before you purchased the recording pulse oximetry from Amazon. You can still have sleep apnea even if you don't desaturate.

And according to this Mayo Link, normal levels range from 95 to 100 per cent.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/hypo ... m-20050930

49er

youngclark
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by youngclark » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:00 pm

Why should I have not ordered it? Won't it help with my diagnosis?

HoseCrusher
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by HoseCrusher » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:07 pm

Sleep Disordered Breathing can have multiple causes. One is that the airway closes and the oxygen levels in the blood drop. This is what you are measuring with the oximeter.

If you see drops in oxygen levels without the xPAP machine and these go away when using the xPAP machine, AND you wake up feeling great you have figured things out.

If you see drops in oxygen levels before and good oxygen levels after but still wake up feeling like crap you have more work to do.

Other neurological influences can rob your body of restful sleep while you are still getting enough oxygen. Take restless leg syndrome as an example, and there are others.

The bottom line is that your sleep can be screwed up even if you are getting enough oxygen, but if your oxygen levels are dropping your sleep will suffer.

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markdh
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by markdh » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:38 pm

youngclark wrote:You all are very persuasive. I went ahead and ordered the 50D+ from Amazon. 2 Day delivery

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I intend to follow this process:
1) Verify that my oxygen saturation drops below 88% multiple times per night.
2) Acquire an auto adjusting CPAP machine that provides full efficacy data.
3) While using the CPAP, verify that my oxygen saturation DOES NOT drops below 88% multiple times per night.
Regarding point 1, it's not just that your oxygen sat drops below 88%; it's also how long it stays there and how low it goes.

On point 3, even on PAP, my oxygen still drops below 88% at times. It just doesn't do it enough so that oxygen is required (i.e insurance won't pay for it).

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palerider
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by palerider » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:52 pm

youngclark wrote:You all are very persuasive. I went ahead and ordered the 50D+ from Amazon. 2 Day delivery

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I intend to follow this process:
1) Verify that my oxygen saturation drops below 88% multiple times per night.
2) Acquire an auto adjusting CPAP machine that provides full efficacy data.
3) While using the CPAP, verify that my oxygen saturation DOES NOT drops below 88% multiple times per night.
watch your pulse rate also, if it's nice and steady, and your 02 stays above 90 (generally 92-96 while sleeping is fine), then you *probably* aren't having serious issues.

but, if you're having arousals due to breathing issues, you'll most likely have pulse spikes, even if your o2 doesn't get too low.

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Ontario CPAP
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by Ontario CPAP » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:53 pm

One key aspects of OSA that you won't be able to determine at home is your depth of sleep. OSA does NOT always result in waking up, but can keep you from achieving a deep sleep, which is just as bad over the long term as waking up.

If you have a look at the Wikipedia article on sleep stages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep#Stages) there's a figure showing the stages of sleep, from awake all the way "down" to stage 4. During a sleep study, the technicians hook up wires to your head to measure your brain's electrical activity (an EEG), which is used by a computer to recognize the different brain electrical patterns (e.g., delta waves, theta patterns, k-complexes, etc.) From this, software determines which sleep stage you are in every few minutes throughout the night.

In my initial study, the EEG measured stage 1 and 2 sleep all night. I never achieved 3 or 4. I was in a very light sleep all night. The sleep doctor told me this was due to my OSA -- I couldn't get in to deep sleep because my brain had somehow learned to stay as close as possible to an awake state to clear my apneas without fully waking up (which were occurring almost 50 times an hour.) In other words, I was coming out of a stage 2 sleep back to 1 almost every minute, all night. It was like I had learned over the years to "swim close to shore" in the shallow waters of stage 1 and 2 sleep. Although I wouldn't fully wake up at any time in the night, I was still exhausted the next day.

In my later titration study, where I repeated the EEG sleep test but this time hooked up to a CPAP, I exhibited all four sleep stages in my results, with a figure that looked a lot more like the example in the Wikipedia article.

Also, it may be worth noting in both studies my oxygen level didn't drop below 95%, yet I had an AHI of 50. My diagnosis was largely based on EEG data.

In summary, what you can't get from a home-based sleep study is the EEG data on what sleep stage you are in, and in my own experience, you don't need to be waking up to have OSA result in a significant impact on your physiology.

youngclark
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by youngclark » Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:02 am

I used the 50D+ oximeter last night for 7 hours and was surprised to learn that I only went below 90% oxygen 3 times during the night. Also my pulse stayed very constantly around 50BPM

I will do it again tonight just to be sure but it appears I need to look elsewhere for the root of my daytime sleepiness

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chunkyfrog
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Re: Diagnose me

Post by chunkyfrog » Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:54 am

Bloodwork may be necessary; symptoms like yours can be due to a number of different conditions,
most of which will need attention. Be well.

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