No more CPAP

I have some good news to share with everyone. To make a long story short, back in July of this year I had back surgery to fuse my L4,L5. After the surgery, upon waking up I had my CPAP ready for use that night. I feel asleep w/o the CPAP and slept the whole night with no problems, even slept on my back. I can only give credit to the surgeon when he opened the the gap in between the vertebrates. Also my primary physician has taken me off one blood pressure med. Everything else is great. It's been about two months and no CPAP. A little history about me, I have been on CPAP for about seven years. Used it every night and my numbers were 0.0, it worked great while I needed it.


Thanks,

And you have had a sleep study to confirm this?

I would insist on a sleep study!
It's good your surgery improved your quality of life and sleep,
but the repair was nowhere near the causes of apnea.

I was looking through a few of your old posts and it seems you were at one time diagnosed with OSA but later with CSA, is that correct? Was it determined you do not have OSA at all or do you have both? Please try to understand the skepticism in some of the responses - certainly don't want to rain on your parade. This group is largely made up of evidence based thinkers. I too would be curious to see current sleep study results side by side with prior reports. That could make for some fascinating discussion. At any rate, it's good to hear your neck surgery has helped you.

qjosea wrote:I have some good news to share with everyone. To make a long story short, back in July of this year I had back surgery to fuse my L4,L5. After the surgery, upon waking up I had my CPAP ready for use that night. I feel asleep w/o the CPAP and slept the whole night with no problems, even slept on my back. I can only give credit to the surgeon when he opened the the gap in between the vertebrates. Also my primary physician has taken me off one blood pressure med. Everything else is great. It's been about two months and no CPAP. A little history about me, I have been on CPAP for about seven years. Used it every night and my numbers were 0.0, it worked great while I needed it.


Thanks,

Have you "rebooted" your machine? (unplug it for a little bit and then plug it back in) There has been an apparent problem with some of the ResMed S9 machines in that they start showing 0.0 numbers every night. When they reboot their machines, they start reporting actual numbers again.


Den

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Another possibility; (tell me if I'm all wet)
Severe pain might be linked to involuntary breathing responses that could be interpreted as central apnea.
OMG--Could it be true? Maybe we are onto something. Maybe this could be (wait for it)
an argument for better pain control to reduce some of the effects caused by pain.

chunkyfrog wrote: (tell me if I'm all wet)

umm... I hate to point this out to you, but YOU'RE A FROG!!! of course you're all wet.

bv1800 wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote: (tell me if I'm all wet)

umm... I hate to point this out to you, but YOU'RE A FROG!!! of course you're all wet.

exactly! it's not, afterall, like she's chunkytoad.

kteague wrote:I was looking through a few of your old posts and it seems you were at one time diagnosed with OSA but later with CSA, is that correct? Was it determined you do not have OSA at all or do you have both? Please try to understand the skepticism in some of the responses - certainly don't want to rain on your parade. This group is largely made up of evidence based thinkers. I too would be curious to see current sleep study results side by side with prior reports. That could make for some fascinating discussion. At any rate, it's good to hear your neck surgery has helped you.

He had lumbar back surgery, not neck. Anyone want to figure out how somebody's lower back caused sleep disorder.

BTW. Did your sleep doctor actually OKAY discontinuing CPAP or did you just do it on your own?

Sorry to add more of the same, but I would INSIST on a new sleep study before you stop using your XPAP machine. Doesn't make sense that back surgery would cure either OSA or CSA. Especially not CSA.

Jen

I've had a three level lumbar fusion and have severe sleep apnea. I sure wish this surgery helped my apnea.

It would be nice if something so positive came out of that dang surgery for me.

I don't want to be negative but I don't see the correlation with lumbar fusions and sleep apnea. Sleep studies don't include CT scans of your back nor is back pain listed as a sign/symptom of sleep apnea.

I guess you could say I'm leery at the written correlation and conclusion. When you state, "opened the gap in between the vertebraes", are you referencing a surgical procedure named Foraminotomy? This would increase the size of the foramen in the vertebrae, provide more room for the veins, arteries, ligaments, and nerve roots to travel through, and decrease the chance of nerve impingement.

But, the nerve roots that run through L4 and L5 serve your lower back, buttocks, legs, and feet. I'm confused about the relationship of this procedure, in this area, in regards to sleep apnea.

But, if true, and it really worked out this way, I'm certainly very, very pleased for you and would like to offer my congrats!

Be good,
TheWino

About the only possible way that I could see a lumbar surgery improving central sleep apnea would be if the surgery eliminated the pain and if someone had been on pain medications that suppressed the respiration...so no more pain means no more pain meds that might have been causing suppressed respiration and the overshoot/undershoot thing that triggers more centrals.
So wouldn't be a total impossibility but I would for sure want it confirmed with a new sleep study.

Thewino wrote:...a surgical procedure named Foraminotomy? This would increase the size of the foramen in the vertebrae, provide more room for the veins, arteries, ligaments, and nerve roots to travel through, and decrease the chance of nerve impingement.

But, the nerve roots that run through L4 and L5 serve your lower back, buttocks, legs, and feet. I'm confused about the relationship of this procedure, in this area, in regards to sleep apnea.

Hello TWino... I had the procedure you mentioned above several years ago. It helped the intense lower back pain but I am confused about the relationship to sleep apnea as well. It would be great if it helped the OP's sleep apnea but it doesn't make much sense to me either.

I suspect that removing the back pain simply means that the person isn't aware of waking up a lot, so he feels like he is sleeping better. I used to think I woke up 3-5 times a night, and I was having 79 events an hour. So, his perception of his sleep may be improved while his sleep apnea is just as bad as ever. I do hope he gets a sleep study, but we all know badly people want to avoid using cpap. It took me 10 years to get past my denial phase and start cpap. I'm sure it is hard for people who learn about it and get faced with it in a short time. So, even months into treatment, unless they get lucky and feel the improvement right away, it is hard to get past the denial.