My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
army mom
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My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

Post by army mom » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:51 pm

Hello all,
I have had my machine for about 1 1/2 years. It took me a good year to realize I really can get a great nights sleep with it on. 3 sleep studies showed I have "mild" apena... Yet I wake up some days with a mild headache. The only reason my insurance agreed to pay for my machine was the low pulse ox.
Because I still don't know or understand too much about all This- would anyone happen to know -- can I have low pulse ox and NOT have apena? My pulse ox during day is 99 or 98. I am over weight by about 70 lbs so .... Guess I just feel so rushed at sleep doc office that I never get to ask enough questions to feel like I leave with good answers.
Thanks in advance friends

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Goofproof
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Re: My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

Post by Goofproof » Sat Oct 18, 2014 10:23 pm

What you probably have is poorly treated sleep apnea, due to using a nasal mask and mouthbreathing, or excessive leakage.

That's just a WAG, as we have nothing to base your problem on but the normal way some people are treated.

By joining and filling out your profile in text not icornny, we can better see. You also need a machine that collects full data, and the software to access that data, it then can be posted and linked to the forum.

That and your history, many people here can help. Jim
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Julie
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Re: My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

Post by Julie » Sun Oct 19, 2014 3:29 am

Btw, you'll probably have an easier time researching info if you spell the problem properly - it's sleep apnea, not apena.

What are your pressures set at - you may just not be getting enough therapy if pressure is too low.

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archangle
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Re: My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

Post by archangle » Sun Oct 19, 2014 8:17 am

Welcome to the board.

Please fill in your equipment on your profile and we can give you a better idea about what you can do with your machine.

If it's a ResMed S9 machine, sometimes they get "stuck on zero" and shows zero until you unplug the machine for a minute or so and let it reset the processor inside the machine.

What pulseox are you using to check your O2 with?

Do you have the software to look at your data?

There can be other reasons than apnea for a low SpO2.

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cpapper123
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Re: My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

Post by cpapper123 » Sun Oct 19, 2014 8:25 am

Please fill in your equipment on your profile and we can give you a better idea about what you can do with your machine.

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Pugsy
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Re: My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

Post by Pugsy » Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:43 am

Yes..It is possible to have a low pulse ox and it not be related to apnea events (mild or severe). Not everything wrong with us can be blamed on sleep apnea. If your pulse ox is fine during the day...and not at night...sleep apnea would be the first suspect though. Now if daytime O2 levels weren't so great...we wouldn't expect nighttime levels to be so great either because whatever is causing low O2 levels during the day is not caused by sleep apnea and the machine can't fix those things not related to sleep apnea.

Yes.."mild" sleep apnea can still give significant desats...might not have very many apnea events (and severity is base on number of events per hour) but maybe those apnea events are massive long and come in clusters.

Example...my OSA is worse in REM sleep...like 5 times as bad as in non REM sleep.
My non REM AHI is only 12 per hour..fairly mild but my O2 levels went to 73% in non REM sleep...I had some massive long apnea events in non REM sleep to cause the drop.
In REM sleep my AHI was over 50....pre cpap I never got much REM sleep because I would pretty much wake up with the events.

There is the possibility that your machine is "stuck" with the 0.0 thing...just unplug it from electric source for a couple of minutes and plug it back in and see what shows after the reset.

Also..when are you checking your AHI if you are only using the machine's LCD screen for data?
If it is after 12 noon per the machine's clock then you will see 0.0 because the machine resets at 12 PM ..noon.
You would need to check the LCD prior to 12 PM (per the machine's clock and I say this because sometimes the clock is not set correctly).
If you are getting the 0.0 AHI from software...disregard the 12 noon idea.

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wilsonintexas
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Re: My machine shows 0.0 apen yet low (ish) pulse ox

Post by wilsonintexas » Sun Oct 19, 2014 8:50 pm

When I could not sleep, I would count my wife's breathing while it stopped. It would last 3-6 seconds, then abruptly start. I eventually convinced her to put on my recording 02 monitor and she had 70+ events where her sats were below 90, and 45 where they were below 88. I finally got her to go to a sleep DR, and I brought my o2 reports. He immediately gave us one of his official recorders, and it conformed the results.

The Dr put her on o2 while waiting for the sleep study.

During the study her official AHI was only 4.7. But this excluded 34 events where her sats dropped but the breathing interruption was less than 8 seconds, so it did not count.
I believe that she will have problems with most auto adjusting machines, because these events would not be flagged and thus no pressure adjustments would be made.

So yes it is very possible to have an AHI of 0 but desats

If you recorded your o2 and synced it into sleepy head, you may be able to see flow interruptions or breathing patterns that align with the desats. Then the good people here like PUGSY and others can make recommendations to improve things.

By the way, my wife has been on 02 while waiting for the titration study. We have been recording her o2 and all have been above 90 even without any cpap.