CPAPtalk.com

Without a doubt, things will work out. But the credibility and usefulness of the forum will suffer. Good contributors will leave, and the more lunatic fringe will prevail. Such is life.

TASmart wrote:Without a doubt, things will work out. But the credibility and usefulness of the forum will suffer. Good contributors will leave, and the more lunatic fringe will prevail. Such is life.

And the lunatic fringe will be guiding newly diagnosed people on this cpap journey? There is something very wrong with this picture.

Pugsy wrote:

xxyzx wrote:all apnea and hypops are only BAD when they lower spo2
otherwise they are just annoyances

No, that's just your opinion.
Are you actually saying that someone with an AHI of 60 something is just having an "annoyance" because the O2 doesn't drop?
I have a good friend with AHI if 66 and her oxygen levels never dropped during her in lab sleep study. I guess she didn't need CPAP by your opinion.

xxyzx wrote:They are in AHI because they needed a simple statistic for OA to determine if medicrap gives you an xpap

all apnea and hypops are only BAD when they lower spo2
otherwise they are just annoyances

You know you come up with some ridiculous opinions but this one ranks right up at the top for being asinine.
Just because you have this opinion doesn't make it so.

Good grief, how much more ridiculous can he get?!? [Don't anyone answer that; I'm afraid of the answer!]

He's the master at thinking his opinions are facts.

TASmart wrote:

xxyzx wrote:

Pugsy wrote:

xxyzx wrote:how ironic after 3 people say i am FOS and you verify that shallow breathing is normal

Read again and try to understand what I wrote.
No where did I say anything about shallow breathing being normal....no where...and I sure as hell didn't verify what you said.

xxyzx wrote: hypops are only bad when the lower the spo2

No, this is not true. They are bad for the same reasons that obstructive apneas and central apneas are bad and oxygen levels may or may not be part of it. Ever wonder why they are part of the AHI in a diagnosis??? Maybe it's because they are sort of important despite what you think.

========
taking things out of context is tasmarts patented dirty trick

hypops are only BAD when tehy lower spo2
they are problems because they disturb sleep
but you can make up for bad sleep with more sleep time
you cant fix dead cells from low oxygen

They are in AHI because they needed a simple statistic for OA to determine if medicrap gives you an xpap

all apnea and hypops are only BAD when they lower spo2
otherwise they are just annoyances

AHI is a meaningless statistic and doctors say so
RDI is meaningful and so is desats level

This is flat out wrong and potentially deadly. In the absence of distractions apnea, hypopnea and possibly RERA are more than annoyances that can be overcome by sleeping more. The issue is that all forms of sleep-disordered sleeping cause sleep deprivation and may cause oxygen deficiency. Note that your favorite whipping boys, sleep doctors and insurance companies and medicare all use AHI as an indicator of the need for PAP, with and without desaturation. Sleep deprivation alone is a health risk, no matter what you claim.

Yep, as usually, he's flat out wrong in so many ways.

And make up for bad sleep with more sleep time? If someone is getting bad sleep, just getting more bad sleep isn't going to make everything all better. Not all bad sleep can be fixed.

And to the OP's question...I sought help because I was feeling so extremely horrible when I woke up every morning, plus often waking up with a headache, and occasionally jolting awake with a racing heart, and being exhausted all day. I told my GP my symptoms and that I wanted to get a sleep study, and he agreed, referring me to a sleep specialist. Had a sleep study, was diagnosed with moderate OSA with other stuff in there as well. Once on CPAP therapy, the headaches and racing heart thing stopped. And now instead of waking up feeling extremely horrible, I just wake up feeling horrible.

My diagnosis began with seeing a Neurologist for chronic migraine. She said most of her patients complain of headaches, and quite often sleep apnea turns out to be the culprit. So I did the split night sleep study in the lab, with an AHI of 28.

With my CPAP, my AHI now averages 0.5 - 1.5. But the headaches continue - it's been three years since I've had a headache-free day.

I had tapered off of a cocktail of psych meds I had been on for years and was having sleep problems. My sister suggested I might want to be tested for sleep apnea but I blew her off. I just thought I was experiencing withdrawal issues.

However, I changed my mind and was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea at the end of 2011. I thought this was going to be answer to my problems but unfortunately, I found out differently. Another post.

49er

My OSA diagnosis came from a series of unexplained medical events. I'd had a CABG at the beginning of 2013 and it was after this that I started to have fatigue issues during the day. After one particular event I was sent to hospital in an ambulance and of course, as a bypass patient, they checked me out very thoroughly over a 6 month period. I had holter monitors, ecg stress tests, a myocardial perfusion and various other routines to find out what was wrong with my body.

At my second to last meeting with the cardiologist at the hospital my cardiologist said my heart was working perfectly, blood sugar levels were good as were ESR levels. He asked me how well I slept and most importantly, how often I went to the toilet at night. From my responses he suggested a sleep study and contacted my GP. The rest is history.

I have had 2 sleep studies. My first one was done about 15 years ago, due to my frequent arousals. I had mild snoring, but, no indication of Apnea or Hypopneas. They weren't sure why I had the arousals, but, suspected stress. I just learned to deal with it, without meds and it did get a little better.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago. I started getting up to urinate multiple times during the night. It was very annoying, however, I seemed to get my rest and I had no sleepiness nor did I feel tired during the day. THEN, I suddenly started waking up during the night feeling like I was dying. It wasn't that I had trouble breathing. I wasn't gasping for breath, or anything like that. It was just like terror. I still wonder if it was a panic attack. I was undergoing a lot of heavy stress at that time due to a thing in my family. SO, awaking that way scared me so much that I couldn't sleep, due to fear of it happening, so, that caused me to not sleep and therefore, I was then tired and sleepy. I actually looked forward to this sleep study, so I could get some sleep without feeling like I was dying. This study showed some hypopneas, but, it wasn't a severe case. I can't recall the numbers now. I do recall that it was mild, but, cpap recommended. It has worked wonderfully for me. I took to it quite well. I certainly needed it, because the nighttime urination stopped and so did the panic events.

I feel much better physically, and I have lost 45 pounds!

Oh, forgot to mention that I had a lot of brain fog during that time when I got my second sleep study. I was quite worried about my memory and ability to focus. But, that went away too and my focus and memory returned. I think that I'm stronger than ever. I actually took on a new career opportunity and got my Real Estate license! It was a cram class (75 hours) and then national and state tests. It was a bear, but, I hung in there and surprised myself passing on the first try! Not too shabby for a person over 50! lol

I am affected by continual cloudy weather and will tend to be rather sleepy during that period . It's a version of Seasonal Affective Disorder (sleepy instead of depressed).

What drove me to get help was suddenly needing 2 naps a day despite 8-9 hours of sleeping like the dead. This occurred very rapidly after having surgery, so I can't discount that anesthesia didn't make bradycardia worse (it had been diagnosed only 3 months prior). My primary problem is the slow heart rate rather than RERAs. The apap is a stop gap to delay needing a pacemaker, but once I have a pacemaker, I may not need a machine at all.

It's amazing what some of us have gone through before the light bulb went off in a Docs head. I actually mentioned sleep apnea in passing not long after this first started, but my GP said since I wasn't overweight, didn't snore, and my neck size was not abnormally large that he didn't feel the very low odds were worth a sleep study.

Being totally honest here,....I pretty much agreed with him.

Off topic, but I had a horrible 6.5 hours on the machine last night. I think it's the worst night since I started trying to adapt to this thing. I'll skip the details, and simply hope for a better night tonight.

I told my PCP that I snore that's it. He sent me home with an at home sleep test kit. - I had all the typical symptoms, heart palpitations, needed naps, tired all the time, brain fog, dizzy spells, peeing 5-6 times a night, etc, but I never put it all together as symptoms of sleep apnea. My biggest complaint was that I "never got any sleep". My husband would say "yes you do sleep, you were snoring all night". I'd tell him, no I didn't get any sleep because I felt like I was awake all night. Thank goodness my PCP jumped on the fact that I snore.

I changed doctors. In my first meeting with my new doctor we started talking about what was going on with me. He said, "Hmmm... you fall asleep in movies, you're sleepy during the day, you're always tired, you fall asleep immediately upon going to bed, you've gained weight, you're depressed, you have high blood pressure, you snore, and you seem to have a hard time breathing through your nose. Let's check for obstructive sleep apnea." It amazed me that in our very first meeting, this guy put it together and the other doctor I had been seeing for several years didn't come close...

I went in for my first physical on Social Security. The doctor provided 2 diagnosis that visit, sleep apnea and AFIB.
He sent me to the hospital immediately for the AFIB and ordered a overnight pulse Ox test as the first step to confirm apnea.
I had never heard of Apnea at the time. I appeatently got great restful sleep between my 84 events per hour.

I have fibromyalgia, so I'm always tired anyway. But in July or August, things got worse. I felt like a zombie and was having to nap a bit, in spite of 8-9 hours of sleep a night. I went to my husband's doctor who listened to my explanation. My husband told him that I evidently would stop breathing every now and then. Who knew?

The doc checked my throat, said "sleep apnea" and sent me off for a home study (which didn't seem all that swift, to be honest). The verdict - severe sleep apnea.

Ironically, I've used the thing for almost a month now. In 5 days, I've had to nap twice. So I'm not sure if it's working for me. I'll never be sure due to the fibromyalgia.

Guess it can't hurt me.

Still waiting on official diagnosis....
I have been complaining about being tired for a long time to my doctor. My primary actually is being promoted to acting chief of the medical facility. Because of this I was assigned a PA. When I met with the PA among other things she suggested I get a sleep study. Honestly I have no idea why unless she saw my previous complaints or fact that I have never had hypertension under control and keep having to switch meds.
She suggested I get the study done and initially I said no because Veterans Choice funding ran out and I didn't want to have to wait months to get in and have to drive an hour each way. A week or two later I had open muscle biopsy done and anesthesiologist said I had sleep apnea. I then researched it and found that SA would explain so many issues of mine. I called up doctors after that and said sign me up. So hopefully soon I'll get my results from sleep study last week.