Do I Have Sleep Apnea??

I am retired, male, and in good physical shape. I have been diagnosed with a mild case of irregular heartbeat (PVCs). A nurse once commented that it was harmless, but if I ever found myself short of breath while laying on my back I should let my doctor know. Naturally, a month later I woke from a nightmare gasping for breath -- first and only time in my life -- so I emailed my doctor. He referred me to an Apnea sleep lab. I filled out a questionnaire in which I said I often fall asleep while watching TV. When asked if I had ever gone to sleep driving, being an honest sort, I checked the yes box. Yes -- because 12 - 15 years ago I dozed off at a stop light. My wife gave me the elbow, and that was it. I have a great driving record, by the way. Without talking to me, my doctor reported me to the California DMV. Ouch!

So the sleep lab did a one night test ...
AHI 2.7
RDI 5.6
O2 Normal

I should add that I am not overweight, do not snore (at all), and have a neck size of 14 1/2".

I understand the importance to my health of dealing with apnea, but when I ask the clinicians how bad it is I get so many "Well, Uhs", and "Very Mild", that I am beginning to wonder if I am in a vague category, caught up in a system that will leave me on a machine for the rest of my life. On my second fitting and so far not loving it.

Any advice or opinions would be very welcome. (-8

You're only "caught" to extent that you allow yourself to be. Treat it or don't. Your choice.

El Castor wrote:I am retired, male, and in good physical shape. I have been diagnosed with a mild case of irregular heartbeat (PVCs). A nurse once commented that it was harmless, but if I ever found myself short of breath while laying on my back I should let my doctor know. Naturally, a month later I woke from a nightmare gasping for breath -- first and only time in my life -- so I emailed my doctor. He referred me to an Apnea sleep lab. I filled out a questionnaire in which I said I often fall asleep while watching TV. When asked if I had ever gone to sleep driving, being an honest sort, I checked the yes box. Yes -- because 12 - 15 years ago I dozed off at a stop light. My wife gave me the elbow, and that was it. I have a great driving record, by the way. Without talking to me, my doctor reported me to the California DMV. Ouch!

So the sleep lab did a one night test ...
AHI 2.7
RDI 5.6
O2 Normal

I should add that I am not overweight, do not snore (at all), and have a neck size of 14 1/2".

I understand the importance to my health of dealing with apnea, but when I ask the clinicians how bad it is I get so many "Well, Uhs", and "Very Mild", that I am beginning to wonder if I am in a vague category, caught up in a system that will leave me on a machine for the rest of my life. On my second fitting and so far not loving it.

Any advice or opinions would be very welcome. (-8

At the very minimum, get your doctor to get that information out of your driving record (CA DMV).
If you ever did have an accident (even if it was not your fault), you could be in a whole lotta trouble.

And, the "mild" OSA category is in the 5 - 15 range. At this time, you're far enough below that to be categorized in the "NO SLEEP APNEA" group.

Den

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Sounds like you're not convinced. As Den said, those results are considered normal. Do you have a copy of the sleep report? For your own knowledge, you might want to look at it and consider a few things, because a night in the lab is not always representative of a normal night's sleep. How much sleep did you get? Did it include some time in REM? Some time supine? Some time in REM while supine? It is common for there to be more apnea events during these scenarios, and if a test doesn't record these, one could actually have worse OSA than a test shows. Another watchout is because a low AHI is an hourly average, there could be clusters of events during the above times that are not good. If the test was fairly representative of all these I would probably relax about it, especially since your oxygen was ok. I would give attention to the suggestion of making sure your driving record is cleared.

El Castor wrote:I should add that I am not overweight, do not snore (at all), and have a neck size of 14 1/2".

You can be all of those and still have sleep apnea.

kteague wrote:Do you have a copy of the sleep report?

+1

El Castor wrote:when I ask the clinicians how bad it is I get so many "Well, Uhs", and "Very Mild", that I am beginning to wonder if I am in a vague category,

If you want an opinion from this forum, you should post in this thread a copy of your sleep study summary - usually one or two pages. Please block out any identifying information like your name and address and anything else you consider private.

This is what I would do; Get yourself a recording oximeter with software (or get the sleep doctor to tell the DME to lend you one) and sleep with it for about a week. With the low AHI you have, you shouldn't see many if any 02 desaturations. See what the ODI, (oxygen desaturation index} is. It should be very low. I'd guess, less than 1 or 2. This info would back up the sleep test.

You probably have:
UARS
or mild sleep apnea that you didn't get diagnosed the first time. It happened to me aswell when i got my first and second homestudies. The equipment failed to diagnose me the first time, because it lacked sensitivity and was generally just bulky.

My initial AHI's and CO2 were all within normal or borderline range. When I got a more sensitive test however. My AHI jumped from 2 and 1 on the side, and 5.3 and 2 supine, to 11(or 10. mostly on the side. Do yourself a favor and either redo the test. There might have been a technical problem with that test that day. Unless you were heavily drinking that day when you got those symptoms, or eating copious amounts of grease that day. Which would have attentuated your apnea. My advice, don't put this on the shelf. It might get worse(Like in my case), and then you'll just bite your own hand for not doing anything sooner.

But he had a lab study, not home studies like you did.

Julie wrote:But he had a lab study, not home studies like you did.

Even a lab study can give false negatives. I remember reading a few months ago that the failure rate, of polysomnographies are like 10-15%. It's also subject to factors like supine sleeping.

tiredandscared wrote:

Julie wrote:But he had a lab study, not home studies like you did.

Even a lab study can give false negative. I remember reading a few months ago that the failure rate, of polysomnographies are like 10-15%. It's also subject to factors like supine sleeping.

I think I remember reading the same thing TS. And as my situation proves, the results can vary from one sleep study to another. In 2014, I had a 23 RDI that included a 5.9 AHI. This year, it was a straight 25 AHI.

Regarding El Castor's initial post, I think what kteague posted was excellent and I would closely follow her advice. But if you still want opinions from forum members, I also agree with CG's advice about posting a copy of the sleep study without the private information.

49er